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Film Room: How the Detroit Lions secondary shut down Tom Brady One of the major stories out of the Detroit Lions Week 3 victory over the New England Patriots was Tom Brady’s quiet day. The future hall of fame quarterback only threw for 133 yards and a touchdown on 26 pass attempts. He also threw a rare interception to corner back Darius Slay late in the game. The Lions did a great job taking advantage of the poor receivers on the Patriots offense. Detroit was willing to give up the shorter areas of the field to New England’s receivers if it meant giving themselves large cushions to avoid getting beat deep. Detroit’s defense clearly had a goal to let nothing get behind him. They left a deep safety on almost every play and made sure they bracketed every receiver downfield. On this play Glover Quin Jersey , the Lions had two different coverage strategies on each side of the field. On the top side of the field, Detroit was playing press coverage, but the corner was willing to let his man get behind him. Glover Quin was playing in a deep zone over the middle and while the corner cut off the inside throw, the safety cut off the outside throw. Detroit was in softer coverage on the other side of the field and the defenders were able to stick with the receivers they were tasked with covering.The Lions knew that they could trust their defensive backs to hold the Patriots receivers in check downfield. Tight end Rob Gronkowski is the only real threat on New England’s receiving corps, but the Lions were prepared for him. Detroit double-teamed Gronkowski all game. On this play, the tight end was lined up in three-point stance at the right end of the Patriots line. Quandre Diggs is playing soft man coverage on the tight end and as he breaks into his route, Quin joins him to double-team the tight end, taking away Brady’s primary read. With blanket coverage all around the board http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-aut … ois-jersey , the quarterback has nowhere to go with the ball and gets sacked. The double-teams on Gronkowski put a huge dent in the Patriots offense. He’s the primary read on a lot of New England’s passing plays and he’s the only receiver on the team that Brady can trust every down. The long-time veteran quarterback looked flustered at times when his trusted partner was removed as a threat.On this play, Brady rolled out of the pocket to make a rare throw on the run. Gronkowski ran a deep route across the middle of the field and the Lions locked him down. The other New England receiver on that side was blanketed in one-on-one coverage. Brady was a sitting duck once he was out of the pocket with no one to throw to and was eventually brought down for a sack.While the Lions coverage was great for most of the day, they benefited heavily by Brady having an uncharacteristically poor performance. The quarterback had trouble coming off of his first read at times and would just not see open receivers. via GfycatOn this play, Gronkowski occupied the attention of three different receivers. Another Patriots tight end, Dwayne Allen, springs free for a short pass with a lot of room to run in front of him. Brady instead goes to his check down in the flat and his off target throw flies out of bounds. Brady’s poor day was a mix of a great game plan executed by their defense and a poor day from a great quarterback. Just like everything else from this surprising Sunday night upset, it was a touch of luck mixed with great, well executed play. The Minnesota Vikings defense is no slouch Cheap Ziggy Ansah Jersey , and they’ve given the Lions fits over the past few years. Prior to Sunday’s game, the Vikings had held the Lions to just 17.9 points per game in their past eight contests.But Sunday—the Lions’ first game without Golden Tate—this Lions offense hit a new low. The Lions came into Week 9 having scored at least 14 points in 25 straight games. Against the Vikings they scored just nine. Detroit finished with only 209 yards of total offense, their lowest output since 2015. Matthew Stafford was sacked 10 times—three more than he’s ever been sacked in a single game, which is quite amazing considering how many times Stafford has been sacked in his career. The Lions averaged just 3.0 yards per play on Sunday. The last time they had that poor of offensive efficiency was 2010, a few years before the Lions brought Tate aboard. It would be unfair to put all of the blame for Detroit’s lack of offense on missing Tate. Golden wouldn’t have helped a hapless offensive line against a dominating Vikings pass rush. Tate wouldn’t have prevented Matthew Stafford from making a mind-numbing lateral that ended up being returned for a defensive touchdown. But it’s impossible to ignore that Tate would have made at least a noticeable difference in this game. Many of the 10 sacks that Stafford took were coverage sacks. Without his favorite check-down option, Stafford was left to hold onto the ball for far too long, and it killed this team’s offensive potency. Remember, this team was scoring the eighth-most points per drive heading into this game.The Lions were also completely ineffective on third down http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-aut … ard-jersey , converting just four of 15 opportunities. That’s just 26.7 percent, as compared to their 42.4 percent conversion rate in the seven games prior. Guess who the Lions’ favorite third-down option was heading into Week 9:The Lions tried their best to use what they had in Tate’s spot. That mostly involved using running back Theo Riddick in the slot. While Riddick did manage seven catches on the day, he turned those into just 36 yards. Only one of those seven catches earned the Lions a first down—his very first catch of the game. No one else on offense showed up to compensate for the loss, either. Kenny Golladay was invisible yet again, only drawing four targets and turning those into 46 yards receiving. Michael Roberts was targeted four times, but caught only one. The highly-promoted, slot receiver-in-the-making, “Swiss Army Knifeâ€� TJ Jones? Just two catches for 13 yards. Credit where credit is due: The Vikings defense was a terror on Sunday. They flustered Matthew Stafford early and often Matt Prater Jersey , and, ultimately, that’s exactly how you beat this Lions team. But on a day in which the Lions defense actually played well enough to give the Lions a chance to win, it’s hard not to think about what could have happened if Stafford had his favorite target still on the team.