'I believe in Kelvin Sheppard': Lions' Dan Campbell doubles down in support

Second-year Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard is under fire from the fan base and from NFL experts as his unit has sunk to the bottom of the league in a number of key defensive statistics.

Detroit ranks 31st in scoring defense (31.8 points per game) and last in both passing defense (304 passing yards allowed per game) and in total defense (423.8 yards per game allowed).

It’s the first time since the 2008 season—the Lions‘ infamous 0-16 campaign—that Detroit has surrendered 30 or more points in three of its first four games.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell was quick to shut down the idea of making a change at defensive coordinator following Detroit’s 32-26 Week 4 loss at the Carolina Panthers.

On Tuesday, Campbell backed Sheppard again during his radio appearance on “Costa and Jansen” on 97.1 The Ticket.

“Yeah, I understand all that from afar when you look at it and you look at the numbers,” Campbell said when asked what he would say to fans that think a change needs to be made at defensive coordinator.

“But I believe in Kelvin Sheppard and I believe we’ve got a lot of meat on the bone with this defense right now. Like I say, we’re going to continue to tweak. We’ve got more things that we can do with what we have here. There’s different calls, we’ve got to be more disciplined, and then we’re going to get some guys more opportunities to play here. We’re going to find the right recipe.”

Campbell pointed to the fourth quarter where the Lions’ defense forced a pair of Panthers punts to give Detroit’s offense a chance to go win the game.

“Here’s what I do know. Crunch time in that game the other day, at the end of the game with our defense on the field, we got two critical stops. That’s what I do know. So, at the end of the day, at all of it, we had a chance to win that game and we couldn’t close it out. I’ll take that,” Campbell said.

Detroit (2-2) plays Arizona (1-3) on Sunday, Oct. 11 with kickoff set for 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox.

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