To close out his week of media availability, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell spoke to the press on Friday afternoon ahead of the team’s Week 7 game against the Green Bay Packers.
It was a sprawling conversation, from Sam LaPorta’s recent comments to Detroit’s new punt returner. Here are my four biggest takeaways from his end-of-week presser.
Note: Campbell’s comments on LaPorta’s contract negotiation frustrations were covered in a separate piece.
Packers defense is balling out
Green Bay has had to deal with a ton of injuries on defense. Micah Parsons remains out. Both starting linebacker Edgerrin Cooper and starting defensive tackle Javon Hargrave tore their Achilles in the past couple of weeks. And now linebacker Zaire Franklin will miss Sunday’s game against the Lions.
Despite all of the hardships, the Packers are coming off of some of their best performances of the season, including holding the Cowboys to just 13 points last week, their lowest total of the season.
Campbell had high praise for the unit:
“They’ve been playing outstanding. That whole team has trended, I mentioned this, these last two weeks, they’ve really taken off and the defense is dangerous. I mentioned they play as one unit. That’s what you see. They play as one unit, and they all know where their help’s at. They play smart football. They play hard. They’re aggressive. They create disruption up front. They attack the run, they attack the pass. They give you multiple looks. It’s a physical, headsy unit. And look, seven takeaways in two weeks. That’s the thing. That’s huge.”
What the Lions are getting in returner, DeAndre Carter
Trust and dependability are so important when it comes to punt returners. That’s why I was a little surprised that Detroit is immediately handing the responsibilities to DeAndre Carter, who was signed earlier this week. But Campbell explained why he’s actually excited to see Carter—a player who has given him fits as an opponent before—play for Detroit.
“What you notice on him is he is a catch-and-get downhill, and there is no taking your foot off the gas,” Campbell said. “This guy, there’s a naturalness to him locating the football, and when he goes, he doesn’t pitter-patter. He is running, and he will find the seam and hit it with speed. So that’s pretty exciting because when you have to defend it, it’s like, ‘Oh man, we’ve got to close these things down quick because he’ll hit it.’ So, I’m excited to watch him play. I think he’ll be good for us.”
Packers offense, Jordan Love are rolling
In my On Paper preview, I noted how Green Bay’s passing offense has been a different beast these last three weeks after making some shifts on the offensive line:
Weeks 4-6:
- Ninth in passer rating (101.8)
- Seventh in yards per attempt (8.2)
- Sixth in dropback EPA (0.248)
- 14th in dropback success rate (47.1%)
Campbell sees it, too.
“Since they’ve kind of shored up this O-line, these last two games, it’s a lot different,” Campbell said. Later adding, “The protection is pretty dang good right now. [Jordan Love] is hanging in there. He can always make things happen. So now he’s able to facilitate and find his completions. Those guys are plucking, run after catch, and he’s still getting the bombs. So, he’s playing at a high level. I mentioned that. I think he’s playing as good as anybody right now at the quarterback position this year.”
Cardinals’ performance was good, but not good enough
The Lions played their best game of the season against the Cardinals in Week 5, blowing them out 45-21. And while that was a good performance on both sides of the ball, Campbell knows that won’t be good enough this week. Whether it was the three three-and-outs to start the game on offense or the coverage breakdowns on defense that continue to happen, Campbell doesn’t want to replicate that win; he wants to build on it.
“I want to make sure we play better than we did against the Cardinals,” Campbell said. “Some of these little things we were talking about, we’ve got to be much cleaner on. And it was, it was really good. That was our best game, don’t get me wrong. But this opponent has got weapons, and they’ve been doing this for a while, and they’ve got an outstanding quarterback and an outstanding defense. And so, you don’t have the luxury of messing around or being a little off on a couple of plays because all of a sudden, you’re down 10 points.”