Terrion Arnold has been somewhat polarizing through the first few weeks of his Detroit Lions career. The first-round cornerback from Alabama has looked decent in man coverage, but his play has been pockmarked with penalties and the occasional blown assignment when not playing man.
Against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 7, Arnold performed pretty darn well against an explosive offense. Playing on the road against the unbeaten Vikings, Arnold’s work at outside CB effectively reflected the entire Lions team for the day. Arnold is the subject of this week’s Detroit film breakdown.
As always, I grade the individual player for every snap. Arnold gets a plus for a positive play and a minus for a poor one. Not every play earns a plus or minus.
He started off slowly but then turned it up more than a notch to outshine the competition.
Arnold’s day certainly started out rough. After the first play, a screen to the other side, Arnold was victimized by overzealousness on Minnesota’s second offensive play.
That is, of course, the Aaron Jones 34-yard touchdown. Arnold is responsible for the outside containment on the left-end run, but he overreacts to WR Jordan Addison (No. 3) motioning inside. Because safety Brian Brian is on a designed run blitz to the inside gap, there’s nobody behind Arnold.
Rookie mistake, and it cost the Lions a touchdown. Big minus for No. 0 on this one:
Aaron Jones has the Vikings up early!
📺: #DETvsMIN on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/nadSyDNR5B— NFL (@NFL) October 20, 2024
Arnold earned his first plus on the next drive, and he did so being in zone coverage. On 3rd-and-short, Arnold correctly identified that the TE (Johnny Mundt) would chip and release and ran to the spot where Mundt was heading. Perfectly executed option elimination. The play wound up being a first down conversion to Justin Jefferson just over a step-too-shallow Brian Branch, perhaps No. 32’s only real mistake of the game.
Arnold’s improved read-and-react in zone here is a very welcome development. He struggled to trust his eyes in the Week 3 win over Arizona, and this is a tangible improvement that reflects hard work and good coaching.
Plays that are negated by penalty don’t technically exist, or get factored into grades for outlets like PFF. But I’m giving Arnold a plus for his man coverage on Addison on the play where Carlton Davis was (correctly) called for defensive holding. Addison was San Darnold’s first read and Arnold was on his hip with inside technique, not allowing the wideout to break to the inside. And Arnold did that without relying on being handsy.
The next few drives produced two plusses (one on a play negated by an illegal formation penalty on the Vikings) and two minuses in coverage–both in zone. Write those minuses in thin pencil, however; Arnold erred on the side of caution and didn’t give up bigger plays. Better to be too deep/outside than too shallow/inside in Detroit’s zone scheme.
Arnold earned a plus on the Brian Branch INT for his perfect handling of transition coverage. He even pointed to Branch on where Addison was heading. Branch might not have needed the extra help, but that’s still a heady move from a rookie, showing his ability to incorporate film study into in-game action.
Arnold had a lot less to do after that drive, in part because he was so precise in his man coverage responsibilities. Twice he was part of lockdown coverage by the entire secondary that forced Darnold to scramble because there was nowhere to throw the ball. Those are plusses for Arnold.
Final tally
Arnold had 13 plusses and six minuses for the game. Nearly all of the scores came in coverage; Arnold had one plus and one minus (that fateful first-drive TD) in run defense.
The man coverage was fantastic. No. 0 picked up seven plusses and one minus in man coverage. Zone was not as sharp but still a respectable five plusses and four minuses. Two plusses and one minus came on plays that were nullified by penalties and therefore aren’t necessarily reflected in the box score or PFF grades.
This was a very strong game from Arnold as a rookie. Give him a bonus plus for not committing a penalty. And that’s phrased deliberately–I didn’t see one viable infraction that could have been flagged beyond one marginal illegal contact that was inconsequential to the play. That’s very real progress for Arnold, too.
