It’s not hard to see that the Detroit Lions’ defense is failing them. They rank at or near the bottom in nearly every important defensive statistical category, including points allowed (31st), yards allowed (32nd), yards per play (29th), third-down defense (32nd), fourth-down defense (t-32nd), and red-zone defense (31st). The unit is a mess plagued by poor fundamentals, mental breakdowns, and questionable game plans.
And Lions coach Dan Campbell knows that. It hasn’t been good enough, and he’s openly
admitted that a few times. On Monday, he reiterated that they are still actively looking for solutions.
“We’ve got to figure ourselves out. Look, there are things we can do defensively that we haven’t tried yet,” Campbell said. “And we’re still looking at everything that we’ve got here from our own roster to the practice squad, to people that are here that are playing, to push them at different spots, and then different calls. There are some other things that we can try.”
Campbell opted to keep those strategic changes behind closed doors in order to protect their game plan for this week’s game and beyond. But as he continued to get pressed about the defensive issues, the Lions head coach insisted that the offense needs to take some of the blame. He continually pointed to the end of the Panthers game, when Detroit’s defense actually produced a couple of stops, and the Lions offense turned the ball over on downs in two of their final three possessions.
“At the end of the day, we got two stops (at the) end of that game. We got a chance to put it away or to win it, to go down, and we weren’t able to close it out. So, we’re not in flow right now, obviously,” Campbell said.
On the surface, he’s right. For as bad as the defense was against the Panthers—allowing 445 yards of offense, 6.2 yards per play, and a 49.3 success rate—the Lions offense had the ball with 2:06 left down six points—87 yards away from winning the game. They couldn’t even muster a first down.
But that point of view is also a bit disingenuous. Through four games, the Lions offense is one of the most efficient in football. They’re fifth in points scored, sixth in yardage, 10th in yards per play, 14th in third-down offense, 13th in fourth-down offense, and eighth in red zone percentage. Could and should they improve upon some of those numbers? Of course. Are they also pulling more than enough of their weight? Absolutely.
Still, Campbell seemed to want to put equal focus on each side of the ball during his Monday press conference. When asked where one even starts with the amount of struggles on the defensive side of the ball, Campbell interestingly pointed to penalties on both sides of the ball.
“I think I don’t look at it just defensively. I look at it in all three phases. So, to me, the starting point is the penalties. It’s the penalties. It’s the pre-snap penalties, the discipline penalties. We’re putting ourselves in a bind,” Campbell said.
Per NFLPenalties.com, the Lions have the seventh-most penalties committed through Week 4.
But perhaps what was most interesting about Campbell’s press conference was his admission that until the defense clears some things up, the expectation is for all of these games to come down to the wire as it did on Sunday.
“Until we find our true footing, we’ve got to be ready to win these games in the end of the fourth quarter,” Campbell said. “You’ve got an opportunity, we need a stop, and you find a way to win those games. And it’s going to take all three phases, and then you’ll find your way a little bit here. So that’s where we’re at.”
The one silver lining Campbell sees in the defense right now is the strong play of their defensive front. Through four weeks, the Lions do rank in the top-10 in pressure rate (39.3%, eighth), sacks (15, second), and sack percentage (7.9%, sixth).
But even in his admission that the back seven needs to complement the good things the defensive front is doing, he ultimately brings it back to the offense, as well.
“I feel like we’re creating pressure on the quarterback, and we’re really driven by those guys, is what we are,” Campbell said. “And we just need a little help in other areas right now. And there again, we can be better in the backend. We can be better on offense. We can be better on defense. We’ve got to be much more consistent, and that alleviates a lot of stress everywhere else.”
