ALLEN PARK >> It’s not too difficult to pin down the problem with the Lions defense. In the last two games they have given up 21 second-half points to the Cowboys and again to the Packers.
Heading into the wild-card game at Seattle on Saturday, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin knows what needs to be done.
“We have to stop the run. We’ve got to stop the run. I can’t make it any more clear. I’ve made it very clear to our guys during the course of the week that the No. 1 thing we do is we have to play better run defense,” Austin said on Wednesday. “When people run the ball on us we have no shot and that’s basically what happened the last two weeks. They’ve run the ball on us for 150-plus yards and we got our teeth kicked in both times.”
In Saturday’s loss to the Cowboys the Lions allowed 153 rushing yards (93 in the second half) and against the Cowboys the number was 164 (61 in the second half).
The Seahawks average nearly 100 rushing yards per game mostly courtesy of Thomas Rawls and quarterback Russell Wilson. Their season high was 240 rushing yards in a 40-7 shellacking of Carolina on Dec. 4.
The Lions rushing defense allows an average of 106.3 yards per game.
Ins and outs
Wide receiver Andre Roberts, the only player who didn’t participate in Tuesday’s practice, was at work on Wednesday wearing a red cautionary jersey.
Center Travis Swanson (concussion) and tackle Riley Reiff (hip) were on the field but were limited.
Linebacker DeAndre Levy (knee) continues to practice in limited role.
Lucas ready to go
Corey Robinson started at right tackle on Sunday night in place of Riley Reiff. It’s uncertain if Reiff will be ready to go in Seattle. If he can’t, it’s likely Cornelius Lucas will get the start since Robinson was placed on injured reserve on Monday.
Lions offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said Lucas should be ready.
“Hopefully everybody on our roster is ready to play their position tomorrow. That’s practice squad guys. That’s starters, second string, whatever string. Cornelius has been around a while. Cornelius has played some ball for us. He’s been active some. He’s been inactive some, but he knows what he’s doing,” Cooter said. “He knows what we’re doing and I’m confident he can play as many snaps as we need.”
Lucas has played in five games this season. He had three starts in 15 games in both 2014 and 2015.
In tune at practice
The crowd at Seattle’s CenturyLink Stadium is notoriously loud m the Lions remember that from their Monday night game there in 2015.
They practice every week with loud music blaring to prepare them for the crowd noise. When they practice indoors the music blasts through the walls into the media work room.
“You know, that’s typically how we’ve always worked. There’s several different people that use different sort of things. Throughout, we’ve always tried to use, you know, blaring music. We used to use kind of a real annoying sort of a sound that was not music, it was a compilation of, I don’t know what it was actually, but it was hard to deal with,” Caldwell said. “Some of the music is too, by the way, but nevertheless I think it’s a little bit better, but what it does do is try to get your guys to really focus in on it. Some people use whisper drills and things of that nature, which we’ve done in previous years, but we think this is the best course of action for us.”
Cornerback Darius Slay said that he couldn’t “get jiggy with” the music that was played on Tuesday.
“We’ve got a lot of old folks around here. So they like to play the old (stuff),” tight end Eric Ebron said.
The tunes are chosen by Galen Duncan, senior director of player development, and screened for content.
“I do know that they do have a request, they don’t have to call in on the request line, but they do have a way to go in and request music and things of that nature,” Caldwell said. “He goes with different genres, different artists and I’m sure that some guys don’t like some of the music and some of it, they do. All the same, and the volume we always have it loud.”
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