Forum allgemein » The Lions rank 31st in the NFL in scoring defense

Kyle Long Jerseys Stitched , 30th against the pass, 27th in points allowed and 27th against the run. Defense is Matt Patricia’s specialty. The Patriots won two Super Bowls with Patricia as defensive coordinator.The Lions head coach, though, said he has no plans to take over the defensive play calling.“I think it’s important for me to continue to try to do my best as the head coach to manage the game and make sure that I’m paying attention to all the phases and things that I see as the game goes on that need to be either corrected or addressed, or just kind of confirmed or handled,” Patricia said in a conference call Monday, via Dave Birkett of the . “So I don’t really see any of that changing right now.”In fact, Patricia gave defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni, the former Syracuse head coach, a vote of confidence. Patricia said Pasqualoni is doing a “great job.”“Certainly there’s situations where he and I have either talked about calls or there might be calls that I feel that we want to make in certain situations, but the good part about being the head coach is that you can make those calls in any three phases of the game Youth Anthony Miller Jerseys ,” Patricia said. “Obviously, a lot more of that can and will happen on defense, but coach Pasqualoni’s doing a great job of trying to get all that organized.” He’s got the track record to suggest he will be."Kenjon Barner is not going to be the Falcons’ #2 running back, not with Ito Smith turning in a strong rookie season and possessing more talent and upside. At best, Barner will settle in as the team’s ,3# and if they keep four backs Brian Hill’s power might vault him past the new signing in the end.That doesn’t mean that Barner doesn’t have value, though. He’s the speediest back on the team and should get some looks just based off of that, and perhaps more importantly given his place on the running back pecking order, he could be the team’s returner. It would be no small thing for the Falcons to go into the year with that decided, because their curious lack of urgency last year led directly to Justin Hardy getting far too many bites at the apple. Hardy remains an underrated receiver and greatly underrated blocker and I’d welcome him back, but his results as a punt returner were not superb. Marvin Hall fared better on kick returns Anthony Miller Jerseys Stitched , but the Falcons have elected to let him walk, which leaves Barner as the early favorite to be Ben Kotwica’s first returner with the Falcons.It helps that Barner has experience returning both kicks and punts, with an average of 24.4 yards on kick returns and 7.8 yards on punt returns. Here’s what the team averaged on both in recent years:2018: 22.2 yards per KR, 7.0 yards per PR2017: 22.3 yards per KR, 7.4 yards per PR2016: 21.0 yards per KR, 11.4 yards per PR2015: 25.7 yards per KR, 9.4 yards per PRThis is not an end-all, be-all metric, but the last time the Falcons were better than Barner’s career average on kick returns, Eric Weems and Devin Hester were kicking around Atlanta. All of which is to say that Barner’s speed and experience give him a compelling leg up on the competition for these gigs, and unless the Falcons are planning to draft a young receiver or defensive back with a skill set that makes them worth a long look here Youth Sherrick McManis Jerseys , Barner should have the job and will likely do just fine with it.With Giorgio Tavecchio set to be the team’s kicker, Matt Bosher returning as the punter, a healthy Josh Harris as the long snapper, Russell Gage as one of the team’s gunners, and plenty of solid contributors on special teams, the Falcons just need to replace Justin Bethel at gunner and get their rookie class up to speed and they should be solid on special teams again in 2019. They have much bigger fish to fry than that, but it’s still reassuring to think there’s a plan here, and that Barner should be part of it.