ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Dan Campbell hears the noise, the newfound questions, the lingering doubt and the teetering perception of his team from outsiders. It all comes at a pertinent time. December is almost upon us, and Campbell’s Detroit Lions haven’t played their best football recently. Far from it, in fact.
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But these are the moments Campbell appreciates, because it lets him know how his team is truly wired.
“I love this,” Campbell said Monday. “I’m serious. I love this and I love that, man, it’s doom and gloom outside our building. We’ve got six to go, we’ve got an unbelievable opportunity and man, I love it. I really do, man.”
For those keeping score at home, that’s three “mans” in a sentence — a sign Campbell is speaking from a place of confidence. He and his group gained valuable experience around this juncture a year ago, when they surged at the right time and finished the season as a team nobody wanted to face. The Lions won eight of their final 10 games and five of their six games from December on, as their postseason push came up just short.
But what we’re seeing now is new territory for Campbell and all parties involved. For more reasons than one.
This season, the Lions have become a measuring stick for teams in the division. They entered the year as the NFC North favorites and have played like it, en route to an 8-3 record and first-place status in the division. With that comes new challenges for a young group getting its first taste of football as a winner.
“We’ve had some success up to this point,” quarterback Jared Goff said Thursday, after the Lions lost 29-22 to the Green Bay Packers. “We’re 8-3 … teams are going to give us their best shot. We’re leading our division. This is a divisional opponent. They came in ready to play and did a great job. I don’t know if it changes how we approach the game. We’re still hunting a whole lot. We’re still hunting first overall in our division and then whatever we can get after that. But, yeah, it’s a long road ahead and we’d like to still be on the offense of hunting what we’re trying to get.”
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In some ways, it’s a budding sign of respect, hearing the way teams talk about the Lions these days. After a narrow loss to them on Nov. 19, the narrative out of Chicago was that the Bears and head coach Matt Eberflus blew a chance at a signature win, amid a season in which he desperately needs one. Imagine that. The Detroit Lions — another franchise’s signature win.
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If you listened to postgame comments out of the Green Bay locker room on Thursday, you’d think this was a revenge game. A young team eager to prove itself after a 34-20 September loss to the Lions, it was clear the Packers (5-6) wanted this one. They believe it can propel them forward, as they push for a playoff spot in the NFC.
“It’s huge,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said after the win. “Obviously, this is a big game, conference game, against a really good Lions team. So, it’s huge just being able to come up here and put up the performance we did and finish this game off. Obviously, we all know what happened the first time we played them, so just being able to bounce back and find a way to win this game and have a great performance in all three phases was huge and it’s going to continue to give us that confidence going forward next week.”
When asked about the new territory he finds himself in as the head coach of a team on top of the divisional pedestal, Campbell said the approach doesn’t change. Instead, he opted to cut through the noise and highlight the football reasons his team hasn’t lived up to expectations. He believes it’s more self-inflicted than anything.
“I went back and after watching it, I’m actually more encouraged because, to me, it’s not what it appears to be,” Campbell said. “It’s turnovers. … (We gave) up four against Chicago, three against Green Bay and (have) only gotten one back. That’s the major issue right now. So, we can talk about all these other things, but until we clean that up, the other parts of this are a little bit irrelevant.”
Jared Goff’s fumble on Thursday led to a Packers touchdown. (Lon Horwedel / USA Today)Detroit’s seven turnovers over the last two weeks are tied for the most in the NFL. Opponents have scored 16 points off those turnovers — fourth-most in the league during that span. On the other side, the Lions have taken the ball away just once. Their turnover margin of minus-6 is the second-worst in the league since Week 11.
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When the Lions went on their 8-2 run last season, ball security and takeaways helped them get there. From Weeks 9-18, the Lions had the fewest turnovers (four) and the sixth-most takeaways (16) — a plus-12 turnover margin that was second in the NFL behind the San Francisco 49ers.
The Lions have gotten away from the efficiency that propelled them to this point. Few teams, if any, can expect to win regularly while turning the ball over at the rate the Lions have. And yet, Detroit’s point differential the last two weeks is only minus-2. That speaks to a team playing some of its worst ball, still competing in spite of it.
It’s what gives the Lions confidence that better days are ahead, if they get back to their brand of football.
“We just need to do a better job of executing the little stuff and not turning the ball over,” running back Jahmyr Gibbs said Thursday.
“I feel like we’re very close,” safety Kerby Joseph said. “You’ve got to be at the right spot at the right time. When your turnover comes, you’ve gotta make the play. You’ve got to, because your brothers depend on it.”
And so, here the Lions are, December right around the corner, hoping to recapture some of last year’s magic that set the tone for the season ahead. There are many coaches who can get a losing team trending in the right direction, as Campbell did a year ago. But the next step in Campbell’s evolution is getting a team with meaningful expectations to play its best football when it matters most.
The Lions, who visit the New Orleans Saints (5-6) on Sunday, believe they have the answers to the test. They believe they can compete with anyone when they’re playing at their best. And they believe this final six-game stretch will reveal who they truly are — one way or another.
“This is (when) we find out what we’re made of — and, really, everybody in this league, for that matter,” Campbell said. “There’s teams that will begin to rise and teams that will fall out of this. And I love our team. I love where we’re at. I know the guys that we have in the locker room, I know these coaches, so this will be good.”
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(Top photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
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