The Detroit Lions have started six different offensive line combinations through their first seven contests this season.
Unfortunately that’s become the norm for offensive line coach Hank Fraley and his room over the last couple years but you’ll never hear him use it as an excuse for performance.
“You guys have been around here. I mean the motto is next guy up, right,” Fraley said Wednesday. “It doesn’t matter.”
Left tackle Taylor Decker has missed some time this year with a high ankle sprain, left guard Jonah Jackson missed his second straight game in Baltimore Sunday with an ankle injury, and guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai missed time early in the year with a knee injury.
The play of veteran guard Graham Glasgow has certainly helped things stay on course. Glasgow is currently the fifth highest graded guard 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.”
It doesn’t get much easier for the o-line this week against a Raiders’ defensive front led by two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby. The Raiders are No. 10 in the NFL in total defense and No. 5 in pass defense.
Fraley is confident his players upfront will bounce back this week.
He just hates that he has to wait an extra day before he can witness it with the Lions and Raiders playing on Monday Night Football this week.
The unfortunate part is we have to wait until Monday night to play again,” he said. “I told the guys I just hate losing as a player and as a coach. I hate waiting that long to play. It would have been better to have a short week this week on Thursday just to get out of your mouth that taste.
“We have to learn from (last week), not just as a unit but as a whole team. Why we got in the hole we did and how can we learn from it and how can we ease back that momentum and get back going again.