The Lions escaped last week by the skin of their teeth. They hardly gnashed them four days later. They were lacking bite on both sides of the ball and got eaten alive by the Packers.
The offensive line caved in, and Jared Goff crumbled. The defensive line barely made a dent in Jordan Love’s pocket, and the secondary never made up for it. The crowd did all it could, hungry for another comeback, starving for the Lions’ first Thanksgiving win in seven years, but the air fizzled from Ford Field like a Clark Griswold turkey.
"They showed up, and that’s this league," Campbell said of the Packers, who came in at 4-6. "They’re in the hunt for the division and they’re not just going to quit fighting. They put it up and I didn’t have my guys ready to go. That’s the bottom line."
We could excuse last week’s hiccup against the Bears had the Lions feasted on Thursday. Even great teams have bad games. But that’s two bad games in a row for the Lions, who have not behaved like contenders for the better part of a month.
Their defense was diced by the Chargers coming out of the bye and their offense was sloppy against the Raiders before it. They were slammed by the Ravens the week before that. The Lions played complementary football in the first half of the season, but it’s hard to be complimentary now.
The Packers were better-prepared Thursday, starting with a 53-yard bomb to Christian Watson on the first play of the game. You could say the same last week about the Bears, save the final four minutes. Contenders don’t look overmatched against inferior opponents, at home, in back to back weeks. An elite offense doesn't resort to a fake punt deep in its own territory -- "Bad call by me," said Campbell, who's had plenty of good ones -- against a mediocre defense. A worthy defense doesn't give up seven yards per play. The Lions have work to do to reassert themselves in the NFC.
"The easy thing is to get into panic mode," Campbell said. "I know what it looks like out there and it wasn’t good enough, but I’m not panicked. We got the right guys in here, we know how to play. We gotta clean some things up and we’ll have six to go when we get back. The fight’s on, man. If you think this was going to be some cruise control, we’re going to have to scratch and claw for everything."
The Packers had the Lions by the throat from start to finish. When Detroit went down 23-6 in the first half thanks to a limp defense and the loose hands of its quarterback, the fans boo’d their first-place team for the second straight week. Welcome to the world of expectations. Campbell and the Lions have raised the bar, and now they’re playing beneath it. Goff has been a particular culprit, with six turnovers in his last eight quarters.
"The turnovers in the first half have certainly been the problem the last two games that have put us behind and subsequently, part of the reason we lost today," said Goff. "And yes, the efficiency and how well we’d like to play on offense can certainly go up. The last two games, it’s not to our standard."
Goff has always been prone to mistakes, even if he was near perfect in the second half of last season. It was the Lions’ most reliable unit that let him down on Thursday. The Packers punished Detroit's offensive line, which bent and broke at every position. Even Penei Sewell and Taylor Decker whiffed on a couple crucial plays. Goff is only as good as the guys in front of him, which is the reality of relying on a non-mobile quarterback.
Mobile or not, opposing quarterbacks aren't feeling nearly enough heat from Detroit's defense. In failing to get Love off his spot, the Lions made the first-year starter look more like the four-time MVP he replaced. They were shut out in the sack department for the fourth time this season. Aside from binges against the Falcons, Raiders and the Packers earlier this year, the Lions have five sacks in eight games. Aidan Hutchinson isn't good enough to do it on his own.
"Same guys we’ve had here and we’ve been able to generate pressure, so this unit’s going be just fine," Campbell said. "They’re going to get going. We pressured a little bit more today, played a little tight, but these are our guys, man, and these guys can do it. They’ve done it."
They just haven't done it enough. And these are the Lions' guys, indeed, after Brad Holmes declined to add any help at the trade deadline when several pass rushers were on the move. The price wasn't right for the Lions, which might cost them down the road. Detroit's secondary, meanwhile, continues to get exposed in one-on-one matchups. It was one thing to get torched by Keenan Allen and Justin Herbert, quite another to get worked over by Love and his band of unproven receivers.
Love went 22-of-32 for 268 yards and three touchdowns, standing tall in the pocket on almost every throw. He made some good ones when he had to, but he was looking at open targets most of the game, especially over the middle. Safety Kerby Joseph said the Packers "did what we saw on tape," shook his head and added, "We just can't be out-competed."
"It comes down to winning our one-on-one battles and holding ourselves accountable for the mistakes that’s going on in the backend," Joseph said. "We just need our playmakers to make plays, myself included."
The best cure for an ailing defense is takeaways. And that's "where the emphasis has to go for us defensively," said Campbell. "That's something that we desperately gotta work on." The Lions' fortunes changed last season when they started forcing turnovers, which, as Campbell noted, was spurred by "pressuring the quarterback and affecting him." It all goes hand in hand.
Joseph had four interceptions last season, three against Aaron Rodgers. The Lions had the fourth best turnover differential in the NFL. They're toward the bottom of the league this season at minus-5. Joseph said it's as simple as "getting to the ball, man, that’s really where takeaways come from."
"If you’re living right, they come," he said. "First person in getting the tackle, second person in getting the punch-out, and if the ball is in the air, it is ours. It is ours. It shouldn’t be nobody's but the defense’s."
As the Lions' profile has grown this season, so has the target on their back. Like turkeys in November, they are among the hunted. Two of Detroit's oldest rivals just reminded the Lions that nothing will be served on a platter. The NFC North isn't theirs until they seize it. Defensive tackle Alim McNeill said the Packers "came out fiery and hot, like that first shot they converted on, and it just kept going from there."
The Lions will enter December at 8-3, which is more than anyone could have asked for at this time a year ago. We should be thankful for their progress. They have announced themselves as a threat to the NFL, and as rookie tight end Sam LaPorta said, "we feel the opportunity and we want to grasp that opportunity."
"We’re still going to attack each opponent," said LaPorta, "but maybe other teams are using that as fuel."
This is good living in the NFL, Thursday's result notwithstanding. Campbell, who grew familiar with the feeling of being a contender during his time with the Saints, said "you should want to know that everyone’s going to give your their best shot, and you better be ready to go." The Lions were not ready for the second week in a row. This time, it was too much to overcome.
"So when we come back," said Campbell, "everyone’s going to be challenged, as well as myself."
You never apologizing for winning in the NFL, and the Lions have won a lot through 11 games. They've also run into a bit of a wall, which has exposed their cracks. Every team has them, even the contenders. If the Lions can't conceal theirs, 11 games will be quickly forgotten.