Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell spoke to the media Monday following last Thursday's loss in Buffalo and ahead of the New York Jets coming to Ford Field on Sunday.
Here are all the key questions from Campbell's Monday presser:
After a long weekend to evaluate the first two games, what do the Lions need to clean up moving forward?
1. Missed assignments
Campbell thinks the Lions have beaten themselves too many times to begin the season. He addressed the team about it Monday. He said there could be some players who haven't gotten many opportunities to play the first couple weeks getting more chances moving forward, maybe as soon as this week against the Jets.
2. Third and fourth down
Defensively, Detroit's allowing conversions on third down at a 58.6 percent clip, which ranks 30th in the NFL. Opponents are 2-for-2 converting on fourth down. Offensively, the Lions have converted nine of their 24 third-down attempts (37.5 percent), which ranks 17th. They are 2-for-2 on fourth down.
3. Run game efficiency
Opponents are averaging 147.0 yards per game on the ground against Detroit's defense. That ranks 27th in the league after two weeks. Detroit's offense averages 115.0 yards on the ground over the first couple of weeks. That's good for 12th best in the league.
4. Explosive plays
There were too many explosives allowed by the defense, headlined by the 10 pass plays of 20-plus yards, which are the most in the NFL. Campbell also said he'd like the offense to generate more explosives than they have through two games.
5. Red zone
Detroit ranks 30th after allowing nine touchdowns in 10 opponent trips into the red zone. Five of those have been via the pass and four the run. He said the offense has been OK in the red zone as the Lions rank seventh (77.8 percent). However, he talked about the 1st & goal from the one-yard line Week 1 and how not converting there changed the dynamic of the game.
6. Penalties
Detroit has 18 penalties in two games and Campbell takes issue with 14 of those. He listed four false starts, three offensive holdings, three defensive holdings, one defensive offside, one facemask, one delay of game and a landing zone infraction on a kickoff as unacceptable penalties to him.
"Those are the most notable," Campbell said of the six issues discussed. "But it's all correctable. So, that's what we're going to do.
"Inevitably, doesn't make it right, but what happens is you get hit on a couple of things and all the sudden someone tries to cover for you … and now you just created a ripple effect. Unfortunately, I've seen this a number of times with offense, defense, other teams and we have to get our trust level back. We have to start back from ground level. Get back to the basics of what we do."
Is there an update on defensive back Avonte Maddox?
Maddox left the Buffalo game with a foot injury. Campbell said on Monday that the injury will require surgery, and Maddox is likely done for the season.
Do the Lions plan to bring in more help at the safety position?
The team worked out some veteran players at the Meijer Performance Center Monday morning and are also keeping close tabs on some younger players on other rosters they think could come in, compete and help them, per Campbell.
He said if Detroit signs a player, he'd like it to be early in the week so they can get into the building, get acclimated and go through a full week of practice.
"Right now, we have Chuck (Clark) and Izzy (Christian Izien) and (Thomas) Harper but we need to bring in some fresh players and get a look at them," Campbell said. "We're going to do a couple things defensively, we're going to move some guys around, we're going to give some guys some more opportunities to play here and shake it up a bit."
This also ties into the most recent update on the potential return of Kerby Joseph (knee) and Brian Branch (Achilles). New NFL PUP rules allow players to return to practice after two weeks even though they can't return to game action until sitting out the first four games. Campbell said he doesn't expect either Joseph or Branch back at practice this week.
"Until we can get the knee to a certain point where it feels strong, as strong as we can possibly get it, and he feels comfortable, we're not going to put him out there until he's ready," Campbell said of Joseph in particular.
Campbell said Branch will likely be back before Joseph but doesn't have an exact timetable for that just yet.
What is Campbell's confidence level in defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard?
The Lions currently rank 31st in points allowed (35.5), 31st in total defense (457.5), 31st in passing defense (310.5) and have allowed the most completions of 20-plus yards in the NFL with 10. It's been a tough start on that side of the football.
It's only been two weeks, and Campbell sees a lot of correctable issues.
"Because he knows what he's doing, man," Campbell said in support of Sheppard. "I think that he understands and has a real good grasp of – look, there are so many things that we came into this year from last year that we wanted to do. And one of the big boxes on that we wanted to check was being much more aggressive, 1st & 10 to get them in 2nd & 7-plus. We lead the league in that.
"Now, after that, OK, I got that. So, we've done the hard part here. And so, now we got to clean up some of this. We got them in 2nd & 10, we got them in 2nd & 8. Now they're in 3rd & 8, 3rd & 7. So, now it's all right. Now once we get them there, now what do we need to change? What do we need to do? What kind of packages do we need to run? And tighten up some of the players here on a few things.
"So, I believe he's got a real good grasp of what offenses are trying to do. I think he's got a good grasp of his own personnel. I think he's doing a lot of the way we want to play here. And you know what? It didn't work the other night and we didn't coach it up good enough. And then we'll adjust a little bit. We'll adjust and we'll get this thing back to where we need to get it. And it's not going to all happen overnight, but as long as we just tighten a few things up and play a little bit better and a little more sound, that'll go a long way."
