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 The Ticket morning show. As the interview progressed, Campbell became increasingly passionate with his answers, even admitting at the end of the interview that: “I’m fired up, man. I am. I’m going forward, not back.” On Tuesday, Campbell set the record straight, noting that the offense has too much talent to accept what has been a relatively lackluster performance. When asked if the defense is putting too much pressure on the offense to be perfect, this was Campbell’s emphatic response: “If you want to be great, they should want to score 35 points a game at a minimum. That’s greatness. That’s what they’re accused of. We have a lot of weapons on offense, and if we’re going to accept mediocrity, then no. So yeah, we can make all the excuses in the world. But if we want to spit and sputter and be average, that’s one thing. “We’re not going to be average. Let’s speak up about these guys. Man, let’s push them. “We have too much 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.” While the offense ranks in the top 10 or top five in many statistics, there are some significant areas for improvement that could be described as average. In the running game, they rank 16th in rushing yards (4.2) and 17th in rushing EPA. They’re also just 14th in third-down conversion rate (39.1%), and they’re 17th three-and-out. Where the defense needs to improve the most. Jansen opened the interview by asking Campbell if he could pick one thing for the defense to improve this week; which one 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 need to be on point. Our discipline has to be cleaned up,” Campbell said. This matches almost word for word with 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 across the board,” Campbell said after the Bills game. be out of line, Campbell listed a few things. On the one hand, players are compensating for other players’ mistakes. Next, he believes the Lions are becoming undisciplined with their eyes. “Probably boots (legs), dirty eyes on some things,” Campbell said. “The slam boots, the overs. That’s where we’re getting into trouble a little bit. It’s not really man or match coverage.” Ultimately, Campbell believes that despite the coverage issues, they have capable players in the building. “Inevitably, someone is going to get 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 Cardinals’ top tight ends, Trey McBride, available for the week, the radio hosts asked Campbell how they plan 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’s going to be on our defense.” When asked who he’d prefer that player to be, he responded, “Anybody.” On Kelvin Sheppard’s defense, Campbell noted that he certainly understands all the criticism of Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, given the results and statistics. But he backed Sheppard wholeheartedly. “I believe in Kelvin Sheppard, and I think we have a lot of meat on the bone with this defense right now. Like I said, we’re going to continue adjusting. We have more things we can do with what we have here. There are different decisions, we have to be more disciplined, and then we are going to give some guys more opportunities to play here. Let’s find the right recipe. “This is what I do know: In the crucial moment of that game the other day, at the end of the game with our defense on the field, we made two critical stops. That’s what I do know. So at the end of the day, after all that, we had a chance to win that game and we couldn’t close it out. So I’ll take it.” You can watch the full interview below:
