Detroit Lions head coach recently spoke to the teams' struggles amid a 2-2 start, and some obvious deficiencies on defense.
Except...Campbell was not very quick to blame the defense for the teams' woes this season. In fact, he had some pointed words for the offense, which has averaged 29.8 points per game through four weeks:
"If you want to be great, they should want to score 35 points a game at minimum. That's what greatness is. That's what they're charged with...We've got too much offensively right now. Our quarterback's too good. Our playmakers are too good. And we've got a young, hungry offensive line that's got a ton of room to grow."
Blaming the Lions' offense - especially Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, or any of their other starting playmakers, feels completely based in fiction. However, there is one area of the Lions' offense that could stand to use some improvement: untimely penalties.
Penalties holding Lions' offense back through four weeks of play
As Campbell noted in his availability on 97.1 FM, the Lions have a hungry offensive line that's still relatively young. Penei Sewell, seen as the leader of the unit, is only 25 (soon to be 26 as of Friday!). Tate Ratledge is in just his second year as the teams' starting right guard, while Christian Mahogany is only in his second season as a starter. Blake Miller's a rookie, and Juice Scruggs is getting the most snaps at center in his young career.
READ MORE: Firing Kelvin Sheppard won't singlehandedly fix porous Lions defense
Penalties are the name of the game for this young line. In their Week 4 loss, penalties against Scruggs, Miller, and Ratledge cost the Lions precious field positioning numerous times in the game, and Scruggs specifically helped to kill an early drive on a very silly holding call in the first quarter.
These are miscues that are coachable, so there is some blame worth being doled out to new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing on this front.
Petzing deserves some blame for Lions' slow starts, penalties
I didn't have Petzing on any sort of hot seat headed into Week 5 after this loss to the Carolina Panthers, and I still feel the same way. He's been miles better than John Morton in 2025, and is, at the very least, getting creative with both Goff and the Lions' receiving corp.
But, the teams' slow starts are not helping them with masking their issues defensively. They have to be on top of their opponent before their defense takes the field for their first series, full stop. Until they address their numerous personnel holes on that side of the field, their offense has to put them in the best position to win these games.
Additionally, penalties have to be cleaned up. They're costing themselves 56 yards per game via penalties, most of which are coming from their offensive line. With playing time will come experience and a cleaned up front, but they seem a little discombobulated - and truthfully, unmotivated - on offense due to the lack of any defensive resistance.
Add us as a preferred source on Google