Head coach Dan Campbell and his coaching staff came into the Meijer Performance Center early Monday morning to evaluate the game tape from their 26-20 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams Sunday night and to go over it with the players before they move on to their Week 2 opponent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
There's a lot to clean up, but one of the most impressive parts of the tape for Campbell was watching his defensive line make their 2024 debut and make their presence felt all night long.
"And as far as the D-line in general, yeah, those guys, just about every one of them had a winning performance up front," Campbell said. "I thought they played big, I thought they played physical, and we feel like we have a good defensive line.
"Just since spring and training camp and seeing where we're at, we just – it's the right mix, it's the right balance of length, power, size, aggression, and that's just game one. We've got so much room to grow in there, too. That's what's exciting."
Detroit's defense held the Rams to 3.6 yards per carry in the run game and hit Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford 12 times. Marcus Davenport was making his Lions debut and finished with a half sack and four quarterback hits.
"He's physical, he's a presence out there," defensive lineman Alim McNeill said Monday of his new teammate. "That's just who he is and how he plays. Every time I'm on the field I can hear him hitting somebody. He's real physical and he's going to get off that edge when he wants to."
Levi Onwuzurike made an impact with a sack after he had the best training camp of his tenure, finally over a back injury that nearly cost him his career.
And that group didn't even have the benefit of playing alongside veteran defensive lineman DJ Reader, who was inactive Sunday, but is likely to make his Lions debut this week against the Bucs.
"I'm really excited to see what DJ does," McNeill said. "He's a vet and knows exactly what he's doing out there. He's really savvy in some things and he's very good, very athletic. I think it's going to be great. We're definitely going to stuff the run and we're going to be able to get after the quarterback. I think it'll be really exciting. When DJ comes back it just adds that much more presence in there knowing what type of player he is in this league."
McNeill joked that he's looking forward to more single matchups with Reader and Aidan Hutchinson expected to get the bulk of the double teams moving forward.
McNeill was asked Monday what the identity of this defensive line is after Week 1, and what it wants to be moving forward.
"We want to be feared," he said. "We want to be violent."
That's how defenses win games, and it was a pretty good start for the Lions upfront on defense and it should look even better next week when Reader enters the fold.
