For as good as all of that sounds for Dan Campbell’s team, it is also true that Detroit hasn’t truly played a complete game since before its bye. It soundly defeated the Las Vegas Raiders, 26-14, in its final contest before the bye week.
Since then, Aaron Glenn’s defense has failed the Lions time and time again, allowing 334 or more yards in each contest from Week 10 on.
The defense’s latest letdown came this past weekend in New Orleans. After jumping out to a 24-7 halftime lead, the Lions, on the heels of little-to-no resistance from Glenn’s unit, were outscored, 14-3, in the third quarter. And, the Saints’ “Swiss-Army knife,” Taysom Hill, made it a three-point game, with a 1-yard rushing score, with a little under 4:40 to play in the third quarter.
Now, Detroit did hold on for its fifth road victory of the season. But, as Campbell told reporters Monday, it wasn’t a good enough performance from his team.
“We’ve got to clean up our own issues. But, I believe we will and we can,” the third-year Lions head man said. “So, we may tinker a couple of things this week, but we’ll see down the road. It’s a good win by the guys, but it’s not good enough. It’s not good enough, and our guys know that. There’s more out there, and we want more. And, they’ll be ready to go this week, man. Chicago, we know what they are, and they’re coming off a bye. This’ll be a big week for us.”
Most notably, the Lions struggled coming out of halftime Sunday. They allowed 254 net yards of offense and three touchdown drives, and were outscored by New Orleans in the second half, 21-9.
In the aftermath of Detroit’s Week 13 win over the Saints, Campbell admitted that he might need to re-think his post-halftime strategy in future games.
“So, look, we know they’re going to adjust,” Campbell said. “But, I would say some of it is, alright, you come in knowing they’re going to adjust and this is what we do. But, it’s also, alright, we wanted to set them up with these plays. Then, you come out in the second half, and now we’re going to throw this at them. So, you already kind of have an idea of what you want to do. Well, maybe, we need to go back, and say, ‘Alright, let’s not worry about these second-half openers that we were going to do that’ – you throw the first curveball, you throw the second. It needs to be more about what they did in the first half.
“But, you constantly play that game. This isn’t the first time that’s come up. I mean, New Orleans was the same thing. You always, you play that balancing act. (Do) you continue to play the chess game within, or do you stay true to what you felt like you needed to do going into the game?”
