Detroit Lions DC Aaron Glenn unfazed by defense struggles: 'Not like peewee football'

Two recent subpar performances haven't caused Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to think any less of his defense.

"We know who we are," Glenn said Thursday. "Last year we were the last-ranked defense and I think we’re a top-10 ranked defense this year. So that’s a really, really huge improvement, so as far as knowing who we are, we know that and we know we have the capabilities to go out there and play really, really good ball."

The Lions have played good defense for most of this season and lead the NFC North with a 7-2 record. They've held five of their nine opponents to 20 points or less and rank among the NFL's top 10 in total, rushing and third-down defense.

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But they've allowed 38 points in two of their past three games — a Week 7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and last week's win over the Los Angeles Chargers — and have given up 680 yards passing in those games to quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert.

Herbert led the Chargers to touchdowns on their final five possessions last week, a performance Glenn said left him thinking, "I knew this quarterback was good, but damn, he’s really good."

"This is the NFL, that’s what that is and it happens," Glenn said. "I mean, no one thought Cleveland would put 30-something points on Baltimore (last week), but it did. And again, this is not like peewee football, fellas. This is the NFL, so things happen, and, man you fight your ass off every week to make sure it doesn’t, and our guys do a damn good job of that.”

The Lions have maintained one of the stingiest run defenses (79.1 yards allowed per game) in the NFL through 10 weeks, something that should come in hand Sunday when they host the Chicago Bears at Ford Field.

The Bears rank fifth in the league in rushing (135.1 yards per game) and have one of the NFL's most dangerous dual-threat quarterbacks in Justin Fields.

"He brings a different dynamic," linebacker Alex Anzalone said. "He has the home run ability, that makes it different from a quarterback perspective. You play some other running quarterbacks, they don’t necessarily have the speed that we’ve seen from him, even when we played them at Chicago last year."

Fields, who is expected back Sunday from a four-game absence due to a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand, ran for 279 yards and two touchdowns in two games against the Lions last season. He had four runs of at least 28 yards in those games.

Anzalone said "population to the ball" is critical to stopping Fields, who has yet to run for even 60 yards in a game this season while the Bears try to make him more of a passing quarterback.

"He’s one of those guys that, man, if it’s there, he’s out," Glenn said. "You can have him corralled (but) he’s strong as I don’t know what and he can break tackles, so, man we’ve got to do a really good job of containing this quarterback because he gets in his mode and he wants to run it, he can cause some issues and he’s done it all through his career."

The last time the Lions played a rushing quarterback whose play style is evolving in a new offense, Jackson torched them for 357 yards passing and four touchdowns (including one rushing).

The Lions struggled in man-to-man defense that day, caught between containing Jackson on the ground and covering his receivers downfield.

Glenn said Fields, who had back-to-back games with four passing TDs in the two weeks before his injury, presents a similar dilemma because of his "elite" athleticism. But as dangerous as Fields is, Glenn said he is confident his defense will be up to the challenge.

"I wish we can go out there and be the ’85 Bears and just shut everybody down, but for some odd reason in people’s head, they think that really just continues to go on. It doesn’t," Glenn said. “I can recall when I was with the Jets, I think it was 2000 when we played the Ravens and, shoot, we put 500 yards on the Ravens (Super Bowl-winning defense). You think those guys batted an eye? No, they didn’t. They kept on playing, and that’s our mentality.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions confident in defense: 'We know who we are'