DETROIT – Dan Campbell said he’s “actually more encouraged” after watching film from the Detroit Lions’ past two games against the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers.
“After watching it, I’m actually more encouraged, because to me, it’s not what it appears to be,” Campbell said. “Just on the basic level of this, it’s turnover ratio. It’s turnovers. We’re turning the ball over too much.”
The Lions came home from a thrilling 41-38 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers two weeks ago with their eyes set on a potential three-game winning streak after the bye. The last-place Bears and 5-6 Packers were coming to Ford Field for back-to-back games, the latter on Thanksgiving Day.
READ: Dan Campbell loves ‘doom and gloom’ surrounding Detroit Lions after loss
But the week didn’t go as planned. On Sunday, the Bears outplayed the Lions for 56 minutes before a furious comeback in the final 4:15 allowed Detroit to escape with a win.
Then, on Thanksgiving, the Lions were dominated from start to finish. Green Bay sprinted out to a 20-6 lead and never looked back.
It was an ugly pair of performances, but Campbell doesn’t believe it’s time to panic. He said the Lions simply need to take better care of the football.
“Giving up four (turnovers) against Chicago, three against Green Bay, and only gotten one back,” Campbell said. “That’s the major issue right now, so we can talk about all these other things, but until we clean that up, the other parts of this are a little bit irrelevant, and honestly, they’re not the big issues. We need to take care of the football.”
The main culprit has been quarterback Jared Goff, who threw three interceptions against the Bears and then lost three fumbles against the Packers. He came into this week taking very good care of the football, but on Thursday, those turnovers were debilitating.
“The effort was pretty good,” Campbell said. “(The Packers) came out and played a really good game, like I said. We weren’t able to negate some of the things they were doing. But ultimately, we’ve got to hold onto the football, which we can do. We can do that.”
Fans shouldn’t expect sweeping changes to the team’s philosophy -- the Lions are still 8-3 and in first place, after all. But ball security is an even greater emphasis heading into a matchup with the New Orleans Saints, who have forced 20 turnovers in 11 games.
“There’ll be some things we do, pretty much what we’ve been doing, but I think we can do a couple things that help the O-line, that will in turn help Goff, and then, certainly, our defense, running to the football, run and hit, which are the kinds of things we preach all the time,” Campbell said. “We’ve got to be good on first and second down, and then on third down, we’ve got to win.”
Only four teams in the NFL have forced fewer turnovers than Detroit, and only seven have a worse turnover differential.
