After biggest win with Lions, QB Goff offers unprompted praise for D-coordinator Glenn

Detroit — Following his biggest win as the quarterback of the Detroit Lions, Jared Goff offered some unprompted and unexpected praise to close out his postgame press conference.

"I'll finish with this," Goff said after the Lions' 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC divisional round. "I didn't get a chance to say it, but I want to give all the credit to Aaron Glenn tonight. I know you guys didn't ask me about our defense, but our defense played their tails off and he deserves a ton of credit for what he's done these last handful of weeks."

The Lions defense coordinator is the frequent target of fan criticism. Rarely does a game go by without dozens, if not hundred of fans calling for Glenn's job on social media. This, despite the team's success, which has included a division title and two postseason wins after three-decade droughts since the last time the franchise experienced either.

Well-respected inside the building, Glenn earned the highest satisfaction marks of any of the league's coordinators in a recent NFLPA survey of more than 1,600 active players. And even if the improvement has been less drastic as the team has experienced with its offense since beginning of a rebuild in 2021, the defense has steadily improved under Glenn's stewardship, particularly on an individual level, with players such as Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Alex Anzalone, Derrick Barnes and Ifeatu Melifonwu making year-to-year jumps.

Against the Buccaneers on Sunday, Glenn's defense limited the opposition to 23 points and forced two turnovers. The unit was particularly impressive on third down, where Tampa Bay converted just 4-of-12. A week earlier, in the wild-card round, the Lions kept the Los Angeles Rams out of the end zone on three red-zone trips, which coach Dan Campbell called the deciding factor in the game.

Despite mixed reviews from Detroit's fans, Glenn is a popular candidate in the current head-coaching cycle. He conducted interviews for four openings on Friday and Saturday.

jdrogers@detroitnews.com

@Justin_Rogers