Against the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions’ defense did not struggle as much as many had thought.
Throughout the Thanksgiving game, the defense was put in dangerous situations by Detroit’s offense and Dan Campbell.
Following Green Bay’s first two touchdowns, the Packers managed to get inside the end zone just once more in the next three quarters as Campbell chose to try a fake punt on Detroit’s own 23-yard line.
Detroit’s third-year head coach expressed he still has confidence that the defense will perform at a high level, following the team’s disappointing home loss to the Packers Thursday
“Here’s what we got to do, we have to get takeaways. We have to, that’s something that we desperately got to work on,” said Campbell. “That’s one of the things we did a really good job of this time last year, once we hit that last call it 10, eight to 10 games, we were getting takeaways. We were playing tough, man. We were pressuring the quarterback, affecting him, but then, man, we were getting these. You’re getting two a game, you’re getting – and that’s where we’re not getting those enough right now.
And in my opinion, that’s a mindset that has to be improved. Have we put any effort into it? Yes, but not in sufficient quantities,” Campbell added. “I think there’s a different way to emphasize it. And if we manage to get one or two of those, we can turn the tide of the game, so in my opinion, that’s where we should put our defensive focus. We have the coaches and the guys, but we still need to improve in that area. We need to figure out how to draw some conclusions.
