ALLEN PARK — A day after a 27-13 loss at Green Bay, Lions coach Dan Campbell said it’s back to basics for his defending NFC North champs.
“We had a lot of things where fundamentally we were off. We have to get our fundamentals back, we have to go back to work because it really is that simple,’’ Campbell said on Monday. “Nothing is easy about it, but it is that simple to diagnose. The way you do it is to go back to work.’’
His list of deficiencies included not being good enough on third down on either side of the ball; digging themselves a hole early that they weren’t able to get out of; costly miscommunications at the worse times; and a few penalties that bit them;
“It wasn’t clean. We didn’t play well,’’ Campbell said. “We have to score 7 when we get in the Red Zone. We have to be able to run the ball.’’
FIVE THOUGHTS FROM CAMPBELL ON MONDAY:
ONE: Missed assignments (MAs) may have been expected from younger players but the number was over the top. “Youth played a part in it, we had some young guys that struggled yesterday. You don’t think it will be — I certainly didn’t go in thinking it would be the best performance that we would have all year — but it wasn’t good enough,’’ Campbell said. “The good news is there’s nowhere to go but up and up we will go.‘’
TWO: The Lions averaged just 2.1 yards per carry, down significantly from 4.7 ypc last season. Running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery returned, but the offensive line had two new faces in Tate Ratledge and Christian Mahogany and, of course, a new coordinator in John Morton. Everything starts with the run so no surprise the offense had its struggles and no gadget or fancy plays like last year. “We have to master bread and butter before you get to the other stuff. The other stuff won’t matter if we can’t find a way to run the football more than 2.1 per carry,’’ Campbell said. “That’s where everything starts for us. If we can’t, you’re out of play action, you’re out of everything.’’
THREE: The miscommunication on the revamped offensive line certainly was partially responsible for the run game issues. Ratledge is a rookie, Mahogany had only started 3 games previously and veteran Graham Glasgow had made the move from guard to center. “A couple times it’s like one guy doesn’t hear the kill or the check and everyone else gets it. Really there’s no excuse for that,’’ Campbell said. “It starts there so we have to make sure we’re as loud as possible passing it down and everybody’s got to get it. We have to make sure everybody gets it.’’
FOUR: Rookie wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa was only on the field for three offensive plays but on one of them he hauled in a beauty of a touchdown catch. TeSlaa missed a day of practice last week with an illness which put him behind. “So it was going to be very limited, but certainly we’d like to use him more. Looks like he’s back and feels pretty good,’’ Campbell said. “It was good to see him make a play. He was only in three plays on offense but he did a good job on those three — made that big catch. We’re going to start trying to get him some reps.’’
FIVE: Continuity is big with Campbell and he is confident it will come. “It just takes a minute — real bullets, full speed, real opponents, working together, then you find your groove, you find your rhythm,’’ Campbell said. “All I’m concerned about is that I want to get significantly better than last week. I want to cut our MAs in half, I want to be much more efficient and productive, find a way to get some takeaways and protect the football. Then we’ll go from there and get better the next week.’’
UP NEXT: Chicago Bears at Lions, 1 p.m.. on Sunday at Ford Field.
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