Lions' Glenn looks forward to Za'Darius Smith debut; praises Paschal, Goff in Texans win

Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn

Glenn talks about the Texans win, new pass rusher Za'Darius Smith and more.

FOX 2 - As Jared Goff and the offense suffered through a brutal first half, the Lions defense pitched a shutout in the second half Sunday.

That allowed the usually steady quarterback to right the ship - and according to Aaron Glenn, he praised both Goff and his unit on the defensive side for stepping up.

On Thursday Glenn praised Goff, saying "He didn't blink."

"That's the one thing that showed up more than anything," Glenn said. "Is the leadership, the toughness, the ability to take a team on his back and go win the game."

This week's Jaguars game will feature the debut of the newest Lion, Za'Darius Smith. The defense end was a trade deadline addition from the Browns who has five sacks this season.

Glenn said they'll try not overload him with the playbook early.

"Listen, he's a vet, looking forward to getting him out there. Just going through the walk through with him, you can tell how excited he is to be a part of this organization. And listen, we're throwing some things at him, and he's not going to pick everything up right away, but there are some situations that we want to make sure that he's on the field to utilize his ability to rush the passer and his ability to play to run.

"So in our mind, we have some things for him. We're not going to try to overload him, but we're going to push as much on him as we can to get him out there to go play for us."

Defensive end Josh Paschal also benefited from Smith, according to Glenn. Smith was on the sidelines coaching up some of the defensive lineman during the Texans game.

Paschal had a breakout game with five tackles, two for loss and one sack.

"He loves the game and loves to make sure he imports what he knows to the younger guys. And you really saw that with Paschal for the most part. And I tell you what, you can see Paschal using some of his tricks to go out there and be successful."

The Lions held the Texans off the scoreboard in the second half - due in no small part to Glenn's unit. The coach said Paschal has to be more consistent but was especially pleased by his tackling.

"The pass rush, I know that was going to be there," he said. 'But man, the way he played the run in this game, that's what I was excited about for that player. "Because now it's just going to give him the confidence to go out through do all the things that we know he can do at a better at a better rate."