Chiefs will face a Lions offense in flux on Sunday in London

At 1-6, the Detroit Lions have one fewer win than the Chiefs.

But while Chiefs coach Andy Reid values continuity — the case for which was buoyed by a morale-boosting 23-13 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday — the ax came down on three of Lions coach Jim Caldwell’s assistants this week.

After allowing seven sacks and 13 hits on quarterback Matthew Stafford in a 28-19 loss to Minnesota, Caldwell canned offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, offensive-line coach Jeremiah Washburn and assistant offensive line coach Terry Heffernan.

In are new offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter, the former quarterbacks coach, and new offensive-line coach Ron Prince, who is also the tight ends coach. Both have Kansas City-area connections: Cooter was the Chiefs’ quality-control coach in 2012, and Prince went 17-20 as Kansas State’s head coach from 2006 to 2008.

Whether it matters enough to give the Lions — who rank 29th in points scored (19.9 per game) and dead last in rushing offense (68.0 yards) — a boost against the Chiefs at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at Wembley Stadium remains to be seen.

“It’s been good, there’s going to be some tweaks,” Stafford said, regarding the offense under Cooter. “Obviously, he’s his own play caller, he’s his own person ... It won’t be earth-shattering stuff, I wouldn’t think, given the one week of preparation we’ve had. So we’re just going out there and trying to execute whatever he calls to the best of our ability.”

The Lions have no shortage of issues to smooth out, with the biggest, perhaps, being their offensive line — a unit that features two recent first-round picks (left tackle Riley Reiff and left guard Laken Tomlinson) and a third-round pick (Larry Warford).

Prince takes over a group that was under siege against the Vikings, allowing numerous unblocked rushers in the loss, a continuation of a season-long trend as the Lions rank 19th in sacks allowed (16) and 31st in quarterback hits (53).

“He started coaching us immediately,” Tomlinson said of Prince. “He kind of went into the game plan right away. We were going through slides, going through film. We’re incorporating that right now, (but) we’re not going to, like, throw out our playbook.”

Caldwell agreed, adding that there’s only so much they can change up front, scheme-wise, during the course of the season.

“They have a little different variety, a little different twists here and there, but you can’t make a thousand changes in a very, very short period of time and expect your guys to grasp it, particularly after the teams you’re facing are still operating and doing the same things they were working on in the spring,” Caldwell said. “It would be, I think, very difficult to ask your squad to do a whole lot of things a lot different.”

Stafford says he has a lot of respect for the pass rush of the Chiefs, who rank 15th in the NFL with 15 sacks, and rookie cornerback Marcus Peters, who ranks fourth in the NFL with three interceptions.

“He’s played really well — he’s an aggressive guy, he’s got good ball skills, obviously made some interceptions,” Stafford said. “Their front seven is extremely good, too. They get after the passer, they stop the run, they do all the things good defenses do. They don’t give up a ton of big plays, it seems like. There’s some opportunities, like every defense, to be aggressive as an offense.

“But they have the leading sack guy from a year ago (Justin Houston), and Tamba’s (Hali) still playing at a high level, and some guys on the inside that are really starting to rush the passer well, too. So they’re just a good defense, top to bottom.”

The Lions also have to get their sluggish running game going against a Chiefs team that ranks 11th in run defense at 103.4 yards per game. It appears this area might change a tad under Cooter.

“Just letting guys play, less thinking,” said rookie running back Ameer Abdullah, a second-round pick this year. “In the NFL, the defensive line — and my O-line might be mad at me saying this — they’re more athletic than the guys up front, so any time the guys in front of you are thinking more, it kind of puts them at a disadvantage.

“But if you cut them loose, let them play aggressively, it opens up the quick seams. Us backs, we’re going to hit it, and we can be really successful if we do so.”

The Lions’ inability to get the ball to receiver Golden Tate, their 2014 team MVP, has also been a concern. After catching 99 passes for 1,331 yards and four touchdowns last year, he has just 34 catches on 57 targets with a 9.4 yard-per-catch average, the lowest of his career.

“He’s a core part of what we do, and he’s one of those guys that I think thrives off getting the ball in his hands, like most good ones do,” Caldwell said. “He wants the ball.”

Indeed.

“Yeah, that would be nice to get some more targets and get better opportunities and just make use of the targets that I do get,” Tate admitted Thursday.

Whether that will actually happen — and whether the firings ultimately make a difference against a Chiefs team that only ranks 23rd in passing defense at 264.6 yards per game — is up in the air.

But Caldwell indicated that Wednesday’s practice, the Lions’ first since the move, got them off to a good start.

“Our practice was spirited … all across the board,” Caldwell said. “So that, in itself, is good.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Chiefs will face a Lions offense in flux on Sunday in London."