Many times, the key to going far in the NFL is simply knowing how to bounce back from certain losses during the season. That’s exactly what the Detroit Lions did, as after falling to the Bills, they defeated the Bears in a crucial divisional matchup. Despite this, head coach Dan Campbell knows that if they want to achieve their ultimate goal of reaching the Super Bowl, there are still areas that need improvement.
During his weekly interview with 97.1 The Ticket, the coach made it clear that while he feels well supported on the offensive side by Jared Goff and his teammates, certain aspects need to be improved on defense, particularly in the pass game.
“There’s these things that, we’ve got to finish a little bit in the pass game. Look, we’re handling the run game well, and we really for the most part made them one-dimensional. Man, the effort’s outstanding, our physical nature,” Campbell started.
“But then there’s some things in the pass game — we get these guys in first, second-and-long, we’ve got to be able to get off the field. Or, if it’s second down, keep them in third-and-long. Up front, when we run our games, we run our stunts, we have to be pinpoint in how we run those things. The detail at which we run them and how we run them has got to be dead-on to create disruption up front. Those are things that we can get better at just as a starting point,“ he also added.
“There’s some things, leverage-wise, on the back-end that we’re better than, that we need to clean up. But all in all, the coverage is pretty damn good. We’re sticky, moving Amik outside was awesome, and Branch at nickel. We’re playing pretty good there in the back-end right now, so just the little things. Things that don’t require talent, is what we’ve got to be better at,” the HC finally concluded.
The key return of Ifeatu Melifonwu
Ifeatu Melifonwu was one of the pleasant surprises for the Lions at a very crucial point in the season, where big things are decided. The talented safety missed the first 14 games of the regular season, and his return to the field was celebrated by his head coach.
“Good to get Iffy back. We had tried to get him up before, but had another injury, another set-back. But he’s been training, he’s been running,” Campbell said. “Just hasn’t had a lot of football since early, early training camp. So we did feel good about his conditioning, he’s been in the meetings, he’s had the right mindset and so we just felt like, ‘Man let’s give him a go as long as practice looks good.’ His feet are under him, he’s confident about going and playing.”
“Man, I thought it was steady. It was a solid performance,” Campbell said. “He’s a little rusty, and he should be rusty, but there’s things in there that are very promising and he’s only gonna get better getting his legs back under him.”
Detroit Lions upcoming games
Only two games remain the Detroit Lions, whose main goal is to firmly take control of the NFC North. First, they will travel to San Francisco to face the 49ers on Monday, December 30th.
The last game of the regular season, and perhaps the most important one so far, will take place on January 5th, when they host Sam Darnold’s Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field. It will be there that we will finally know who will be crowned as the number one team in the division.