Campbell: Lions' Defense 'Desperately' Seeking Takeaways

Lions' defense has struggled to force turnovers lately.

The Detroit Lions' defense did not struggle as much as many believed against the Green Bay Packers. 

Detroit's offense and Dan Campbell put the defense in precarious situations throughout the Thanksgiving game. 

After the opening two touchdowns by Green Bay, the Packers were only able to reach the end zone on one more occasion throughout the remaining three quarters, after Campbell decided to attempt a fake punt on Detroit's own 23-yard line. 

Detroit's third-year head coach expressed he still has confidence that the defense will perform at a high level, following the team's disappointing home loss to the Packers Thursday.  

"Here’s what we got to do, we have to get takeaways. We have to, that’s something that we desperately got to work on," said Campbell. "That’s one of the things we did a really good job of this time last year, once we hit that last call it 10, eight to 10 games, we were getting takeaways. We were playing tough, man. We were pressuring the quarterback, affecting him, but then, man, we were getting these. You’re getting two a game, you’re getting – and that’s where we’re not getting those enough right now. 

"And, to me that’s a mindset, and it’s something we got to work on. Have we worked on it? Yeah, but not enough," Campbell commented further. "There’s a different way to emphasize it, I believe that. And, we just get one or two of those, we can change the game here and that to me is where the emphasis has got to go for us defensively. We got the guys, we got the coaches, but we got to get better there. We got to find a way to get some takeaways.”