'Things That Don't Require Talent': What Lions Need to Clean Up

Dan Campbell explains what Lions need to improve in last two regular season games.

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. / Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions still have room to grow over the final two regular season games as they get ready for a playoff push.

Detroit has the goal of ultimately being the last team standing, which is not an easy feat regardless of where a team is at from a health perspective.

The Lions have been battered, but have steadied the ship each time they've faced adversity. Detroit has shown plenty of resiliency throughout the year, most recently defeating Chicago after a loss to the Bills in which four players suffered significant injuries.

Coach Dan Campbell discussed some improvements the team needs to make heading into Week 17, namely on the defensive side of the ball. Even despite some improvements that the Lions made to their secondary this offseason, the Lions still rank 27th in the league in passing yards allowed with an average of 240.4.

Campbell discussed needing more precise work up front from the defensive line in an effort to disrupt opposing passing games. He noted that the defensive line needs to execute better on their stunts and games while rushing the passer.

The line did have a difficult time keeping Caleb Williams in the pocket on Sunday, as the talented passer was able to escape the rush and use his mobility to extend plays. While Detroit was able to limit his big plays to a minimum, strugges in rushing against the teams that they could see in the postseason could be haunting.

"There's these things that, we've got to finish a little bit in the pass game. Look, we're handling the run game well, and we really for the most part made them one-dimensional. Man, the effort's outstanding, our physical nature," Campbell said during his weekly interview with 97.1 The Ticket. "But then there's some things in the pass game — we get these guys in first, second-and-long, we've got to be able to get off the field. Or, if it's second down, keep them in third-and-long. Up front, when we run our games, we run our stunts, we have to be pinpoint in how we run those things. The detail at which we run them and how we run them has got to be dead-on to create disruption up front. Those are things that we can get better at just as a starting point."

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While Campbell added that the secondary needs to be tighter in coverage, he had a positive assessment of the performances of Amik Robertson playing on the outside and Brian Branch sliding back into the nickel position, where he spent all of last season.

Moving forward, the Lions are looking for the pass defense to improve in areas that aren't necessarily affected by talent.

"There's some things, leverage-wise, on the back-end that we're better than, that we need to clean up. But all in all, the coverage is pretty damn good. We're sticky, moving Amik outside was awesome, and Branch at nickel. We're playing pretty good there in the back-end right now, so just the little things," Campbell said. "Things that don't require talent, is what we've got to be better at."

Melifonwu's return

Detroit welcomed back safety Ifeatu Melifonwu against Chicago after the fourth-year defensive back missed the first 14 games of the regular season.

Melifonwu wasn't eased back into it by any means, as he played 51 snaps which equated to 81 percent of the defensive action. The Syracuse product showed plenty of promise, including a fourth-quarter sack.

"Good to get Iffy back. We had tried to get him up before, but had another injury, another set-back. But he's been training, he's been running," Campbell explained. "Just hasn't had a lot of football since early, early training camp. So we did feel good about his conditioning, he's been in the meetings, he's had the right mindset and so we just felt like, 'Man let's give him a go as long as practice looks good.' His feet are under him, he's confident about going and playing.

Melifonwu has the ability to add another layer to the defense moving forward with his ability to blitz from the safety or outside linebacker positions. He showcased this ability late last season, which helped the defense find new ways to get after opposing quarterbacks.

Campbell praised the defender's performance after a lengthy absence, and believes he will continue to be better as the Lions work into the postseason.

"Man, I thought it was steady. It was a solid performance," Campbell said. "He's a little rusty, and he should be rusty, but there's things in there that are very promising and he's only gonna get better getting his legs back under him."