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Since the Detroit Lions had Week 9 off, there was no game for our teammates of the week post. As a result, I decided to simply pick another position group that deserves to be recognized for their play against the Dallas Cowboys. The offensive line was featured last week, and this week it's the defensive line's turn.
Jeremy Reisman already took a look at some of the things the defensive line did well, in particular getting to Tony Romo. Nick Fairley had multiple quarterback hits, and the Lions as a team had quite a few quarterback hurries. Willie Young accounted for 6, Ndamukong Suh forced 4 and Fairley, C.J. Mosley and Ziggy Ansah each had 1.
Young (+1.7), Suh (+1.6) and Mosley (+1.4) all graded out quite well on Pro Football Focus for this game, continuing a theme that has emerged over the course of the season. Based on the first eight weeks of the season, Suh is the Lions' top-graded defensive player on PFF at +18.3, Mosley is second at +7.2 and Young is tied for fourth at +2.9.
It's true that the defensive line could certainly be better, especially when it comes to getting sacks and stopping the run, but they were quite good against the Cowboys.