The Lions don't plan to stop the aggression on offense despite how well they're playing on defense, and they shouldn't

On Sunday night, the Detroit Lions lost a game that everyone knew was going to be a tough one. In that game, it felt like there were multiple times in which the Lions simply shot themselves in the foot by trying to be overly aggressive.

There was the fake punt that failed, trying Gibbs up the middle on fourth-and-1 when you just got stuffed on third-and-1, and going for the home run ball on fourth-and-short instead of simply trying to convert with a short-yardage play. The Lions' offense struggled all night, and that's understandable, but the way their defense played was remarkable.

All the talk now is about how the Lions' offense had a bad night, but the Eagles were 4-15 on third down, 0-1 on fourth, and were 1-3 in the red zone. The Lions' defense played a masterful game. So why did the Lions not simply punt in some of these fourth-down situations and live to fight another day? Is this how it's going to be going forward?

Lions head coach Dan Campbell says the Lions will continue to play their game on offense, despite how well the defense is playing

Campbell was asked earlier in the week if he plans to scale down the aggression, and this was his response:

“No. I think some of it is the – that was a little unique yesterday, some of the areas we were at. You’re a little bit in no man’s land, you’re on the road, some of that – we got wind in our face, these aren’t easy field goals, and yet you’re in manageable fourth-and-2, fourth-and-3, fourth-and-4. And so, that’s what makes it – now, we could punt it. We did that one time, but yet you’re almost too tight on some of those, too. So, to me, it made sense to do that at the time. Is it always going to be that way? No, it’s not always going to be that way. Look, I look at everything, I think about it. And certainly, I mean you go oh-for-five on fourth down – for the times it’s gone right and we’ve had success, we were as far from that as you could be yesterday.”

Campbell went on 97.1 The Ticket on Tuesday morning and doubled down on that. The Lions don't have any plans to stop being aggressive, but there are some calls that Campbell wishes he could have back. The fake punt is one of them.

You might not want to hear it now, but it's good the Lions don't plan to stop being aggressive on these fourth downs. Before they went 0-5 in this one, they were converting on 72.2% of their fourth-down attempts. They were making it happen on these things, and they shouldn't give up on it completely after one bad game.

Going forward, it wouldn't hurt to be smarter about what you do in these moments, though. The Lions have to stop going for the big play on fourth down. It's just not working, and maybe it's a recency bias thing, but I can't really recall any time that the Lions tried to take a big bite on fourth down and got it. My head is full of examples where they called a play that was just enough, and converted and kept the drive going, though. There are a lot of those examples.

The Lions are going to stay the team that's brought them this far over the last few years, and they should keep doing that. Just playing it smart is the only shift that needs to be made.

This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Nov 18, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.