Three times this season, the Detroit Lions have allowed over 390 yards of offense and at least 30 offensive points. They won the most recent one, Week 10 against the Los Angeles Chargers, because of some well-calculated aggressiveness from head coach Dan Campbell and the offense executing on critical plays.
Sometimes, an offense is just a bad matchup for a defense. The Seattle Seahawks are a bad matchup for Glenn's philosophy and scheme (as we've seen each of the last two seasons), the Baltimore Ravens definitely were a bad matchup a few weeks ago and the Chargers were equipped to take advantage of holes in what Glenn deployed last Sunday (a linebacker or a safety covering Keenan Allen?).
On Monday, Campbell went into pretty great detail to describe what went awry defensively against the Chargers. Communication, pass rush, the marriage between the pass rush and coverage, etc. Some of it is schematic, some of it is on the players to be better. Someone to get after the passer besides Aidan Hutchinson would be nice.
And the Lions don't have to play Herbert or Allen again, which will be helpful.
Dan Campbell naturally backs Aaron Glenn after rough defensive outing vs. Chargers
Glenn seems ill-equipped, or unwilling, to adjust his defensive calls in-game. When it rains it pours when an opponent exploits something (everything) in the Lions' defense, with no answers ever found or something different attempted to stop the bleeding when things aren't working.
But after his diatribe about what went wrong on the defensive side against the Chargers, Campbell expressed confidence Glenn can get it fixed.
"Defensively we took a step back, but I know that we’re about to take three steps up again,” Campbell said. “I believe that, and AG is going to get this thing right."
Week 11 against the Chicago Bears, even with Justin Fields expected back under center for the Bears, looks like a nice rebound spot for the Lions' defense. And frankly, a big rebound needs to come.