They have too many good players, says Dan Campbell. They've won too many games. They've played too well over the last several seasons to suddenly be playing like this, a 2-2 team without a clear identity.
The Lions' defense has been historically bad through four games. Their offense hasn't been quite good enough to overcome it. They are a supposed contender that's a few plays away from being 0-4. They've lacked discipline on both sides of the ball, and any semblance of structure on defense.
This is their reality a month into the season.
The issues on defense are bad and getting worse. The Lions have surrendered the most points, yards, first downs and explosive plays in the NFL, just to name a few. They allowed the Panthers to score on seven straight drives in a 32-26 loss last Sunday night. Campbell continues to preach faith in his defensive coordinator, but Kelvin Sheppard might be running out of time.
If there's one area of improvement he wants to see in his defense next Sunday against the Cardinals, Campbell said something he's been saying since they surrendered 30 points and nearly 500 yards (albeit in a game that went to overtime) to the Tyler Shough and the Saints in Week 1: "I want our guys to be where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be there."
"We need to be on point," Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Our discipline has got to clean up."
Campbell said the defense is still dealing with "a little bit of a trust issue," which leads to one player trying to cover for another when things go awry, "instead of just doing your job." He said they'll continue to tweak the personnel and coach up the scheme, and reiterated that the defense is "a work in progress."
"We’re going to give some other guys an opportunity, and go, man. But we’re not going to accept mediocrity. That’s not what we’re doing here," he said. "We've got too many guys playing at a high level, and we’re going to raise the floor on this team."
The Lions do have a handful of players showing up on the defensive line. That's part of what makes the unit's overall struggles so frustrating. Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Tyleik Williams and rookie Skyler Gill-Howard have all helped the front four get off the ball and cause some havoc, especially against the pass.
Desperate for a pass rush for so many years, the Lions have the second most sacks (15) and fourth most quarterback pressures (51, per Pro Football Reference) in the NFL. Yet they've allowed the most passing yards and the most air yards in the league, both by a wide margin.
Derrick Barnes has had a couple strong games, but Detroit's linebackers have otherwise looked out of sorts, headlined by All-Pro Jack Campbell. Chuck Clark has made a couple plays, but the safeties and corners have mostly looked overmatched or overwhelmed, often both. The back of the defense has been in a general state of confusion since the second half of Week 1. The scheme and the personnel both bear blame.
"Our discipline is not good enough across the board. We’re playing very average football right now, and that’s everywhere," said Campbell. "That’s everywhere. That’s not just defense. We gotta pick up the slack on offense and special teams right now. That’ll alleviate a lot of our defensive issues. It’s certainly going to help. And that’s what I’m tasked with, man. I’m about freaking solving problems. I’m going after this thing, man. We’re not going to be mediocre. I don’t accept that."
The Lions once again have a top-five scoring offense. They put up 31 points in their first three games, followed by 26 in Week 4. Most NFL teams would kill for that.
But Campbell's not wrong for demanding more. The Lions have scored one first quarter touchdown this year, and a slow start doomed them in Week 2 against the Bills. (So did a defense hemorrhaging yards.) They've left a number of explosive plays on the field, including a potential 89-yard touchdown in the first quarter against the Panthers that went through the hands of Jameson Williams.
They haven't run the ball efficiently enough. They were forced to throw 52 times against the Panthers (thanks to a defense hemorrhaging yards), with Jahmyr Gibbs averaging just 3.1 yards on 15 carries.
When TV cameras showed Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown on the sidelines in the second half last Sunday night, they looked demoralized watching the Panthers go up and down the field against Detroit's defense. At one point, after yet another Carolina first down, Gibbs looked up at the video board and shook his head. St. Brown stared off into the distance.
The offense is playing with almost no margin for error. If they don't score 30, it feels like they don't have a chance. Asked if that can take a toll on the psyche of the offense, Campbell was defiant: "Man, if you want to be great, they should want to score 35 points a game, at a minimum. That’s what greatness is. That’s what they’re charged with. We've got plenty of weapons on offense and if we’re gonna accept mediocrity, then yeah, we can make all the excuses in the world. If we want to spit and sputter and be average, that’s one thing.
"We’re not going to be average. We’re going to raise the floor on these guys, man. We’re going to push ‘em. We've got too much offensively right now. Our quarterback’s too good, our playmakers are too good, and we've got a young, hungry offensive line that’s got a ton of room to grow."
Campbell understands the angst around Sheppard, by the way. His defense has taken a massive step back in year two, and injuries and attrition in the secondary should be partly offset by a fully healthy front seven. If the Lions were actually playing "average football" on defense -- akin to allowing about 23.5 points per game -- they would be 4-0.
The calls for Sheppard to be fired aren't out of line. Campbell isn't ready to go there, but he knows the temperature is at a boiling point within the fanbase.
"I understand all that from afar, when you look at it and you look at the numbers," he said. "But I believe in Kelvin Sheppard, and I believe we got a lot of meat on the bone with this defense right now. We’re going to continue to tweak. We got more things that we can do, with what we have here. There’s different calls."
Campbell insists that the Lions are "going to find the right recipe" on defense, between the players and the scheme. He's heartened, at least publicly, by the fact that they got two late stops against Carolina and somehow had a chance to win it at the end: "I’ll take that," he said. The season is only four games old.
"I am fired up, man, I am," said Campbell. "I’m going forward, not backwards."
But this defense has gone backwards, and is threatening to take the team with it. As it is, the Lions are 7-9 in their last 16 games going back to last season. That, in the NFL, is the very definition of mediocre. If Campbell truly isn't accepting that, Sheppard might have one more game to move his unit forward.
