Tag: minnesota vikings

Lions coach Dan Campbell remains confident after loss to Bears

Tough 4-game schedule looms, starting with Broncos

ALLEN PARK — After a dismal 28-13 loss at the Chicago Bears, all is not lost for the Lions this season. The playoffs remain a possibility. However with losses in two of the last three games, the road to finish the season could be bumpy.

The Lions, still atop the NFC North, have four games remaining and none will be easy. First, they host the Denver Broncos (7-6) on Saturday night at Ford Field. The Broncos have won six of their last seven thanks, in large part, to their defense. They’re coming off a 24-7 win at the Los Angeles Chargers where they forced two turnovers and sacked Chargers’ quarterbacks six times.

The Lions face the Vikings (7-6) in two of the last three games. In-between — on Dec. 30 —  they head to Dallas where the Cowboys (10-3) are coming off a big 33-13 win over the Eagles (10-3).

Coach Dan Campbell remains confident they can turn this around and win like they did earlier in the season.

“I know this, if you’ve got the right guys, the right coaches, you’ll find your way out of it,’’ Campbell said on Monday.

He said the key is to stay consistent.

“We start acting like the house is burning down, it’s going to get worse. We know what we’ve got to do, I know exactly what we have to do. I know this, it all starts (Tuesday), we’ve got to go back to work,’’ Campbell said. “We’ve got to put together a great game plan. We’re on a short week, this team is playing at a high level, they get takeaways (No. 1 in the league) they’re efficient on offense, so we have our hands full.’’

He said the good thing is it’s all in their hands.

“Honestly the teams that are winning and consistently win are the ones that do the little, little things right,’’ Campbell said. “The fundamentals, they take care of the football, they get takeaways. Those are the most consistent teams. All we have to do is get back to that, playing clean football. And it really is as simple as that. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it is that simple. It’s all in our hands, it’s all in our control and that’s the great thing about it.”

NEXT UP: Broncos at Lions, 8:15 p.m. on Saturday at Ford Field.

Detroit Lions’ penalties, turnovers lead to 28-13 loss at Chicago Bears

Dan Campbell said lack of discipline was the culprit

A few weeks ago, the Lions needed a last-minute touchdown to beat the Chicago Bears. 

On Sunday at Soldier Field, it was a different story. Self-inflicted wounds — eight penalties and three turnovers — buried the Lions. 

Down six points at the start of the fourth, the Lions could not get anything going and left the Windy City with a 28-13 loss. It was the Lions’ second loss in three games. 

“That’s a tough pill to swallow, but it is what it is. I thought we played hard, I thought we did some really good things at times. But honestly it was the discipline. The penalties cost us today, that’s the story of the game,’’ coach Dan Campbell said.

While Detroit (9-4) is still atop the NFC North, they have lost two division games and will face the Minnesota Vikings twice in the last three games. 

The Bears weren’t flawless but they did not turn the ball over and they only had four penalties.

“I’m not in panic mode, I’m not losing confidence. We’re good, we’ve got four to go. All we’ve got to do is get our discipline back and continue to fight like we fight,’’ Campbell said. “It wasn’t our day today, we didn’t handle it. When you do that to yourself against a good team, that’s what happens and this is a good team. We’ll clean it up and move on, that’s what competitors do.’’

Campbell said he will need to be a little more irritable to get the team back to a more disciplined mode. 

Five of the reasons the Lions lost:

1. The Lions defense could not stop quarterback Justin Fields. He’s more of a threat rushing, but can also find an open receiver when under pressure. He’s not one of the best QBs in the league, but he seems to mystify the Lions defense. They should have been better prepared. He finished 19-33 for 223 yards, one passing TD, 58 rushing yards and one rushing TD. “The discipline, that’s the biggest thing. Early in that game, Field is running around, he got us a few times, then we settled in on defense,’’ Campbell said. “I thought we played pretty good. The second half we got put in some tough spots but all in all we just couldn’t score enough points either.’’

2. Jared Goff was just off. He threw two interceptions and lost a fumbled snap. That’s easy to diagnose. But he also had trouble finding open receivers and if he found them they had a problem holding onto the ball. He went to WR Amon-Ra St. Brown twice in the fourth quarter and he couldn’t hold on to either one. He was 20-35 for 161 yards, one TD and two interceptions. “You get in this type of game with that type of wind and you don’t want to be living in these passing downs, these second-and-longs, third-and-longs, that’s where we had to function because we weren’t good enough on some of our first-down efficiency,’’ Campbell said. “That’s where we’ve been good.’’

3. The offensive line was without center Frank Ragnow, so Graham Glasgow moved to center and Kayode Awosika got his first start at right guard. They opened the lanes for the running backs who amassed 140 rushing yards against the NFL’s top rushing defense. Goff was sacked four times. Still Campbell thought they protected well. “It’s the nature of that type of weather. You’ve got a passing game like ours, you try to play with timing and rhythm it’s not the easiest thing to do,’’ the coach said.

4. The third quarter continues to be 15 minutes of miserableness for the Lions who led 13-10 at the half. Sunday they had zero first downs in the third. They got the ball to start it and could do nothing with it and the defense allowed 18 second-half points. So far this season the Lions have been outscored 84-46 in the third quarter, while they’ve got the scoring edge in the other three quarters.

5. The defense had a few good stretches, but inconsistency has been an issue most of the season, even during wins. With the talent available, more is expected. They did get to Field – sacking him three times and pressuring him often but he was able to overcome that too often. Early in the second quarter they stopped DJ Moore on a fourth-and-1 run. Momentum seemed to shift for the remainder of the half, but it didn’t last into the third.

UP NEXT: Denver Broncos at Lions on Saturday, Dec. 16, at 8:15 p.m.

2023 Lions schedule features 5 nationally televised games

Season starts at Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champs

Amazing what winning will do to give an NFL team a schedule with five nationally televised games.

After winning eight of their last 10 games last season and barely missing the playoffs, the NFL has taken notice of the Detroit Lions. After one nationally televised game in 2022 (on Thanksgiving), the Lions will have at least five in 2023 starting with the opener at the Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 7.

While the NFL had several other solid potential matchups for the Chiefs’ opener, they chose the Lions.

“We really like that narrative around that team, the culture they’re building there, the way they finished that season 8 wins out of their last 9 or 10 games. The last time we saw them on national television was the last game, Game 272 of the regular season, and they were beating the Packers in Lambeau to keep Aaron Rodgers  out of the playoffs,’’ NFL vice president of broadcast Onnie Bose told the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday. 

“We really like that there’s a lot of energy there and we feel really good about starting the season with that energy against the Super Bowl champs,’’ Bose added.

The last time the Lions played at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium was on Dec. 14, 2003. The Chiefs won 45-17.

The Lions will play in one Monday night game at home to the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 30. They’ll travel to Dallas for a Saturday night game on Dec. 30.

Detroit will head to Green Bay for a Thursday night game on Sept. 28. And then they will welcome the Packers to Ford Field for Thanksgiving. The Lions were 2-0 against the Packers last season including the season-ending win that kept the Packers out of the playoffs.

The Lions enter the season as favorites in the NFC North after a 5-1 mark in the division in 2022.

Times and dates for two home games against Denver in Week 15 and the Vikings in Week 18 have not been determined.

Detroit Lions 2023 schedule:

— Week 1: Thursday, Sept. 7 at Kansas City Chiefs, 8:20 p.m. (NBC)

—  Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 17 vs. Seattle Seahawks, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 24 vs. Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 4: Thursday, Sept. 28 at Green Bay Packers, 8:15 p.m. (Amazon Prime)

— Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 8 vs. Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 6: Sunday, Oct. 15 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 22 at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 8: Monday, Oct. 30 vs. Las Vegas Raiders, 8:15 p.m. (ESPN)

— Week 9: BYE WEEK

— Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 12 at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:05 p.m. (CBS)

— Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 19 vs. Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 12: Thursday, Nov. 23 vs. Green Bay Packers, 12:30 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 13: Sunday, Dec. 3 at New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 10 at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 15: TBD, vs. Denver Broncos, TBD (TBD)

— Week 16: Sunday, Dec. 24 at Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m. (FOX)

— Week 17: Saturday, Dec. 30 at Dallas Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. (ESPN)

— Week 18: TBD, vs. Minnesota Vikings, TBD (TBD)