The Detroit Lions defense looked much more coordinated in the team’s 52-21 victory over the visiting Chicago Bears than it did in the Week 1 loss in Green Bay. Lions rookie defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard gave a lot of credit to his players for their resiliency and quick improvement in several areas from Week 1 to Week 2.
“I just want to first and foremost credit our players and coaches,” Sheppard stated in his Friday press conference. “Obviously, that’s been a common theme around here to resilience bouncing back after a loss. But this is the new team. We added a lot of new pieces so it was good to see the 2025 (team), not only defense but the (whole) team came back. The urgency, the intensity, like me and (Coach Dan Campbell) talked, we knew Thursday’s and Friday’s practice how we were going to. play Sunday, because of the way we operated throughout the entire week. That’s a collective event.”
Even with the progress, Sheppard still found several areas where his Lions defense needs to get better quickly.
“A lot of things we talked about correcting Week 1 to Week 2 showed up,” Sheppard said before getting into the finer details. “There were still things there, uh, as far as starting the game, the first drive of the game. It’s a big thing for me getting off the field, creating that early in-game momentum. We failed to do that again. Some of the third downs, man, we should have been way more efficient on third down than we were in that game. Uh, in 3 plays you point at first big uh touchdown. I think it was third and 8 or 9. Just dropped coverage, man. It can’t happen. Uh, you do that. It was the only guy open on the play and it’s because of dropped coverage.”
Penalties are a bugaboo for Sheppard, too. He specifically cited two from the same fourth-quarter Bears drive, without specifically naming the players involved. There was a pass interference penalty against Terrion Arnold and then a Brian Branch roughing-the-passer infraction that negated Arnold’s interception. The Bears ultimately scored a touchdown on the drive.
“Later in the game, third-and-15, unnecessary penalty–which then led into another third-and-8, third-and-9. We get an interception on the play but another unnecessary penalty.”
Sheppard noted how different the outcome would be if Chicago had gone 4-of-13 on third downs with those plays, instead of the reality of the 7-of-13. Or, as Sheppard put it spinning forward to Baltimore in Week 3 and beyond,
“If our offense can’t put up 50 points, those are plays in the game we’re going to need to have going forward.”
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Kelvin Sheppard happy with Lions defensive progress but wants more
Reporting by Jeff Risdon, Lions Wire / Lions Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
