Lions' Hutchinson Dismisses Defense Critics After 31-24 Win Over Jets

Aidan Hutchinson said outside opinions don't matter to the 2-1 Lions, who beat the Jets 31-24 on Chuck Clark's late strip-sack.

Aidan Hutchinson left little doubt about how much attention the Detroit Lions pay to outside assessments of their defense. After Detroit answered a week of criticism by beating the New York Jets 31-24 on Sunday to reach 2-1, Hutchinson confronted the noise directly.

When a reporter asked whether the performance might ease the concerns, his answer was short. "I don't care," Hutchinson said. "I don't care what people think about us. We're 2-1. We got the win. We're going to keep finding ways to get better, and that's the name of the game right now. It's a race for evolution and improvement."

The scrutiny stemmed from Detroit's previous game, in which the Buffalo Bills scored 41 points against the Lions. Detroit allowed 24 to New York on Sunday and had lapses it would like to correct, yet it delivered the defensive play that decided the outcome.

New York rallied to tie the score at 24 in the closing minutes, and after the Lions moved back in front, the Jets had a final possession with a chance to draw even. On that series, veteran safety Chuck Clark arrived on a blitz and sacked quarterback Geno Smith, knocking the ball loose. Linebacker Jack Campbell recovered the fumble, and Detroit had its win.

Hutchinson described the sequence and where the moment ranks for him. "We sent some pressure on that last one," he said. "Chuck came up, strip-sacked to win the game. It's the best feeling ever. So, I had to give that ball to him."

Hutchinson also felt the game tilted against Detroit at times, pointing to a defensive pass interference penalty and a fourth-and-12 conversion by the Jets. "The game was just getting weird," he said. "The DPI, the fourth-and-12. It's like things were going against us, and it was a little frustrating for sure."

He backed cornerback DJ Reed on the completions New York managed, saying he reviewed those plays and could not picture better coverage from a corner on the snaps. Of one catch, Hutchinson said: "Garrett's a great player, so he's going to do that."

Containing Smith took a unified pass rush, and Hutchinson credited Alim McNeill and the rest of the defensive front for working as a group. "Geno's got real good awareness moving throughout the pocket... you need all dudes rushing, all hands on deck, because it literally could be anybody," Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson's own words pointed to a season-long process rather than a claim that every issue is solved. A bounce-back win over the Jets did not cancel out the Buffalo game, and in his view that Buffalo afternoon will not define the defense either. The Lions sit at 2-1, focused on improvement and indifferent to how they are judged from the outside.