Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell faced a gauntlet of questions on Monday afternoon following the team’s rough performance against the Green Bay Packers. Topics included offensive line woes, pass rush troubles, John Morton’s game plan, and some injury updates.
Here’s a breakdown of the most important takeaways from Campbell’s presser.
Injury updates: Good news for Terrion Arnold, bad news for Jamarco Jones
Campbell confirmed earlier reports that Terrion Arnold’s groin injury is not considered serious. However, his status for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears is still up in the air.
“I don’t feel like this is serious. Now, that doesn’t mean—I can’t say for certain he’ll be ready to go, but I don’t think it’s a serious injury,” Campbell said.
The news wasn’t as good for reserve offensive tackle Jamarco Jones. The veteran lineman suffered an injury during practice last week and was placed on injured reserve on Saturday. As it turns out, Jones’ injury is season-ending, according to Campbell.
Behind Jones, the Lions have second-year tackle Giovanni Manu, who was active for his first career game on Sunday, and Dan Skipper on the practice squad. Skipper missed last week’s practices with an undisclosed injury, but if that’s not considered serious, don’t be surprised if he’s signed to the active roster .
Missed assignments were a problem, and that’s on coaching
The common theme among Campbell’s diagnosis of their issues against the Packers was MAs, or missed assignments.
“We had a lot of MAs, so that tells me that we had too much on their plate, which is my fault,” Campbell said.
Fundamentals were also a problem, according to Campbell. But the Lions coach said the diagnosis is the easy part of fixing the problems. The challenge will be to actually improve.
“Because it really is that simple. Nothing is easy about (fixing) it, but it’s that simple to diagnose,” Campbell said.
Dan Campbell explains the lack of “razzle dazzle” on offense
Lions offensive coordinator John Morton is already coming under fire for what looked like an overly simplistic game plan. When you look at Jared Goff’s passing chart, it reveals a ridiculous majority of passes thrown within the first 5 yards of the line of scrimmage.
So why didn’t the Lions get creative or push the ball downfield more?
“We’ve got to master (our) bread and butter before you get to all the other stuff,” Campbell said. “The other stuff won’t matter if we can’t find a way to run the football (for) more than 2.1 yards per carry. That’s where everything starts for us. If we can’t, then you’re out of play action, you’re out of everything. Guys pin their ears back, and it makes it harder on some of those guys up front.”
As for the lack of deep shots, Campbell noted that they emphasized to Jared Goff that he should check down if the looks weren’t there. They dialed up a few designed deep passes, but either the look wasn’t there or pressure got to Goff early.
More Isaac TeSlaa is coming
TeSlaa had the most exciting play of the game, with an amazing one-handed sideline touchdown grab in garbage time. However, that was just one of three plays the rookie wide receiver played on offense. Going into the week, the plan was to play him more, but an illness early in the week cost him practice time, and the Lions weren’t comfortable throwing him out there.
“We really wanted to try to get him more involved last week, but then he got sick and he missed a lot of practice,” Campbell said. “So then we didn’t feel comfortable trying to load him up with stuff. So it was going to be very limited. But, certainly, we’d like to use him more. There’s something there.”
Lions not ready to shift offensive line, run game identity
It wasn’t a great debut from the Lions’ new offensive line. The team averaged just 2.1 yards per carry and allowed four sacks. But Campbell is willing to be patient with the unit and doesn’t foresee them changing their offensive identity quite yet.
“You really don’t know who you are until Week 5, Week 4, Week 5, maybe Week 6, somewhere in there, as to what you can really hang your hat on,” Campbell said. “Now, as far as our core principles and what I believe in, no. We’ll continue to drive that home and get better in that area, or we’ll do what we have to do to tweak a few things.”
Lions need guys to win their 1-on-1s
Campbell was asked about pass rush failures against the Packers. He credited Green Bay with their ability to pick up blitzes and stunts, but ultimately said they need players who are going to win their one-on-ones, and they are going to work to find those players.
“We’ve got some guys that have to win their one-on-ones. They’ve got to step up and make their plays when they’re there,” Campbell said. “We’ll keep repping it. We’ll keep working it. We’ll keep tweaking with guys, too, and trying to find guys that we can put in one-on-ones and have a chance to win.”
The Lions created just seven team pressures, according to PFF. Two of those came from Aidan Hutchinson, while the other five were split among five different players.
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