“Not Yet Panic Mode” - Rich Weighs In on the Detroit Lions’ Much-Maligned Defense

Every Lions loss from now until the end of the season is going to come with the same soundtrack, and Rich already knows the lyrics.

The first verse is that the Super Bowl window is closed. "It's over," Rich said, mimicking the chorus. It doesn't matter that Jared Goff has thrown for 400 yards, that Amon-Ra St. Brown is a top-five receiver, that Jameson Williams is talented, that Sam LaPorta is one of the best tight ends in the league and Jahmyr Gibbs is dynamic. None of it counts, Rich said, "because everybody is still upset that Dan Campbell keeps going for it on fourth downs and he shouldn't have done that in the NFC Championship game a few years ago."

The second verse is Ben Johnson. Johnson is gone, and people are still blaming his departure, even though, as Rich pointed out, "the offense under Drew Petzing is pretty damn potent."

So the complaints about the offense don't hold up. The defense is another story entirely.

Sunday night's loss in Carolina put the numbers on the screen. This came against a Panthers team playing without two of its wide receivers, and NBC put up a stat showing that through four games, this Lions defense has given up more yards than any Detroit team before it, including the 2008 team that did not win a game.

That leads to the question Campbell is going to hear every week: will he do to his defensive coordinator this season what he did to his offensive coordinator last season and take over the play sheet midstream? He was asked about changing coordinators after the game and shut it down. "I'm not talking about all that, man. I'm talking about getting better right now with what we got," Campbell said. "We're going to find a way to get better with what we got."

Asked what gives him confidence the defense can improve, Campbell said the staff has "tweaked a little bit every week" and still has things it hasn't tried. "It's a work in progress, man. You just keep working through it and find a way to improve. We didn't today. Wasn't good enough."

For now, Kelvin Sheppard keeps his job, and the players, to a man, said in the locker room that this is on them, not the coaching. Rich's response was simple. "We got to see it, because they really aren't stopping anybody."

He also offered some perspective, the kind only a Michigan fan could. The Lions could easily be 1-3. They are 2-2. The schedule does them no favors, though. Next up is a trip to Arizona, a team that can put points on the board, with Michael Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. both catching touchdown passes on Sunday and Jeremiyah Love in the backfield. Rich could not resist a joke about Trey McBride, who heard it from the Giants defense for four quarters and from a referee in one split moment, turning him into Moscone, the bail bondsman from "Midnight Run," with everybody telling him the same thing.

That Arizona game is Detroit's last chance to tighten the bolts before the bye. And yes, Rich knows Lions fans are still stewing that Joey Porter Jr. moved for a 2028 second-round pick. Couldn't Detroit have made that call to the Steelers? Campbell, by the show's recollection, said the Lions were in on it.

So, panic? Not yet. "No, no. Not yet," Rich said. "Dude, it's still a month." He has seen the signs, and he is not pretending otherwise. "I know what the signs say. I know how to see it. My two eyes are working. But it's still just one month in."