Giving up 45 points shouldn’t affect Aaron Glenn’s prospects

Many will look at the Leaders’ 45-point outburst last night and wonder if it will blow away defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn’s chances of becoming a head coach elsewhere.

It shouldn’t.

Yes, the Lions gave up 481 yards. Yes, Washington was averaging 6.6 yards gain per play. But the Lions’ defense has been besieged by injuries all season. It was one after another, after another. And Glenn did a masterful job in Week 18, holding the Vikings to a paltry nine points.

There’s another reason the owners won’t see Glenn differently after Saturday night. Last year, Dallas’ defense under Dan Quinn gave up more points in a blowout loss to the Packers.

Quinn’s unit gave up 48, to be exact. It did not prevent leaders from employing him.

The challenge of promoting a coordinator to head coach if they have not been a head coach before is predicting whether they will flourish at the next level. One good game by a football coach means no more than one bad game. The question is, can this guy stand at the front of the room and run a team of his own?

The question would be the same if the leaders scored 45 or 4.5 points last night. Even if the latter is impossible.

Some believe Glenn has the best chance of landing with the Jets or Saints. Is it possible that last night was played against him by one of those teams? Considering that one of these teams has a reputation for making subjective decisions based in part on Madden ratings, being on the wrong side of a playoff contest that looked like a Madden game could be a problem — even if it’s not.