The Detroit Lions defense recorded seven sacks against the Atlanta Falcons.
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00:00 John, the Lions produced a dominant defensive performance against the Falcons on Sunday.
00:04 The pass rush was existent once again too, gladly re-emerging for the Lions and their fans.
00:10 What do you make of that great defensive performance out of the Lions in week three against
00:15 Atlanta? Yeah, Vito, you got a sense that heading into the game against the Falcons,
00:20 that defense was highly frustrated, highly upset at how they performed against the Seahawks
00:25 in a game where they wanted to get revenge last year and based on what Seattle has been able to
00:31 do to them. Then at Ford Field, the Seahawks were just able to do whatever they wanted offensively.
00:37 Now you look at the Falcons and they come in and they face the Brunt and they unfortunately were
00:44 the team that the Lions were facing and boy, did the Lions defense hone in. They locked in
00:48 on stopping the run, they honed in on pressuring the quarterback. Man, Gino Smith and Patrick
00:55 Mahomes are just quarterbacks that are elusive, savvy veterans. Desmond Ritter, a young,
01:00 inexperienced quarterback, maybe not as adept at moving away from the pressure. Boy, unfortunately,
01:06 he had to eat seven sacks, was pressured all day and we have to talk about a couple of players
01:12 here. We got to talk about Aiden Hutchinson who forced a fumble free and was able to recover
01:17 the football and then you have to talk about the performance of Brian Branch. You realize,
01:23 oh my goodness, each and every week that you see the growth of this player, he was just flying
01:28 around all over the football field, over 10 tackles, multiple tackles for loss, impact,
01:35 even was willing to go toe to toe and match up and hit, beat John Robinson. He wanted to embrace
01:40 physical contact and I think like we've talked about many times, he embodies everything that
01:45 Aaron Glenn would want in a player that's physical, violent and really smart and can really
01:51 make plays and be now considered a game changer at that nickel cornerback spot. The other aspect
01:57 that you got to be impressed with, obviously, the defensive line. They won their one-on-one
02:01 matchups. Aline McNeil, John Kaminski, Isaiah Buggs and Benito Jones all deserve a lot of credit,
02:06 along with Charles Harris and Aiden Hutchinson. They made it very difficult for the Falcons to
02:11 do really anything offensively, only scoring six points and then you have to give credit to the
02:16 secondary and notably the starting safeties. Tracy Walker had a couple opportunities to record
02:21 interceptions, unfortunately wasn't able to secure the football, but he had himself a stellar game
02:26 as well as Ifatou Melefanwu. Two new starting safeties acclimated well and performed at a
02:32 high level. Vito, everybody was down on that defense, but when they performed at that level
02:37 at Ford Field against a Falcons team that was riding high, that's a real bounce back performance,
02:43 a real dominant performance to get the second victory for the Lions in 2023. John, thanks for
02:48 all the time.