Dan Campbell pins Lions’ turnaround hopes on areas other than defense

ALLEN PARK — One day after the Detroit Lions‘ defense let them down once again in a 32-26 loss to the Carolina Panthers, head coach Dan Campbell continues to pin the team’s turnaround hopes on areas other than the defense.

The Lions are off to a historically disastrous start and rank last league-wide in several defensive categories, including points per game (31.8), yards per game (423.8), explosive play rate against (15.3%), and third-down efficiency (52.8%). Asked where he can even start to put the pieces back together when it looks that bad, Campbell said, “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 … pre-snap penalties,” Campbell said. “We’re putting ourselves in a bind, you know? And I understand, you’re gonna get some calls that happen on defense that are gonna happen on defense if you want to … try to play a little more sticky coverage. That’s not what I’m talking about.

“Now, those things can come up, but you need to be able to eliminate those other things to where now, all of a sudden, you just gave up a free five (yards), one way or another … and that’s really where we got in trouble is with this, we just kind of imploded a little bit at different times, and we weren’t able to counter because of that.

“So to me, that’s the starting point with all of this.”

There is work to do regarding offense, special teams, and general team discipline. The team shot itself in the foot offensively at many different points in last night’s game, and the miscues were at least partially responsible for the Lions not being able to keep up with a red-hot Panthers offense. He also addressed it on Sunday night, saying the discipline issues are “100% on me.”

But it seems telling that Campbell doesn’t seem to have any concrete answers about how to fix his defense other than remaining committed to continue trying.

“We may tweak some of this personnel that we got here a little bit, see if we can mix it up some, and then we’ll go from there,” Campbell said, finally addressing the defensive aspect of how he can turn around the league’s worst defense.

The problem is the Lions have already done that. They benched cornerback Rock Ya-Sin for Roger McCreary and Ennis Rakestraw to no avail, save a few less defensive holding penalties. They benched linebacker Devin White, only for the run defense to look the exact same against the Panthers as it did in the game before White got benched. None of it is working. There’s only so many players who can come out of the starting lineup.

The one firm answer he’s given to schematic changes involved playing more man defense, which Detroit did a ton of last season and had similar results. When Panthers quarterback Bryce Young saw man-to-man coverage on Sunday night, he was 5-for-7 for 69 yards, two touchdowns, 9.9 yards per attempt and a passer rating of 142.3.

Campbell said he understands fans’ concern about the defense after seeing the same story over and over again. 

“I get that. Man, I know there’s some frustration, there’s a lot of worry, there’s a lot of anxiety over what it is, but I’m a big believer that we can improve what’s here right now,” Campbell said. “… And it’s not just defense, it’s us as a team.”

Truthfully, Campbell probably isn’t wrong to focus on the discipline and offensive problems. He’s an offensive-minded head coach with a CEO archetype, which gives him a better opportunity to fix those problems with a hands-on approach. But this team likely doesn’t have a shot of getting into the playoffs, let alone competing for a Super Bowl, until the defense sees a major improvement.

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

@nolanbianchi

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Dan Campbell pins Lions’ turnaround hopes on areas other than defense