Dan Campbell wrapped up the week of media sessions on Friday before the team heads to Arizona to take on the Cardinals in Week 5. He said that they are not likely to active Brian Branch (PUP, achilles) or Cade Mays (IR, wrist) this week, but there were a few other takeaways from his press conference, as well.
Here’s what you need to know.
Remembering Mike Ditka
News broke less than an hour before Campbell’s press conference that legendary Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka had passed away at the age of 86. A reporter actually
broke the news to Campbell.
“No! I didn’t know that! Oh my gosh. Wow,” Campbell reacted in real time.
He almost immediately jumped into a story about meeting Ditka. Campbell was coming out of college at the NFL Combine, and he had heard that Ditka—then the head coach of the New Orleans Saints—wanted to meet with him. I’ll let him fill in the rest.
“I know he’ll be in there, but it’s going to be a little bit—no, no, no. I go in and there’s one little light on. It’s like a little lamp in the corner. It’s at the train station and there’s nothing in there. There’s no couches. The room is totally cleaned out and there’s one little table and the room is full of smoke. I mean, you can’t hardly even see him. You just see this image off in the corner of this little lamp and smoke everywhere and he’s got that big fat cigar. It was one of the best times of my life and most intimidating times of my life sitting across from Mike Ditka. It was awesome though. Just him asking questions about where you grew up, how you think, how you’re wired, the game, what you see. It was awesome. And so, thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He’s a legend.”
What Campbell needs to see from the defense
Campbell received a very good question, asking what he needs to see from the defense against the Cardinals to feel good about the direction that unit is going before the bye week. His answer consisted of three things.
Turnovers:
“I think I’m always going to ask for multiple takeaways. We’ve got to have multiple takeaways and certainly we need to see punch outs on the tape. Numerous punch outs, not just one or two. We need to come out of there and say, ‘Man, we saw six, seven, eight of these punch outs.’ You’re trying to get them out.”
Quarterback pressure:
“I want to see disruption on the quarterback. (We’ve) been pretty good. Got to continue that.”
Elimination of mental mistakes:
“I want to eliminate the MAs [missed assignments] and dumb penalties. Let’s cut those in half. The MEs, missed execution, or MAs, and the penalties that are just neutral zone infractions or jumping offsides or it dealt with technique. ‘I got myself in a bind because I didn’t use my help.’ Those are inexcusable.”
Stopping Cardinals’ outside zone runs
I pointed it out in my Cardinals/Giants recap post. Erik Schlitt listed it in his keys to the game. But a potential area of weakness for the Lions this week is against Arizona’s outside zone running scheme, which has been very successful outside the tackles. Meanwhile, that’s exactly where the Lions have struggled in defending the run.
I asked Campbell how they plan to attack that potential mismatch this week, and he focused his answer on being disciplined in their run fits, despite the eye candy Arizona will throw at them.
“It really is all about fitting your gap. And let’s say you have a post safety, and the other nine guys fit it right and we have one guy that is not where he’s supposed to be. It destroys your run defense. It absolutely destroys it. So, they’re going to give you eye candy. They’re going to do movement. They’re trying to make you to move just a little bit to where you get off. We do the same thing on offense ourselves. You’re just trying to get dirty eyes and somebody not to fit it right, and that’s all it takes.
Cardinals first-round pick Jeremiyah Love has been dealing with an ankle injury, and Arizona has limited his playing time while he continues to try and get 100%. Campbell fully expects Love to play this week, has noticed him getting better every week, and knows they have their hands full on Sunday.
“He’s an explosive dynamic runner. He’s got vision, explosiveness, speed, and he’s really good out of the backfield,” Campbell said. “And they’ve just scratched the surface of that. That hadn’t even opened it up yet. That’s coming.”
Love’s workload continues to fluctuate, but is mostly trending up, as he splits time with veteran Tyler Allgeier.
Week 1: 11 carries, 41 yards, TD; 2 catches, 9 yards
Week 2: 9 carries, 29 yards; 3 catches, 16 yards
Week 3: 21 carries, 90 yards; 5 catches, 19 yards
Week 4: 14 carries, 63 yards; 1 catch, -8 yards
