Aaron Glenn and the Lions defense vowed to be better in Week 2, and they were. It might not have felt like it in a 35-17 loss to the Packers, but Detroit surrendered 120 fewer yards and nearly three fewer yards per play than it did in Week 1. In Dan Campbell's view, it was the offense that let down the Lions at Lambeau.
"For me, defensively, we're going to improve, and we did improve in small areas," Campbell said. "I put this on our offense. Offensively, we have to be able to outscore a team like this. That's just how I see it. Why? Because it just turned into that type of game again, that's why. And so to me, it's on your offense.
"There's going to be games as we continue to improve where the defense is going to have to step up and win a game for us. I just feel like it was the flow of where the game goes, and today it was another one of those games. We are not allowed to make mistakes or have turnovers because we can't rebound from those."
It was clear from the jump that Monday night would be a shootout. Jared Goff and the Lions went 75 yards for a touchdown on their first drive, only to watch
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers do the same. When Goff led Detroit on another touchdown drive in the second quarter, there was Rodgers to answer again. The Lions actually out-gained the Packers by 70 yards in the first half and led 17-14 at the break.
The wheels came off in the second. The turning point was a fumble by Goff on Detroit's 25-yard line after a pair of touchdown drives by the Packers. A few plays later, it was 35-17 Green Bay. The Lions would be out-gained by 50 yards and outscored by 21 points in the second half.
Given the fragile state of Detroit's defense, Campbell is asking the offense to be virtually perfect. He acknowledged that's "difficult," but not impossible "if you can just stay in the flow of what you do." For the Lions, that means running the ball and throwing on play-action. Those opportunities dry up in the face of big deficits.
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"It's the multiple penalties. It's certainly the turnover. That just flips the tide for you," Campbell said. "You just don't want to get in a world where, once again, we had to throw it (nearly) 40 times. That's just not who we are. That's not who we are. We don't function best that way. We have to stay ahead of it. We're not allowed to make those mistakes. We just have to continue to home in on it. And look, Jared will be the first one to tell you that he has to take care of the ball better."
Asked about Campbell pinning the loss on the offense, Goff said, "Sure, he's right."
"We were doing everything we wanted to in the first half. We scored on every possession besides the one where we had the penalties. Kind of what we expected to do: run the ball well, be able to get the ball down the field. We were on, and then in the second half we just kept stalling ourselves out," said Goff, who also threw a pick in the fourth quarter with the Lions scrambling for points for the second week in a row.
Part of Detroit's problem on offense is a lack of playmakers on the outside. It'd hard to play perfect football when your only real receiving threat is your tight end. Through two games, Detroit's only players with 10-plus catches are T.J. Hockenson and running backs D'Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams. Quintez Cephus leads the wide-outs with ... seven catches.
Which begs the question: do the Lions have the players they need?
"We're going to figure it out," Campbell said. "It's hard for me to answer it that way, 'No, we don't have it.' It's hard for me to think that way. I believe we have what we need here, we just have to home in on it. Maybe we have to find more plays for Swifty, maybe we need to find more plays for Hock. You live a lot more in that world. But I'm not giving up on our receivers either. We'll just keep working and find out what they really do best that we can showcase."
Goff said "it's all there" for Detroit's offense, from the players to the plays. Consistency is the only thing missing.
"I think we've got guys with ability on the outside and we can pass block and run block with anyone in the league. And I like to think I can make throws with anyone in the league," Goff said. "It's all there for us. We've shown flashes of it, like I said last week. It just needs to happen more often and that's with everybody, myself included."
