You could hear the passion in Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell’s voice Tuesday morning as he faced another barrage of questions about the team’s lackluster start to the season, this time courtesy of John Jansen and Jim Costa, the hosts of 97.1’s morning show The Ticket. As the interview progressed, Campbell became more and more passionate in his responses, even admitting at the end of the interview: “I’m excited, man. I am. I’m moving forward, not backward.”
Here’s a look at the key takeaways from Campbell’s radio appearance.
He does not accept the mediocrity of the offense
Campbell received some criticism for continuing to point out that the offense needs to be better, when the Lions’ defense is arguably the worst in the league. On Tuesday, Campbell set the record straight, emphasizing that the offense is too talented to accept what was a relatively mediocre performance. When asked if the defense puts too much pressure on the offense to be perfect, this is Campbell’s emphatic response.
“If you want to be great, they should want to score at least 35 points a game. That’s what greatness is. That’s what they’re accused of. We have a lot of weapons on offense, and if we have to accept mediocrity, then no. So yes, we can find all the excuses in the world. But if we want to spit and spit and be average, that’s one thing.
“We’re not going to be average. We’re going to raise the level of these guys. Man, we’re going to push them.
“We have too much going on offensively right now. Our quarterback is too good. Our playmakers are too good. And we have a young, hungry offensive line that has a lot of room to grow.”
Although the offense ranks top 10 or top five in many statistics, there are significant areas for improvement that could be described as average. In the running game, they are just 16th in yards per carry (4.2) and 17th in rushing EPA. They’re also only 14th in third-down conversion rate (39.1%), and they reached 3rd at 17th.
Where the defense needs to improve the most
Jansen started the interview by asking Campbell if he could pick one thing the defense could improve on this week; what would it be? Campbell’s response was familiar:
“I want our guys to be where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. We have to be on top. Our discipline has to clean up,” Campbell said.
This matches almost verbatim what Campbell said after Detroit’s loss to the Bills in Week 2.
“Be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there and do it with urgency at every level,” Campbell said after the Bills game.
As for what makes players out of place, Campbell listed a few things. On the one hand, players compensate for other players’ mistakes. Then he thinks that Leos become unruly with their eyes.
“Probably boots (legs), dirty eyes on some things,” Campbell said. “The slam boots, the overs. That’s where we get into trouble a bit. It’s not really man coverage or match coverage.”
Ultimately, Campbell believes that despite the coverage issues, they have competent players in the building.
“Inevitably, someone will be locked in one-on-one with no help, and you have to win. And we have the guys who can win,” Campbell said.
Looking for someone on defense to step up against tight ends
We talked last week about the Lions’ struggles against tight ends. With one of the best tight ends in Trey McBride on deck for Cardinals week, the radio hosts asked Campbell how they planned to prepare. He gave a rather unique answer:
“You know what I want? I want someone to come tomorrow and say, ‘I want McBride.’ That’s what I want,” Campbell said. “I want to know who our defender will be.”
When asked who he would prefer that player to be, he replied: “Anyone.”
On defending Kelvin Sheppard
Campbell noted that he certainly understands all the criticism of Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, given the results and statistics. But he supported Sheppard wholeheartedly.
“I believe in Kelvin Sheppard, and I believe we have a lot of work to do with this defense right now. Like I said, we’re going to continue to refine. We have more things we can do with what we have here. There are some different decisions, we have to be more disciplined, and then we’re going to give some guys more opportunities to play here. We’re going to find the right recipe.
“Here’s what I know: At a crucial moment in this game the other day, at the end of the game with our defense on the field, we made two critical stops. This is what I know. So at the end of the day, after all of that, we had a chance to win this game and we couldn’t close it out. So I’ll take that.”
You can watch the full interview below:
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