Dan Campbell just made an honest admission about how the 2-2 Lions have to win games, and it’s a harsh reality
Detroit is 2-2 after four games that have all felt harder than expected, and Campbell’s message Monday sounded like an acknowledgment that close, imperfect football may be the Lions’ reality for a while.
The Detroit Lions are 2-2, and none of it has felt comfortable. The losses to the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers were ugly. Detroit did pull within 10 against Buffalo, and it had a chance to win against Carolina on Sunday night. Still, nobody walked away from either game feeling good. The wins didn’t feel much better. The Lions beat the New Orleans Saints by one point and the New York Jets by seven. Not super convincing.
Lions coach Dan Campbell met with reporters Monday, and he summed up the whole situation pretty bluntly. He even used the phrase “the bottom line.”
“I think the bottom line, that’s where the league’s at right now. It’s where we’re at right now. And until we find our true footing, man, we’ve got to be ready to win these games in the end of the fourth quarter. You got an opportunity. We need to stop you and you need to find a way to win these games. And it’s going to take all three phases. And then you find your way a little bit. So that’s where we’re at,” Campbell said.
Before that, Campbell said, “I think a lot of our games are going to be this way.”
What Dan Campbell was really saying
Look, Campbell may have pushed back on this reading later. But it sure sounded like a coach who knows exactly what his defensive roster looks like right now and knows what he has to deal with.
That is to say, the defense is going to get beat up, and there isn’t much the Lions can do about it. So if Detroit wants to win, it has to be the best it can possibly be everywhere else.
What the Lions can control are the little things. Campbell brings them up constantly. In this case, he’s right.
The little things are the big things for Detroit now
For starters, the penalties have to stop. I’m talking about the backbreaking, drive-killing penalties. Go back to the Lions’ first two drives on Sunday. They were moving the ball, and then two penalties killed both drives. That’s potentially 14 points left on the table, and those 14 points help you win the game.
Here’s the thing. The Lions have scored only one first-quarter touchdown all season. Just one. You have to start hot. The offense has to be the best it can be, because it can’t wait for the defense to bail it out.
On defense, you have to create turnovers however you can. Campbell pointed out that he thought there were four instances Sunday in which the Lions punched the ball out. If those bounce the right way, you get a turnover. Ennis Rakestraw punched one out, but it went out of bounds. Another punch-out went out of bounds, too.
You have to take advantage of those opportunities when you get them. If you get them.
The Lions can still win the NFC North, but this isn’t a Super Bowl team
I get it. Nobody wants to hear this. But this is not how a Super Bowl team operates. At this point, I think we can stop putting the Lions and the Super Bowl in the same sentence. That changes only if Detroit somehow stops being the worst defense in the league coming out of the bye.
Can you make a trade? Sure. But I think this team is beyond a trade solving it. The defense has a lot of problems, and you start looking toward the 2027 season.
That being said, I think the Lions can still make the playoffs. They can still win the division because nobody in it is playing all that well. I know the Vikings are 4-0, but I don’t believe in them. Their offense has been really bad, and their defense is carrying them. Eventually, that kind of thing stops working. I think the Packers are bad. I think the Bears are bad. I think this whole division is bad.
Detroit is 2-2. The season isn’t over. But this is the harsh reality of what it’s going to look like.
The Lions will have to play the best game they possibly can every week and give themselves a chance in the fourth quarter. Maybe it’s a shootout every single week. If you make fewer mistakes, you get more chances. That’s how this team has to win, because it isn’t going to just go out and stop anyone.
You saw that against all four opponents. Every team went out there and did its job. The Lions got lucky against the Saints, a game that should have been a loss. Against the Jets, they needed one big defensive play, a turnover at the Detroit 28 with New York driving and in position to tie the game.
Campbell is at least being honest about it. He did say the team might settle into a rhythm, find its way to win games, and keep getting better at it. He keeps coming back to the idea that this is the group the Lions want to roll with.
It is what it is. We’ll see where it goes.
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