Tag: NFL

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.

Detroit Lions draft CB Jeff Okudah who says his technique is his best asset

Cornerback was one-year starter at Ohio State

Jeff Okudah, the Lions first-round draft pick, says his best asset is his technique.

“I try to sharpen my sword every chance that I can I get,’’ Okudah said on a media conference call late Thursday night.

The 6-foot-1 cornerback, a one-year starter at Ohio State, was a natural fit for the Lions who had traded away Darius Slay to the Eagles.

Okudah, who is from Texas, was the third overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft on Thursday night following Joe Burrow who went to Cincinnati and Chase Young who was drafted by the Washington Redskins. 

“It was a feeling I can’t explain. All the hard work, finally I’m getting a chance to get my name called. It was really something I’m going to remember forever,’’ Okudah said.

He became the first cornerback that the Lions have drafted in the first round since 1998 when they selected Terry Fair.

“He’s very aggressive at the line of scrimmage. He’ll play with his hands. He’ll stay square. He’s patient. There’s not a lot of panic down field on some of the shots, really good in transition, has good makeup speed,” coach Matt Patricia said on a Zoom call with WJBK-Fox 2. “Just really overall, hard-working, tough kid, loves to tackle and really just loves the game. He loves to work at the game. Loves to just study every single week. He was outstanding with his recall on his opponents and things like that. Just knew that we had a kid that we thought would be a really good player for us.”

Okudah knew the Lions had interest but didn’t know for certain where he would land.

“I wasn’t really sure of anything coming into tonight because I went into the draft with an open mind, I know a lot of things happen on draft night that are out of your control,’’ Okudah said.

He thinks he can be a good fit in the Lions’ defense, which was ranked 31st in 2019, thanks to his background at Ohio State.

“At Ohio State we played a bunch of coverages. We played Cover 1, Cover 3 and some Cover 4,’’ Okudah said. “I think my background of playing a bunch of defenses. I’m pretty confident I can go in there and be able to learn the defense.’’ 

It’s going to be all different this spring with the possibility of no team workouts due to the coronavirus shutdowns. Even training camp and the season are question marks.

He wants to learn from veteran corner Desmond Trufant who was signed by Detroit as a free agent.

“I want to be around him a lot, I want to soak up everything he knows, things he wishes he could have done differently, I want to use his trial and testimonies to maybe avoid going through some of the same things,’’ Okudah said.

He was known at Ohio State as being studious and prepared. 

On SiriusXMNFL when asked if he was ready to be a lock-down corner for the Lions, Okudah said: “It’s definitely a big challenge. I’m just ready to go into that locker room, begin to earn my teammates’ respect and that’ll be the first step. We’ll go from there after that.’’

He can make an immediate impact, but the Lions will have a chance to work him in slowly since they signed Trufant.

Remember, Darius Slay only started four of the 13 games he played as a rookie. He wasn’t Big Play Slay right out of the gate. Obviously it didn’t mean the Lions had given up on him, but rather they gave him time to soak it all in. 

Cornerback is one of the toughest positions to learn in the NFL, but there’s no reason to think that Okudah is not up to the task. 

“It’s a crazy feeling being drafted that high. The Detroit Lions think a lot about me, I think it’s up to me to return that and give them all I have, go to work every single day with my teammates and be the best player I can be,’’ Okudah said.

The Lions will have three picks on Friday night in the second and third rounds — 35th overall (second), 67th overall (third) and 85th overall (from the Eagles.) Friday night’s festivities start at 7 p.m. The fourth through seventh rounds begin at noon on Saturday.