The Detroit Lions’ preseason opener in Ohio was messy from the start, and the weather made it hard to draw clean conclusions from a wet, sloppy 60 minutes against the Cincinnati Bengals. Still, there was enough on the field Thursday night to get a useful read on a few players, and Pro Football Focus supplied the numbers that help sharpen the picture.
Ahmed Hassanein’s return was the clearest defensive bright spot. After a long road back to the field, the second-year edge rusher made his presence felt with a sack of Joe Burrow that Dan Campbell seemed to will into existence.
Hassanein finished with a 16.7 pass-rush productivity score, which through the first seven games of the NFL preseason ranked second among 117 qualifying defenders with at least nine pass-rushing snaps. He logged five pressures on 21 pass-rushing snaps, along with 2.0 sacks and a forced fumble.
The Lions also got strong run defense from a pair of cornerbacks. Roger McCreary posted an 82.1 run-defense grade, while rookie Keith Abney checked in at 81.9.
McCreary’s 12.5% run-stop rate tied for third among 79 qualifying cornerbacks with at least five run-defense snaps, and he backed that up with an 86.3 coverage grade. He allowed zero completions on two targets, a strong sign for a player who has reportedly had a quieter camp than many expected.
Abney’s performance was encouraging for a different reason: it came in his first taste of NFL competition. Detroit has leaned on cornerback depth in recent seasons, and if Abney keeps stacking games like this one, the Lions may feel better about their options if they need to reach deeper into the room.
On offense, Jacob Saylors looked like the most productive player on the field, and Campbell said as much after the game.
“He was probably our most potent player on offense, Campbell said of Saylors in his post-game press conference. ”He made a lot of plays for us. He’s a steady workhorse.”
Saylors backed that up with efficient work as both a runner and a receiver. He ran for 55 yards on 6.9 yards per carry and added 28 receiving yards on 9.3 yards per catch. More than that, he earned his production the hard way: 51 of his 55 rushing yards came after contact, and his 6.38 yards after contact per attempt ranked second among 23 qualifying running backs in Week 1.
Not every sequence was as clean. Ennis Rakestraw’s night on the third defensive series showed both the promise and the pain.
He opened with a pass breakup on first-and-10, then gave up three straight completions for 39 yards total. Three plays later, his awkward tackle attempt led to an injury that ended his night.
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