ALLEN PARK -- Teez Tabor allowed five catches on six targets against Miami. One scored a touchdown. And he allowed a passer rating of 154.2 on balls thrown his way. That's nearly a perfect score.

That's not great.

But don't let the stats fool you.

The second-year corner showed some promising signs of development in the 32-21 win Sunday against Miami. And that's welcomed news for the Lions, who figure to rely on him heavily now that Jamal Agnew is on injured reserve.

"I thought that he had some good plays," defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni said Tuesday. "I thought he played physical. I thought he tackled well."

The Dolphins don't have a true No. 1 receiver, so they've been spraying the ball around a lot this year and relying on guys like Danny Amendola and Albert Wilson to rack up yards after the catch. So the Lions devised a game plan designed to keep plays in front of their defensive backs, and emphasized sure tackling.

Tabor earned the start at outside cornerback, with Nevin Lawson sliding inside to replace Agnew in the slot. Tabor found himself matched up with Amendola and Wilson quite a few times, too. And while he wasn't perfect, he mostly executed his assignments well.

The second drive of the game was a perfect example. Facing a third-and-8, quarterback Brock Osweiler saw Tabor matched up with Wilson running from left to right in the open field. Osweiler thought Wilson had room to run -- like he did last week, racking up 155 yards and two touchdowns against Chicago's top-five defense -- but Tabor arrived just after the ball and stuck Wilson where he stood.

It'll go down in the box score as a catch allowed, but Tabor also prevented the first down and Miami had to punt.

"I thought he did a real good job of tackling, and that was one of the biggest components of this game last week for us was being able to tackle these guys well," coach Matt Patricia said. "I think he did it early in the game, had a real nice tackle in a critical situation that I think it just carried over throughout the game."

A similar play occurred later in the quarter, with Wilson running a short crossing route on second-and-14. Tabor played back in coverage, then closed fast when the ball was delivered and did an excellent job wrapping up.

The play went for 4 yards, which set up a third-and-long. The Lions held, and Miami was forced to punt once again.

Tabor wasn't perfect, to be sure. Wilson beat him for a 25-yard pass over the middle, for example, and Amendola got him for a 24-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. But even then, the coverage was good. Osweiler just dropped a teardrop into a small window.

Considering Tabor was benched in his last start because he was so bad, this was a clear improvement despite what the numbers say. And the Lions are counting on seeing more of it with Agnew out for the foreseeable future.

"(He's) somebody we know we can trust and rely on to push through the game plan," Patricia said. "And understand he might be in some different positions based (on) some of the other things that we're doing schematically, so that becomes a little bit difficult. But mentally, he prepares himself each week to kind of handle those roles and those situations that come up."