Lions’ Dan Campbell: We’re Not Playing Complimentary Football

Following the Detroit Lions’ 32-26 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday Night Football, Lions head coach Dan Campbell addressed the media and had a lot to say about the team.

Campbell has been the head coach for the Detroit Lions for six seasons and is looking at how the team is playing in totality. Campbell believes that the team’s issues come down to not playing complementary football:

“We have to play a lot smarter than we are right now in areas. Really across the board. We have to get things cleaned up. That’s really where we’re at right now.”

While not attacking players or coaches, Campbell realizes that the team, on both sides of the ball, isn’t playing their best game, and the same problems show up week after week. The Lions are still generating a ton of points, but aren’t controlling the game clock. The team is giving up the most yards, points, first downs, and conversions across the board, but Campbell still has the belief that the team can improve. Aside from the lack of sync, Campbell thinks that, particularly on defense, the lack of defensive plays for either interceptions or fumbles is impacting play.

“We’re not in flow right now, obviously. And we need to get takeaways on defense; that’s going to help out a lot here.”

The Significance of Dan Campbell’s Comments

While Campbell is right that the team isn’t taking away the football, whether scheme or talent- likely both- the Lions can’t make a game-changing play if their careers depended on it. Whether it’s the scheme or the personnel, it’s not working. Detroit looks like a shell of itself, and that the league has caught up to them.

Detroit definitely still has talent, as the team they’re paying for are among the top positional threats in the NFL, but at six years in, fans are wondering if personnel works, if the coaching works, or if it’s time for the rebuild.