How Lions Plan to Ensure Secondary Communicates, Executes

Lions secondary faces a tough challenge matching up against Rams' offense.

Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold (0) / Scott Rausenberger-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Lions secondary has not had much time to gel together.

Ahead of a tough matchup against the Los Angeles Rams and Sean McVay's offense, Detroit's coaching staff will make cohesiveness, unity and communication a point of emphasis at practice this week.

Terrion Arnold, Carlton Davis, Amik Robertson, Brian Branch and Ifeatu Melifonwu all missed practice at some point in training camp. As a result, time to work together has been vastly limited.

Detroit has typically avoided playing key starters in the preseason. While this helps avoid injuries, it is more challenging for the secondary to learn habits and ensure optimal communication within a game setting.

“I think we’ve just got to make a huge point of it this week. We’ll have some crowd noise out there for them because they’re gonna need silent communication because of our crowd, our fans," said Campbell. "You go into a game like this, it’s really not even about -- I’ve said it before, even if we’re all wrong, we’re all right."

Detroit's fourth-year head coach noted that defense does not always have to be in the right call, as long the unit plays cohesively and all together.

"Even if it’s, man, that’s not the right call, if we’re all on the same page and we all are playing the same call, then we’ll be just fine," said Campbell. "So being on the same page, communicating with one another, making it a point of emphasis, really pushing that this week, it’ll be important."

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Matthew Stafford is notorious for being able to manipulate defensive backs with disguised looks and "eye candy" pre-snap.

Campbell noted the Rams were able to at times unravel the defense in the playoff game at Ford Field. In that matchup, Stafford threw for 367 yards and two touchdowns in Detroit's one-point triumph. Boasting a receiving corps headlined by Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, the Rams pose a tough test for the Lions' new-look secondary.

"They’re gonna try to disguise some things on offense, they’re gonna try to see if they can unravel our defense, that’s what they did a good job of last year," Campbell said. "There again, we’ll be tested on the back end as well.”