The Detroit Lions’ defense is ‘desperately’ looking for takeaways.

Against the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions’ defense did not struggle as much as many expected. Throughout the Thanksgiving game, Detroit’s offense and Dan Campbell put the defense in perilous situations. Following Green Bay’s first two touchdowns, the Packers were only able to reach the end zone once more in the remaining three quarters, when Campbell decided to attempt a fake punt on Detroit’s own 23-yard line.

Following the team’s disappointing home loss to the Packers on Thursday, Detroit’s third-year head coach expressed confidence that the defense will perform well. “Here’s what we need to do: we need takeaways.” “We have to, that’s something we have to work on,” Campbell said. “That’s something we did really well this time last year, once we hit that last call it 10, eight to ten games, we were getting takeaways.” Man, we were playing hard. We were putting pressure on the quarterback and affecting him, but then we got these. You’re getting two a game, you’re getting – and that’s where we’re lacking right now.

“And that, to me, is a mindset that we need to work on.” Have we made any progress? Yes, but not nearly enough,” Campbell added. “I believe there is a different way to emphasize it. And, if we get one or two of those, we can change the game here, and that, to me, is where the defensive emphasis should be. We have the players and the coaches, but we need to improve in that area. We’ve got to figure out how to get some takeaways.”