Lions News

[whatever_gong82]

What to make of the Lions after their Thanksgiving reality check vs. Packers?

Dan Campbell looking on at GB vs. Detroit.jpg

By Colton Pouncy
2h ago



DETROIT — Underneath feel-good vibes, the first-place status, the shiny 8-3 record and the winning brand of football the Detroit Lions have proven capable of playing this season lies a team that could face a harsh reality come January, if it continues on its current trajectory.

That much was clear, after a 29-22 loss to the Green Bay Packers, and a not-so-happy Thanksgiving.


“They were ready, man,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said after the game. “They played really well, and we did not. We didn’t play good enough and we did not complement each other.”



For the Lions on Thursday, there wasn’t much complementing among the three phases, and there wasn’t much to compliment. Choose your fighter. Offense? Defense? Special teams? Coaching? It’ll probably end the same way it did Thursday: with a loss.

This is the second game in a row that the Lions, at home, have been outplayed by an NFC North team with a losing record. The Bears had the Lions on the ropes with a little over four minutes to go, up two scores. It took a late-game surge to avoid a letdown vs. Chicago, in a game Lions players said they should’ve lost. They didn’t have to offer those sentiments against the Packers. The scoreboard said it all.



It begs the question: What should we make of the Lions when they’re playing like this?



Let’s begin with the defense, the typical starting point when asking questions about this team. We have 11 games of data, and the reality is this: The Lions possess a replacement-level defense in terms of talent. It can rise to the occasion every so often when things are clicking, depending on the matchup at hand. They’re tenacious against the run. And, to be clear, they’re an improved unit overall — ranked ninth in total defense entering Thursday after ranking 29th two years ago and 32nd last year.

But this defense’s limitations remain clear and obvious to anyone watching.



The Lions’ defense, as currently constructed, lacks star power capable of winning one-on-ones, turning pressure into sacks and generating defensive splash plays. A splash play is defined as a sack, tackle for loss, pressure leading to a throwaway, a run or pass stuff, an interception, a forced fumble or fumble recoveries, a pass defended or a stop on third and fourth down. Entering the day, the Lions ranked 28th in the NFL in splash plays with 195, per TruMedia. That’s the same number of splash plays they had during the first 11 weeks a year ago. They had only 13 on Thursday, well below the league average of roughly 22 per game.

The Packers neutralized the Lions’ pass rush and avoided mistakes. Jordan Love wasn’t sacked. The Packers didn’t turn the ball over. They hit on big plays of their own, were efficient, preyed on mistakes the Lions made and took down a better team on the road in the process.

“Here’s what we got to do, we have to get takeaways,” Campbell said. “We have to, that’s something that we desperately got to work on. That’s one of the things we did a really good job of this time last year. … We were pressuring the quarterback, affecting him, but then, man, we were getting these (turnovers). … That’s where we’re not getting those enough right now. And to me, that’s a mindset and it’s something we got to work on.”

“That’s just got to be our process while we’re out there on the field, you know, taking the ball the away, punching at it,” defensive tackle Alim McNeill said. “You know, picks and stuff will come with the coverages and stuff like that, but as far as fumbles, it’s got to be a train of thought for us.”



When those splash plays don’t come, and quarterbacks have time to sit back in the pocket or create out structure after an initial rush, they’re able to dissect a secondary that’s missing two of the three free agents the Lions signed to start in the backend — safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson and cornerback Emmanuel Moseley, out for the season with a torn ACL. The absence of speed rusher James Houston, whose eight sacks in the final seven games of last season made a sizable difference, isn’t helping either. It’s unclear when the Lions might get some of those reinforcements back — if at all.

In the meantime, what the Lions are left with is a defense with a razor-thin margin for error. It needs every wheel turning in motion. It needs its best players to be at their best. It needs its defensive coordinator to get more creative, because the rush and coverage aren’t executing and haven’t for some time. Until that changes, the week-to-week consistency will continue to escape this group.



This brings us to the perhaps unfair reality for Detroit’s offense.

After a shootout win over the Chargers two weeks ago, Campbell said the quiet part out loud.



“Honestly, if we don’t win that game, to me, I put that on the offense,” he said. “That’s where the game was going.”

Campbell, more than anyone, knows the pieces he has on offense are better equipped to win games than the defense. That’s because the offensive talent far outweighs that on defense. The Lions have the third-most expensive offense in the NFL, per Spotrac, led by an experienced, veteran quarterback in Jared Goff who needs to play better. They have a pair of dynamic running backs in David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs they’ve invested in, whether via financial resources or draft capital. They have one of the better and more dependable receivers in the league in Amon-Ra St. Brown and a budding young star tight end in Sam LaPorta. All of that is aided by an offensive line with three first-round picks that just so happens to be the highest-paid line in the NFL.


This is a good enough unit to expect week-to-week consistency, no matter the opponent, no matter the defense it’s facing. Offense is the strength of this team and has been for the better part of two years. But it has been far from that the past two weeks.

The Lions recorded 464 yards of offense against the Packers on Thursday. They had 22 points — 14 through the first 59:19 of action — to show for it. The offensive line had arguably its worst performance of the season, getting beat off the snap, in space and against pressure. Goff lost three fumbles — including one returned for a touchdown. The Lions have turned the ball over seven times in their last two games, putting opposing offenses in advantageous positions. On Thursday, they were 1-of-5 on fourth down, which gave Green Bay great field position for much of the day. That included a failed fake punt decision from Campbell that gifted Green Bay the ball at the Detroit 23, leading to an easy touchdown.

If this team has hopes for January and beyond, the offense has to be better than this. It’s fair to hold them to a different standard, because in many ways, they are the standard.

“I hold our offense to a certain standard because of that offensive line first and foremost,” Campbell said. “Because they’ve been here all together and I know what they’re capable of. Goff has played a lot of football, and that’s the first thing I look at when I think of, ‘We gotta function at a higher level, we got to be more efficient.’ Doesn’t mean that I’m giving the defense an out.”



In a game like this, there are no outs to be given. It was a team loss — offense, defense, special teams, coaching, you name it. The Lions are better than this, and the fact that they only lost by 7 despite playing uncharacteristic football speaks to a team that will rarely go down without a fight.

But the further along we get into the season, as we try to pinpoint this team’s ultimate ceiling ahead of the playoffs, there may be reality checks like this.



Colton Pouncy is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Detroit Lions. He previously covered Michigan State football and basketball for the company, and covered sports for The Tennessean in Nashville prior to joining The Athletic. Follow Colton on Twitter @colton_pouncy

[dsred]

Lions pass rush goes sackless again as Packers' Jordan Love has huge day



Nolan Bianchi
The Detroit News



Detroit — Jordan Love had all day to throw.

That's not in reference to a specific play, drive, or even quarter. Love, the Green Bay Packers quarterback, looked calm, cool and collected in the pocket from start to finish of the Pack's 29-22 victory over the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Thanksgiving Day.


Love was 22-for-32 passing for 268 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions as the league's best deep-passing team lived up to the billing. On the very first play from scrimmage, Love faked a handoff, dropped back, bounced three times and chucked up a 53-yard completion over the middle to Christian Watson.



The rest, as they say, is history. The Lions were never able to make Love uncomfortable and they paid the price over and over. They only hit him four times with no sacks, which the Lions have just two of over their last three games. Each time he let go of the ball, it felt as though the Lions edge rushers were closer to the numbers than they were to their actual target.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell showed little concern for the trend following Thursday's game, saying the same guys who are struggling to produce now are the same guys who were near the top of the league in a variety of pass-rush statistics early on in the season.



"The unit's going to be just fine," Campbell said. "We're going to get going and we pressured a little bit more today, played a little tight, but these are our guys, man. And these guys can do it and they've done it.

In a 34-20 win over the Packers in Week 4, the Lions had five sacks and generated 29 pressures.



"I thought they protected him really well out there, did a lot of block-'em-up protections, particularly early, they took a shot and we just couldn't quite get there," Campbell said.

Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill said it isn't a lack of fire in the trenches that's preventing the team's pass rush from getting home. After all, it's more or less the same group of guys that has shut down opposing run games week after week. Packers running back A.J. Dillon had just 43 yards on 14 carries.



"They didn't establish the run how they wanted to, so I wouldn't say that, it's just a lot of quick throws and stuff like that in certain situations," McNeill said.

Though he has confidence the pass rush can get back on track, Campbell said "everybody's going to be challenged" when the team returns for practice on Monday.



nbianchi@detroitnews.com

@nolanbianchi

Found the problem. Dan's delusional on the talent level of his JAGs.

[chemiclord]

That's what he kinda has to say to the press. I'm not sure why fans think that the best thing a team needs is for the coach to rant about how worthless the players under him are during a press conference. Sure, it might give the fans a momentary burst of endorphins and make them feel better for a short time, but ya know what happens to coaches who actually do snap like that?

I'll give you an example. As much as fans cackle with glee about Jim Mora's famous "playoffs" rant where he shit on his entire team, the team melted down after it and the dude got canned at the end of the year. Denny Green's now famous "they were who we thought they were" rant? Yeah... he was out at the end of the season too.

Turns out... it's not a good idea. Who'da thunk it?

[SnowMeiser]

To me, this was basically the key to the game. You are only down by 9 and plenty of time left with the defense only given up 17 points at that point. Just a real bone-headed play fake. It should never have even been a choice. Punt it!! I appreciate the aggressiveness, but this was not the time to do it.

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[whatever_gong82]

Losing to Green Bay Packers stunk for Detroit Lions. But they don't suddenly stink.


Jeff Seidel
Detroit Free Press



Relax. The Lions are 8-3.

They lost on Thanksgiving — 29-22 to the Green Bay Packers — a game in which the Lions had three painful, frustrating, pull-your-hair-out fumbles.

News flash: You are supposed to lose when you have three turnovers and fall behind by double digits.



Remember that amazing, ridiculous, sublime comeback against the Chicago Bears? It’s not supposed to happen.

So, this loss was predictable, if not inevitable.



Here’s the bigger question: Does this mean the world is ending?

No.

Does this mean the Lions are in a funk or all the magic is gone?


No.

“This isn’t something where we’re going to go into panic mode,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “I’ve got some time here to just look at a couple of things and see where we can get a little more efficient. But at the same time, this is the same team that’s been here all year — offense, defense, (Jared) Goff’s the same quarterback. We clean a couple of things up and I think we’ll get back into a rhythm and we’ll be just fine.”



That sounds like a sound, sensible and reasonable approach. Because this is a ridiculously long season.

Goff has had six turnovers in two games. That could cause a freakout, but it doesn’t seem so alarming when you actually break it down.



Think back to the fumbles.

On the first one, Goff got hit while he was throwing.



As it happened live, as I sat in the press box, I thought it was a bad call. I thought it should have been ruled incomplete. But after watching the replay — OK, sure, yes, the ball came out of his hand for a split second before his arm was moving forward.

Does this mean the world is ending?


No.

“It’s such miniscule,” Goff said. “It gets called incomplete sometimes, sometimes it’s a fumble.”



On the second one: Goff was hit while scrambling and fumbled it.

Yes, that’s 100% on him. He has to protect the ball better (and he actually did, later, on a scramble).


His final fumble came on a fourth-down play, when the Lions were facing a turnover on downs anyway.

“They were ready, man,” Campbell said. “They played really well, and we did not. We didn’t play good enough and we did not complement each other, turned the ball over too much and we weren’t able to overcome those issues.”



Kept fighting



Now, here’s the crazy thing.

Despite those three turnovers, the Lions stayed in this game. They kept fighting but couldn't cut it to a one-score game until late in the fourth quarter.



So, what are the takeaways, what few there were, from this game?

You can’t give the ball away three times more than you get it and expect to win. It’s no more complicated than that.



Everything that came after those turnovers flipped this game inside-out. It impacted coaching decisions, play-calling and what the Packers did on defense.

Shoot, it even forced Campbell to try a crazy fake punt, which failed miserably and set up a Packers touchdown.



“It’s a bad call on me,” Campbell said. “Shouldn’t have done that.”

The Lions' entire offense is built around the play-action pass. But when you turn the ball over and fall behind quickly, it messes everything up. The play-action pass becomes pointless when the other team knows you are throwing; that puts extreme pressure on your offensive line, which is why Goff got hit 12 times and sacked three times.



“Yeah, look, I thought the O-line’s playing pretty good with the exception of a couple things that happened,” Campbell said. “You don’t particularly want to go in the game and feel like we’re in all-pass mode. You become very predictable. That’s hard on the O-line and that’s really (where) a lot of the issues came up.”

There are ways to combat that, too, such as keeping more guys in to block.



That’s my point: Everything is fixable.

While the game was lost, the season wasn’t.



Seeing a glass half-full


Here’s another way to look at this game.



The Lions' defense gave up only nine points in the final three quarters, and even that was skewed after the bad fake punt put the defense in a horrible situation.

So, even though Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love was spectacular, completing 22 of 32 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns, the defense didn’t lose this game.



It was just the turnovers.

And turnovers can be fixed.



More importantly, turnovers can be created.

“Punch-outs, more strip attempts, be in a position to make the plays and make the plays that come to you,” linebacker Derrick Barnes said. “We haven't gotten any of those this year. … I think it's just a mindset thing.”



Campbell agreed. He wants this team to take that mindset.

“Here’s what we got to do, we have to get takeaways,” Campbell said. “We have to, that’s something that we desperately got to work on. That’s one of the things we did a really good job of this time last year, once we hit that last call it 10, eight to 10 games, we were getting takeaways



Looking ahead


Despite this loss, there are some other encouraging things.

Jameson Williams is starting to look like a legit NFL wide receiver. He caught three passes for 51 yards on Sunday, and you can envision his role growing significantly.



He could become a true difference-maker.



And the Lions' creativity never ceases to amaze.

Malcolm Rodriguez, who was drafted as a linebacker, lined up as a fullback and shifted outside a couple times.



He even caught a pass, which is remarkable.

These coaches find talent and use it. They don’t pigeon-hole anybody.



I don’t think this offense is in an alarming funk. Goff threw for 332 yards and two touchdowns, David Montgomery ran for 71 and Jahmyr Gibbs averaged 4.9 yards per carry.

That’s not a broken offense. That’s not alarming.



No, the real problem is the turnovers (and yes, having more of a pass rush would certainly help create more opportunities for picks).

Despite this game, I believe the Lions will make the playoffs.



When you view this in the big picture, it seems pretty simple right now: If they stay on this path — keep turning the ball over and don’t getting some of their own, they might not win another game.

But if they clean it up, like they did at the end of last year, this team can still go on a heck of a run.



This game stunk. The outcome stunk.

But this team is still the same team that had everybody giddy just a few days ago.



The Lions can still beat darn near anybody.

If they would just stop beating themselves.


Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.

[whatever_gong82]

The Detroit Lions got bullied. Aberration? Or foreshadowing? Next 6 games will tell us.


Shawn Windsor
Detroit Free Press



The Detroit Lions got bullied on Thursday. This is the second time this season that has happened.

It’s understandable against Baltimore, not so much against Green Bay.



Yet there were the Packers on Thanksgiving, knocking over the Lions’ offensive line like cows on a tightrope. Yeah, it was that easy, and that won’t do for a team built around its offensive line. A line missing Jonah Jackson, yes, but a line through which everything else flows.



If the beefy fellas up front can’t protect Jared Goff, then he won’t have time to throw, much less think. And a sped-up Goff is not ideal.

This leads to turnovers, of course. Or intentional grounding. Or just simple throwaways that end a series. All happened against Green Bay too frequently, and for a team that isn’t going to win by getting stops — or even pressures — a struggling offensive line leads to what unfolded at Ford Field.


Green Bay, for what it’s worth, didn’t hit Detroit among the leaders in sacks or quarterback hits. The Packers have a couple of nice pieces on the defensive line, and Rashan Gary is capable of wrecking any plan, but up front, they aren’t the San Francisco 49ers … or even the Philadelphia Eagles.

The performance was surprising, to be sure. It was also curious, because the Lions — and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — couldn't make the right adjustments and give Goff a chance at finding a rhythm.



The Lions were held to 14 points until a late garbage-time touchdown. Whenever they got into the red zone, or even to midfield, they stalled out.

If this were just one game, that'd be one thing. That was the thinking following last week's win over the Chicago Bears. But this is consecutive games now in which the offense has struggled against division rivals without stellar defenses.



True, Goff found his way late against the Bears. Yet the euphoria didn’t even last a week.

Maybe it's not a full-blown trend, but consider this: The Lions are two plays from being 6-5, considering that Bears game and how they won in Los Angeles against the Chargers the week before that. To their credit, they made the plays and earned the wins and now stand at 8-3.



Around here, that’s darn near historic. It also sets up a certain kind of expectation; the narrative of an NFL season can change in a flash, even here where the season has traditionally been over by Thanksgiving.

If you’re more the half-empty glass sort, you’re pointing to the injuries Kansas City had when the Lions beat them and Detroit's record against teams above .500. It’s 1-2, following losses to the Ravens and the Seattle Seahawks.



This isn’t to say 8-3 is a mirage. For years, the Lions lost to good teams, mediocre teams and bad teams, too — any kind of team and, one year, every team. And beating sub-.500 teams like the Bears, Bucs, Falcons and Panthers are critical to a successful regular season.

The Lions have those wins. They deserve credit, especially considering their history. Yet 8-3 also comes with a different kind of expectation:



That you’re ready to play on Thanksgiving, that you’re ready to match the competitive spirit of a division rival, that you don’t act somewhat surprised when a team rises up and does something it hasn’t done in a season.

Like rush the passer.



“I thought their defense played really well,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said.

OK, we can all agree on this. And?



“We know Gary is an issue over there, and (Kenny) Clark and those guys, but look, they showed up and they played really well.”

Does he sound surprised here? Yes, a little. And as much as he didn’t want to sound begrudging, there was a hint of that, too. That’ll happen when your best unit gets dominated by a unit that doesn’t generally dominate.



Campbell said he didn’t have his team ready. He’s good like that, taking accountability. Maybe he meant it when he said it: The Lions certainly didn’t look ready.

Yet it’s hard to imagine they weren’t ready to play on national television on Thanksgiving, especially knowing how much the Lions have become a story this season — a good story.



Campbell pointed out a few times that this team, this roster, is the same that started Thursday 8-2, that has found different ways to win games, that has shown mental toughness and resilience, that has captured this region like no other Lions team in recent memory.

Heck, in decades …



This team’s margin for error is narrow, though, and 8-2 hid that to a degree. If the offensive line isn’t doing its thing, there isn’t an alternative path to victory, short of picking up some fluky turnovers. Speaking of which, the Lions lost the turnover margin again; they have been among the NFL's worst this year in turnover differential.

On the one hand, you might take that as a positive — that the Lions are winning despite not taking the ball away and despite giving it up way too often. On the other hand, you might point to the teams the Lions have beaten, as listed just a bit ago — not a list of Super Bowl contenders.


Well, the competition is about to get tougher. Five of their remaining six games come against teams .500 or better heading into Sunday. The one team that isn’t — the Bears — have their quarterback healthy, and we just witnessed what he looks like against the Lions’ defense.

If the Vikings win Monday night against Chicago, they’ll only be two games behind the Lions in the loss column in the NFC North. That’s a decent cushion with six games left, though hardly insurmountable, especially with two games against the Vikings remaining.


“We’re going to have to fight and scratch and fight and claw for everything man, we have to,” Campbell said. “That’s the type of team we are, that’s where we’re at.”



They didn’t fight and scratch and claw Thursday in the most anticipated Thanksgiving game around here in years, at least not as they have for so much of this season.

An aberration? Or a touch of foreshadowing?



All Campbell knows is this:

“The easy thing is to get in panic mode … but I’m not panicked. We got the right guys who know how to play. We’re going to clean some things up and we’ll have six to go when we get back. The fight is on now.”



He has earned the benefit of the doubt here. He also knows his team. It’s not good at stopping people. It is good at blocking them.

As long as the latter continues, they’ll find salvation enough times to hold off the Vikings during the next six weeks.



Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him@shawnwindsor.

[whatever_gong82]

There just wasn't a Detroit Lion who deserved a game ball this week


Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press



Free Press sports writer Dave Birkett highlights the best and worst performances from the Detroit Lions' 29-22 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field.


Game balls


Packers QB Jordan Love: Love played arguably the best game of his career Thursday, completing 22 of 32 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns. He completed 12 of 13 passes to start the game and was in command of an offense that had its way with the Lions defense.


Love has struggled with his accuracy at times this season, but he was sharp in the red zone Thursday and spread the ball around to seven different receivers.

The Packers (5-6) have clawed their way back into playoff contention with three wins in their past four games, and Love, in his first season as a starter, is a big reason why.



Packers OLB Rashan Gary: The Lions got good production from a trio of receivers — Amon-Ra St. Brown (nine catches, 95 yards), Kalif Raymond (five for 90) and Jameson Williams (two for 51) — but they didn’t get enough contributions from their playmakers with the game on the line to warrant anyone getting a game ball Thursday.

Gary, the former Michigan football standout, was the defensive star of the day, with seven tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery — and he did it at the same stadium he tore his ACL at one season ago.



“That was huge for him to come back to the place where, obviously, last year it was a pretty emotional experience,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “And then he experienced a different type of emotion today to have three sacks. Just really happy for him and our whole locker room.”


Goats


Lions QB Jared Goff: Goff has played at a Pro Bowl level for the Lions this season, but he has fallen into a bit of a turnover funk with three interceptions and three fumbles in his past two games.



On Thursday, Goff lost one fumble when it slipped out of his hand when he was hit as he threw, another when he took one of his hands off the ball as he scrambled for yards, and a third on a fourth-down play when he was hit from behind. Goff didn’t get great protection from his offensive line Thursday, but his carelessness cost the Lions a game they should have won.

The Lions emerged as one of the best teams in football in the second half of last season because they forced turnovers on defense and Goff took care of the ball on offense. They haven’t done either of those things well in recent weeks; if that doesn’t change, more losses are coming.




Lions pass rush: The Lions have been the ultimate hit-or-miss team when it comes to rushing the quarterback, and on Thursday they had a big whiff in that department, which is part of the reason Love played so well.



They failed to record a sack Thursday for the fourth time this season. They got one quarterback hit out of their defensive line (from Aidan Hutchinson). And they haven’t had a sack in a first half since their previous meeting with the Packers in late September.

The Lions need better play from their secondary or they’ll be in trouble when they face good quarterbacks in the playoffs. But that group needs more help from a front line that’s light on pass rushers but should be adding Bruce Irvin to the mix soon.



Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

[whatever_gong82]

Three-and-out: Ability vs. responsibility, Lions' offense struggles to shoulder burden


Justin Rogers
The Detroit News



Detroit — Here are three observations after having a night to ponder the Detroit Lions' 29-22 loss to the Green Bay Packers.


Shouldering the burden


A second viewing of the contest, providing more time to process the breakdowns, verified this was an abject failure in nearly every regard. The offense couldn't get the passing attack going because of porous blocking — more on that in a bit — the defense's only saving grace from a larger-scale embarrassment was a pair of drive-killing execution errors by the Packers, and even the typically reliable special teams fell on its collective face.

This performance, in front of a national audience ready to be introduced to the new-look Lions, likely had them wondering what all the fuss was about. Wearing their retro uniforms, the Lions delivered a retro performance, and we mean that in the worst possible way.


Let's be clear: Good teams have bad performances. The Lions had one against Baltimore and we chalked it up to an anomaly. They had another last weekend against the Bears, but it was easier to stomach because it still ended in a win. But this makes two in a row, the start of a troubling trend when you're supposed to be hitting your stride as a contender.



At the team's lowest points, coach Dan Campbell curiously saves his most-critical commentary for the team's offense. He did it last year, earlier this season and again after Thursday's loss, when he flipped a question about the defense's struggles to unrequested commentary about the other side of the ball. I asked him why the offense always gets the brunt of it during these postgame press conferences.

"Maybe it is a little bit that I’m an offensive guy, but I also hold our offense to a certain standard because of that offensive line, first and foremost," Campbell said. "Because they’ve been here all together and I know what they’re capable of. (Quarterback Jared) Goff has played a lot of football, and that’s the first thing I look at when I think of 'We got a function at a higher level, we got to be more efficient.'"



Fair enough. Campbell knows offense, he's more involved with the offense and there are higher expectations based on talent and past performance. That all makes sense. And we can say, definitively, the offense hasn't been good enough these past two games. Again, we'll come back to the offensive line, but man, Goff's recent turnover woes are troubling. Against the Bears, he was repeatedly putting the ball in harm's way, and on Thursday, he fumbled it three times. It's tough to win in this league with that level of ball security.

But it does often feel like Campbell lets the defense off the hook, intentionally or unintentionally. Let's face it, Aaron Glenn's group is falling well short of expectations after a decent start to the season. But since that game against Baltimore, they've been one of the least effective units in the NFL.

It starts up front. The Lions simply aren't manufacturing enough pressure, and the pressure they are generating isn't resulting in sacks. And the coverage has been a disaster, both from schematic and execution standpoints.



You might say, well, the Packers' offense only managed nine points after the first quarter, despite twice taking over deep in Lions' territory. I'll counter with running back AJ Dillon colliding with his QB on fourth-and-1 and Romeo Doubs dropped a third-down conversion in Lions' territory as bigger culprits to the slowing of the scoring parade that netted 14 points their first two drives.

Campbell acknowledged he wants to see more turnovers from the group, but those are typically the result of pressure forcing bad decisions and the coverage being in position to capitalize. Unless opponents are going to going to start coughing up fumbles like Goff did on Thursday, the takeaways won't come until bigger, fundamental issues are resolved.



"This unit’s going to be just fine," Campbell said. "We’re going to get going and we pressured a little bit more today, played a little tight, but these are our guys, man. And these guys can do it and they’ve done it."

The problem is they haven't done it consistently and typically haven't done it against good teams. Obviously, it's too late in the season to make drastic changes, and the trade deadline has come and gone. Maybe Bruce Irvin provides a spark, although it seems unrealistic counting on the 12-year veteran to be a solution. It also feels like fans expect Jams Houston to be the difference maker, like he was a year ago as a rookie, but who knows what he looks like when and if he gets clearance to return from his broken ankle. And it's not easy to forget how buried he was on the depth chart this offseason. Was his absence enough to change the coaching staff's opinion on the player.



At this point, unless Aidan Hutchinson starts converting his pressures into sacks, a second pass-rushing threat emerges opposite him, rookie Jack Campbell finally turns the corner, and the secondary unexpectedly gels three-quarters of the way into the season, it's difficult to see the Lions climbing out of their defensive rut.

So yeah, I guess I see why Campbell harps on the offense. If that unit doesn't carry the Lions, they won't go far.



Weakest link


It was covered coming out of the game, but this was the worst we've seen Detroit's offensive line play in a minute. And it was a collective issue. Every member of the starting five had multiple breakdowns. Rashan Gary bested Taylor Decker, Penei Sewell struggled with Preston Smith and Kenny Clark was a nightmare inside for Graham Glasgow.



But our rewatch really put a spotlight on rookie Colby Sorsdal, who got the hook shortly before the half. It was Sorsdal who allowed the pressure that resulted in Goff's first fumble. Sosdal also gave up pressure that led to a throwaway, missed a stunt pickup that led to one of Gary's three sacks and got blown off the ball on back-to-back run plays.

We shouldn't be surprised the rookie struggled, especially against a talented veteran front like Green Bay's, but it's the second straight week Sorsdal was the weak link up front after allowing four QB pressures in the win over Chicago. The William & Mary product just isn't ready, and that was more apparent by the way Kayode Awosika calmed things down at left guard after taking over.



It's also a reminder how one weak spot can make an entire offensive line's performance look far worse than it is. That's not to say Decker, Sewell and others didn't fall short of expectations in this game, because they all did, but the absence of Jonah Jackson for the fifth time in six weeks is catching up with the Lions. It also sheds a light on a 2024 concern, when both he and Glasgow are set to be free agents.

This doesn't mean re-signing both is mandatory, but general manager Brad Holmes has to be seeing the same things we are when one or both of his guards are out of the lineup. If the Lions' identity is going to be built around its front, and the offense's success hinges on the unit, the team has to be prepared to put premium resources into the group this offseason, whether that's an early-round draft pick or free-agency dollars.


Sky isn't falling


For everything written above, we need to contextualize Detroit's situation. Yes, this was an ugly game. Yes, there are legitimate concerns about the rest of the season regarding this team's ability to secure the division and win in the postseason. But in terms of the long-term build for success, we shouldn't throw the franchise's three-year improvement plan and an 8-3 record out the window because we're prisoners of the moment.



We get it, with only 17 games, overreactions come with the territory. Still, the extent of the postgame negativity that has been flooding my Twitter timeline and email inbox has been jarring. We talk about contention windows all the time in sports, and the appropriate analogy for the Lions is they've only just cracked their window open this season.

As I responded in a mailbag earlier in the week, my preseason expectations for this franchise didn't change with the 8-2 start. It's always felt like the division title was the primary goal coming into 2023, whether that took 10 wins or 13. The Lions had the talent and schedule to do it, and remain on track, even with the loss to Green Bay. From there, you would hope home field would be enough to get at least one playoff win.



That would end two inglorious streaks in one year, with a roster that's still maturing and primed for Holmes to add more pieces the following offseason.

No one is saying you can't be disappointed or mad. I'm not here to dictate your feelings about this football team. But at least recognize how far they've come in two years, even if they're still flawed and likely not ready to make a run at the Super Bowl.



jdrogers@detroitnews.com

@Justin_Rogers

[chemiclord]

And that's kinda the rub isn't it? This team wasn't QUITE as good as it's 8-2 start suggested. Expectations kinda got out of hand with the fanbase.

That said, this team HAS played like shit the last two weeks (and as noted the defense has been beyond putrid for longer than that), and it's perfectly fair to be disappointed and a little angry about it.

[whatever_gong82]

[-Deborah-]

Detroit is hosting the 2024 NFL Draft. They are looking for temporary paid workers to staff the NFL Draft Experience. More info here:

Teammate Opportunity | Visit Detroit

[jaadam4]

Detroit is hosting the 2024 NFL Draft. They are looking for temporary paid workers to staff the NFL Draft Experience. More info here:

Teammate Opportunity | Visit Detroit

They should hire me as the lead commentator. Ratings would
soar and the world would be a better place everyone.

[Mainevent]

That's not good

https://www.si.com/nfl/lions/news/lions-alex-anzalone-could-miss-saints-game

[-Deborah-]

Sigh.

[-Deborah-]

I keep forgetting we have this guy. Hendon Hooker is slated to start practicing this week.

https://www.si.com/nfl/lions/news/hendon-hooker-expected-to-practice