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Lions DC Austin: No one thought we'd have great D

Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin felt that there were few buying into Detroit's defense in 2014.

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"That expectation was there from us," Austin told the team's official web site. "Nobody else had that expectation, but we did in that room. We expected our defense to be really good last year. We expect our defense to be good every year."

While Austin deserves all the credit -- third in points allowed (17.6), second in total yards per game allowed (300.9) -- we're going to go ahead and challenge the "us against the world" mentality a bit here.

While every coach seems to use this as some sort of motivator, how could the Lions perennially be projected as a bad defense?

*"The Lions had some nice pieces with Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley, Ziggy Ansah, DeAndre Levy and Glover Quin, no doubt ..." * began one paragraph on DetroitLions.com.

But isn't that one hell of a starting point?

Again, Austin deserves so much credit for finally putting these pieces into place, but let's not look at last year's Lions defense and make it look like some sort of miracle.

The latest Around The NFL Podcast welcomes Malcolm Butler to the show and plays a free agency edition of "Who Do You Trust?" Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.

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