Missed Tackles Contributed to Lions' Second-Half Woes Against Denver Broncos

The Lions were outscored, 21-0, in the second half against the Denver Broncos.

Even though the final score ended up looking lopsided, the Detroit Lions began the second half against the Denver Broncos only trailing 17-10. 

With the Lions' offense starting the third quarter with possession of the ball, head coach Dan Campbell emphasized to his team the importance of scoring a touchdown to keep his team in it. 

"I said at halftime, 'We need to come out and take this ball down and score a touchdown,'" Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket earlier this week. "I felt like if we did that and at least came away with points -- man, with momentum in the third quarter, we were going to be able to go back and forth. We were going to be able to slug it out with them. And, within two plays, we turned the ball over, and it just crushed us. That started that wave of things we just couldn't get out of. We got ourselves in the ditch."

Defensively, the team had opportunities to sack the quarterback and get off of the field on third down, but could not capitalize on its opportunities. 

Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn pointed to missed tackles as a significant factor that led to the game getting out of hand on defense. 

In the second half, the Lions ended up getting outscored, 21-0, en route to their 11th loss of the 2021 season. 

"Just defensively speaking, we had a number of opportunities in the red zone that we could have stopped. We had a third-and-6, and we didn't cover a guy. We got another third down, and we missed the tackle. We had a second-and-1 on the touchdown run, where we missed another tackle," Glenn explained. "This game this past week was all about just fundamentals of playing football. Missing tackles, probably the main thing. But, the guys knew what to do, besides the busted touchdown. But, other than that, it was missed tackles. Just making sure we, as coaches, make sure that we continue to hone on the thing. How do we tackle and make sure that we wrap up and all that stuff."