The Lions’ offensive line coach is hoping for a turnaround from his team.
Through the first seven games of the season, the Detroit Lions have used six different offensive line combinations. Unfortunately, offensive line coach Hank Fraley and his staff have become accustomed to this over the previous few years, but you’ll never hear him use it as an excuse for poor performance.
“You’ve been around here before. “I mean, the motto is next guy up,” Fraley explained on Wednesday. “It doesn’t matter.”
Left tackle Taylor Decker has been out with a high ankle sprain this season, left guard Jonah Jackson missed his second straight game in Baltimore on Sunday with an ankle injury, and guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai has been out with a knee ailment.
The play of veteran guard Graham Glasgow has undoubtedly helped keep things on track. Glasgow is presently ranked fifth among guards by Pro Football Focus.
Through it all, the Lions have navigated the injuries upfront along their offensive line pretty well and have played good football offensively most of the year. But Detroit is coming off their worst offensive performance of the season in a blowout loss to the Ravens Sunday and Detroit’s offensive line had probably their worst game as a collective unit. The run game never really got going and the five sacks by the Ravens’ defense were the most allowed by Detroit in a game this season.
“We didn’t play our best game this past Sunday,” Fraley said. “I tip my hat to the Ravens. They played pretty well upfront. We have to learn from it. That’s what’s great about a win or a loss. If you learn from what happened, where maybe some of our breakdowns were and go from there.”
The o-line’s task this week is made more difficult by the Raiders’ defensive front, which is anchored by two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby. The Raiders are 10th in overall defense and 5th in pass defense in the NFL.
Fraley is sure that his offensive players will rebound this week. He just hates having to wait an extra day because the Lions and Raiders are playing on Monday Night Football this week.
“The unfortunate part is we have to wait until Monday night to play again,” he told reporters. “I told the lads that as a player and a coach, I despise losing. I despise having to wait so long to play. It would have been preferable to have a short week this week on Thursday merely to get that taste out of your mouth.
“We must learn from (last week) as a whole team, not just as a unit.” Why did we get into this mess, what can we learn from it, and how can we regain momentum and get back on track?”
