Allen Park — The Detroit Lions’ secondary did some moving and shaking in the aftermath of a season-ending injury to veteran cornerback Carlton Davis III.
Amik Robertson moved from nickel corner to outside corner and Brian Branch moved from his perch at safety to take more snaps in the slot. The Lions’ versatility was aided by the return of safety Ifeatu Melifonwu, who made his season debut in Sunday’s 34-17 win over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.
And they didn’t skip a beat. Robertson was one of the game’s most effective players, finishing with eight combined tackles, including a tackle for loss and two pass breakups. Robertson, who signed to the Lions in free agency last offseason, has played outside cornerback through most of his career but moved inside full-time with Detroit when the Lions traded for Davis and drafted Terrion Arnold out of Alabama with a first-round pick.
In the game with his highest workload of the season — Robertson took 62 defensive snaps —he might’ve had his best showing in a Lions uniform, representing exactly how Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn wants his defense to operate.
“To him, it was like riding a bike,” Glenn said. “He went out there, he competed — man, I’ll tell you what, he went after the ball quite a bit, I think he had two or three PBUs, the punchouts that he had in that game were outstanding, and that’s what we try to do as a defense. … We talked about (hunting the football) all week … and he was one of the guys that did a really good job of that.
“I was proud of the way he played.”
Branch, meanwhile, has been referred to as one of the best safeties in the NFL after his full-time transition to the position. He’s still played 24.5% of his defensive snaps at slot cornerback, but it’s a large shift compared to last season when he took 67.5% of his snaps in the slot.
“One thing that we always talk about … is that we’re a group,” Lions defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said. “We don’t play corner, we don’t play safety, we’re in the DB room. As a pro, you have to learn how to be multiple if you want to last in the league.”
Right now, the greatest strength of Detroit’s defense is its versatility in the secondary.
“This is the most versatile we’ve been since I have been here, and that’s without (Davis),” Lions coach Dan Campbell said.
“It allows you to do a lot of things defensively that you couldn’t ordinarily do. … The ability to play man-to-man with those personnel groups makes a huge difference because it can overcome other areas that … maybe they’re a little deficient. The ability for those guys on the backend to do what they do and cover the way that they cover, but then be also to do multiple jobs, allows us to do a lot.”
In Detroit’s first game with Robertson out wide, Branch took 74.6% of his snaps in the slot against Chicago. He recorded a team-high 12 combined tackles and had one tackle for loss, a hit on the quarterback and a pass breakup.
“Our guys are very selfless,” Glenn said. “Whatever they can do to help the team, they’re willing to do it. Listen, Branch…is having a really good season playing safety for us, and for him to end up going back to the nickel spot … was really selfless of him.”
It was a bit of a surprise to see Melifonwu get the type of action that he did in his first game back. Melifonwu, who’s been on injured reserve for most of the season with ankle and finger injuries, played 50 snaps on defense. Though he rushed the passer just five times, Melifonwu recorded three pressures and sacked Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.
“Iffy’s a guy that we can utilize in a number of packages. He can play the dime for us, he can play safety, he can play nickel, and we utilized him as a safety only in this game, (and) there’s other ways we want to use that player,” Glenn said.
“But for him to come back and be able to use his blitz ability, his ability to cover, was really good for us, so I’m looking forward to utilizing that player going forward.”
Though the San Francisco 49ers are without receiver Brandon Aiyuk, they still pack enough firepower to to put Detroit’s secondary under another stress test on Monday Night Football. San Francisco has the league’s seventh-ranked passing offense at 235.7 yards per game.
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
@nolanbianchi
