Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell spoke to the media Monday after his team lost on the road to Carolina, 37-23, on Saturday in a contest in which the Lions allowed 570 yards of total offense and 320 rushing yards to Carolina's offense. Needless to say, there's a lot of work to be done cleaning up mistakes, especially on defense this week with the Chicago Bears' No. 1 rushing offense coming to town Sunday.
Here are all the key questions from Campbell's Monday press conference:
What was lacking with this football team Saturday?
Campbell said after the game he didn't see that kind of performance from his team coming. The Lions had been playing pretty good complementary football over the previous two months, but Saturday they did not.
"There was a lack of aggressiveness," Campbell said. "There was a lack of finish. There was a lack of detail. A lack of discipline. There was a number of different things that showed up that were very uncharacteristic of how we've been playing."
Campbell vowed to have his team ready to play Sunday against the Chicago Bears at Ford Field.
How does Campbell expect his football team to respond to last week's setback?
Campbell said this is a prideful bunch and he expects them to put their best foot forward when they return to Allen Park Wednesday to start preparing for Chicago.
"Everything that can be perceived as a negative, you have to be able to get something out of," he said. "If you don't, then you really aren't growing and learning and making the most of the situation at hand. That happened. It happened for a reason. We weren't ready, which falls on me.
"I'm going to have them ready this week. And so, it's all about how we respond, and that's the beauty of it. Everything, it's in our hands how we want to handle this. And so, we'll be ready for this one."
How quickly correctable is the run defense with quarterback Justin Fields and the Bears' top rushing attack coming to town this week?
Fields rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns, and the Bears racked up 258 rushing yards (7.4 average) in Detroit's 31-30 Week 10 win in Chicago.
"We're going to do everything in our power to correct them," Campbell said. "We're going to make sure we're ready, 100 percent ready. When our guys come in Wednesday, they'll be ready to go. We'll prepare for every look Chicago has. We know what they're going to do with Fields. We know these two running backs."
Campbell said his front seven and defensive backs will be ready to roll defending the run this week. They plan to get back to the basics this week on defense.
Will we see more of rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams the last two weeks?
The No. 12 overall pick is working his way back into the lineup after missing 11 months with a torn ACL, but he played just 11 snaps Saturday and had one target.
"Yeah, we'll get him more reps," Campbell said.
Williams has five targets in four games played since returning to the lineup Dec. 4 against Jacksonville. The only worry with the lack of reps is frustration starting to creep in.
Any update on safety DeShon Elliott's shoulder injury?
The Lions' starting safety suffered the injury in the third quarter against the Jets Week 15 and missed Saturday's game in Carolina. Elliott's absence was felt, as replacement Ifeatu Melifonwu had an inconsistent performance.
Campbell said Monday it's still too early to tell if Elliott will be back this week or not.
How correctable is the lack of consistency in the run game offensively?
The Lions had a season-low 45 rushing yards Saturday with quarterback Jared Goff leading the team with 15 yards on the ground. Detroit's offense hasn't been nearly as consistent running the football the second half of the season as they were the first half, when they were one of the league's best rushing offenses.
"It goes back to fundamentals, but I would say even finish," Campbell said. "We've got to finish better across the board. That's just one of those things that – us as coaches, we have to put an emphasis on it, more of an emphasis that we have, and we've really got to hone in on it.
"The first thing everybody looks at is the o-line because they have, and they're always going to have a big hand in it, but it's also your tight ends, it's your receivers, and it's the way your backs run. So, everybody's got a hand in this run game, everybody."
Campbell wants to see more efficiency in the run game with more 2nd and 6, 2nd and 5 and 2nd and 4 situations instead of the too familiar 2nd and 9 or 2nd and 10 we've seen more of lately.
