Graham Glasgow – Lions Lowdown

Five things to watch as Lions face Steelers in must-win game; plus injury updates

In a must-win game, the Lions, which have been a resilient team all season, once again need to bounce back after last week’s loss at the Rams.

Detroit hasn’t lost back–to-back games in three years, but in this stretch they also haven’t won back-to-back games.

To have a shot at a wild-card playoff berth the Lions must win their final three games starting with Sunday’s matchup against the Steelers at Ford Field. Then they hit the road at the Vikings on Christmas Day and then at the Chicago Bears on the final weekend.

They have shown glimpses of complementary football — like in the win over Dallas — but inconsistency is an issue. It’s frustrating to Campbell and the whole team.

With the defense giving up 30 or more points in the last three games, the offense’s margin for error is miniscule.

“When you struggle to run the ball, then to keep up or to stay ahead of them, you have to be perfect in the pass game. We have no margin for error to not have a completion, or miss on a shot play, or give up a sack,’’ Campbell said. “Like, we don’t have that. And that’s very difficult if you’re asking that of your pass game in today’s game and the League, the way it’s set up. So, it does, it puts a lot of strain on you.’’

Campbell said it all goes hand-in-hand.

“Offensively we can help the defense, and in turn the defense helps the offense, and then you gain a little confidence, you find your way,’’ the coach said.

Five things to watch:

ONE: The running back talent is there in Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, but they need help and didn’t get it in the loss to the Rams. It’s happened before and they came back and fixed it. “It’s a lot of technique stuff. The scheme is there, it’s good. We just have to make sure we use the right technique coming off the ball so we don’t get beat,’’ offensive coordinator John Morton said. “That’s the biggest thing, that’s the biggest thing. And then sometimes you’ve got to narrow down things so you can make sure you get all the right looks, the certain looks. Sometimes that’s good to be simple. But bottom line, it’s just coming off the ball and using the right technique and being disciplined.’’

TWO: Not all of the Lions woes fall on the shoulders of the defense but no question they need to upgrade their play. They remain confident they can finish the final three game stretch strongly. “Because we’ve seen it all here, collectively. As an organization, as a defensive unit, as a team. We’ve been at the lowest of low where everybody wanted all the players out, all the coaches out,’’ Sheppard said. “And we’ve seen the highest of high where you’re expected to win every football game and play at a high level and then everything in between that. So, we know there’s ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys within the course of a year. You just have to absolutely make sure you’re peaking during this time of the year.’’

THREE: Aaron Rodgers has come on strong at age 42. He’s gone four games without an interception and only seven all season — against 22 touchdown passes. He poses a problem for defenses because he gets rid of the ball so fast. “He’s not hitting the ground, so just focus on how I can affect the game knowing that,’’ Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said. “And these guys are very aware of that. Aaron Rodgers definitely is familiar with our personnel and people and he knows the guys that can affect him in that way. And I would imagine he has a plan. So, it’s not getting caught up in, ‘We need to hit Rodgers.’ Collectively again, as a unit – going into this game, understanding the task at hand. How do we collectively get this mission accomplished? And these guys are doing that thus far in the two days that we’ve been prepping.”

FOUR: With offensive line injuries Jared Goff has seen multiple fronts. He’s seen the pass protection evolve in recent weeks even with the rotation at left guard. It’s questionable if center Graham Glasgow or left guard Christian Mahogany will be available on Sunday. Campbell still wants to see more protection for his quarterback. “You’d love to come out of the season and say there’s no quarterback hits. Well, that’s not reality. But you’re always going to want more. And look, it’s not the easiest thing to roll guards in there,’’ Campbell said. “You get an injury, now it’s a new guard. And now it’s this one, (Trystan) Colon’s in, now (Miles) Frazier’s in. And so, that’s not easy. But I think we’re doing the right thing, and doing what we feel like is giving us the best chance at this point. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s where we’re at and what we need to do.”

FIVE: The defense giving up explosive plays has been an issue the last four games. It’s been a focus but it still a problem. “You see a lot of it’s generated off double moves, leverage, eye discipline, things like that. And then once again, schematically, what can I do to eliminate that? A lot of times if you get double moved and there’s nobody over the top, it’s a touchdown,’’ Sheppard said. “So, just understanding and telling these hard-headed guys that want to play man that, ‘Guys, it’s a time and place for it. But the tape says.’ That’s what I go off of, facts, which is tape in our business. The tape says it’s time to kind of alter a little bit. And that just doesn’t mean we’re going to turn into safeties over the top outfit. There are going to be certain techniques that change within the single-high stuff that can help these guys, and we think we’re all going to benefit from it.”

LIONS INJURIES: OUT — S Kerby Joseph (placed on IR), OL Giovanni Manu; QUESTIONABLE — LT Taylor Decker, C Graham Glasgow, G Christian Mahogany, DB Amik Robertson and OL Trystan Colon.

STEELERS INJURIES: OUT — LB T.J. Watt, G Isaac Seumalo, CB James Pierre; DOUBTFUL — LB Nick Herbig; QUESTIONABLE — LS Christian Kuntz.

PREDICTION: Lions 28, Steelers 24

Five thoughts from Lions Dan Campbell on day after loss to Packers

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.

Lions’ critical, untimely errors costly in opening loss to Green Bay Packers

A breakdown of 5 main reasons for the disappointing opener

Carrying big expectations and back-to-back NFC North titles, the Detroit Lions opened the season with a thud, a big one.

Detroit snapped a 3-game win streak at Lambeau Field with a 27-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

“We didn’t play good enough, we didn’t coach good enough, including me, and we didn’t play good enough,’’ coach Dan Campbell said.

The coach told the team it’s tough to go in and certainly not play close to your best game.

“You hate starting the season out with a loss and as bad as that is, it’s not what it appears to be,’’ Campbell said. “So like I told them, let’s clean up the tape. We made some critical errors at the worst times possible. You don’t do those, you take those out of the equation; it looks different . you feel like it’s going to be a totally different scenario but we did make those critical errors at the worst time.’’

The offense, which didn’t score a touchdown until the waning minutes, could not get in gear.

“We never really got in a rhythm. We did for a couple of drives where we got it down there, then we didn’t finish. We weren’t able to finish with 7. We had to settle for 3, then we had an interception,’’ Campbell said. “Other than that we never got into a rhythm.”

The coach said he thought they would play cleaner but the mistakes are all correctable.

“Our players are accountable, they’re ready. Nobody takes it worse than they do,’’ Campbell said. “That’s the good news, we’ve got the right dudes.’’

FIVE REASONS FOR THE LOSS:

ONE: The new-look offensive line did not get the job done. Not only is the standard high for this unit, but they faced newest Packer Micah Parsons who moved along the line when he was in the game. As expected, he was a huge presence. It was a lot to handle for rookie right guard Tate Ratledge and left guard Christian Mahogany. Center Graham Glasgow was adjusting to taking over at center too. The line’s play was a big reason the run game could not get in a rhythm, averaging just 2.1 yards per rush. “When your run game is not quite clicking the way you want it to, that affects your play pass and then your’re down two scores then those guys are going to pin their ears back and that’s hard on any offensive line,’’ Campbell said.

TWO: On the other side, the Lions defensive pass rush was not effective and the secondary gave up too many big plays. Aidan Hutchinson was in the mix at times but did not record a sack or tackle. In his defense, he is always double-teamed but last season he had 7.5 sacks in five games. Linebacker Derrick Barnes’ pick-six was negated by a holding penalty.

THREE: Jared Goff has had better games, but he’s used to having better protection and more time to throw. He was sacked four times — including a late one by Parsons — and pressured early and often. Goff actually passed for more yards (31-38 for 225 yards) than Jordan Love (16-22 for 188) but Love threw a pair of TD passes. Goff had a late TD pass, but also a critical interception.

FOUR: The offense did move the ball at times and ate up the clock, but couldn’t finish when they got to the Red Zone. New coordinator John Morton can certainly take part of the blame but the players need to look in the mirror.. They were just 1-of-4 in the Red Zone which is not good enough and, worse yet, they were 5-of-15 on third downs. “I thought they had a good plan but that doesn’t take away from us doing what we needed to do,’’ Campbell said.

FIVE: Before the game, Campbell said mistakes were key to the outcome. Six penalties were costly. Mistakes made on both sides of the ball. More was expected. He mentioned “critical errors” several times in his post-game presser but was confident they are correctable.

BONUS: Lions rookie WR Isaac TeSlaa made an amazing touchdown catch late in the game. It was the offensive highlight and a sign of things to come from the Pride of Hudsonville. If you haven’t seen the video, check it out.

UP NEXT: Chicago Bears at Lions, 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14 at Ford Field. The Bears face the Vikings on Monday Night Football in their season opener.