CHARLOTTE, NC – The Detroit Lions have been wretched on defense this season, and D.J. Reed knows who to blame for their struggles.
“It’s not a coaching thing, it’s a players thing,” Reed said. “This game comes down to winning one-on-ones and that’s what we got to do. As a whole collective unit in the secondary we haven’t been doing that, so we just got to be better.”
The Lions turned in another abominable defensive performance Sunday, Oct. 4, losing to the Carolina Panthers, 32-26, at Bank of America Stadium.
Bryce Young threw for 329 yards, Chuba Hubbard ran for 122 yards and two touchdowns, and Tetairoa McMillan had a career day with 14 catches for 192 yards and two scores.
The Panthers, owners of the NFL’s top passing attack, scored on six straight
drives after opening the game with a punt. had six plays of 20-plus yards and did it all while playing without two of their top three receivers and with a makeshift offensive line that lost starting right tackle Monroe Freeling in-game to injury.
After the game, Lions coach Dan Campbell was asked about defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard’s job security for the second time in three weeks.
“Yeah, I’m not talking about that, man,” Campbell said. “I’m talking about getting better right now, what we’ve got. And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to find a way to get better with what we’ve got.”
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Campbell acknowledged later he would “always do what’s right by this team” and “what gives us the best opportunity to win.”
In his first five seasons as Lions coach, Campbell demoted offensive coordinators Anthony Lynn (in 2021) and John Morton (2025) in-season and took over the play-calling duties. He also fired defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant in-season in 2022.
The Lions rank last in the NFL in scoring, passing and total defense and have allowed at least 24 points in all four of their games.
At 2-2, they’re tied for last place in the NFC North, two games behind the Minnesota Vikings (4-0) and one game behind the Chicago Bears (3-1).
Just five teams in the NFC currently have winning records (Minnesota, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle).
“This is a work in progress,” Campbell said. “We're four games in. And there again, we just got to find a way to get better, man. I thought we would play better than we did last week and as a whole we didn't. We did some things that were good. I mean, the fact that we fought our way back into that game, that always gives you hope. But, man, we had our opportunity. We got to finish it out. So you always want to be able to clean up the errors after a win. When you don't, it gets tough. Certainly not good enough.”
The Lions and Panthers traded scores early Sunday, but while the Lions settled for field goals on three of their four first-half drives that crossed midfield, Young was operating flawlessly within Carolina’s offense.
Young completed 14 of his first 15 passes as the Panthers picked apart the Lions’ defense with run-pass option plays. When the Lions finally adjusted to better stop that, they struggled against Hubbard and the ground game.
Trailing 32-19 in the fourth quarter, the Lions forced two Carolina punts and scored a late touchdown before turning the ball over on downs on their final possession to end the game.
“We have to evolve as a defense, and we have to grow, cause we can't keep putting our offense in these shootout-like games cause it just puts stress on them, man,” defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said. “We just got to do better as a unit.”
Campbell, who said Sept. 21 he had no plans to change his defensive staff or demote the “outstanding” Sheppard, dismissed a notion Sunday that the Lions lack the personnel to get their right.
Reed has struggled at cornerback this season, Rock Ya-Sin already lost his cornerback job to Roger McCreary and Ennis Rakestraw Jr., and fill-in safety Avonte Maddox is out for the season with a foot injury suffered in Week 2.
The Lions expect Pro Bowl safety Brian Branch to return to the lineup in the next few weeks, and Campbell promised more tweaking ahead.
“Man, I'm not even going to worry about all that,” Campbell said. “My job is to get these guys going, man. And we've got guys on the back end that can cover, we got guys that can hit. We got to pull this thing together and find the right combination of coverage versus pressure and job responsibility, putting guys in the right spot to do what they do.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions players defend DC Kelvin Sheppard: Struggles 'a players thing'
