Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard isn’t buying the idea that Detroit’s offense has to shoulder the whole load.
To him, that line of thinking is “ultra disrespectful,” and he made it clear he still expects his defense to hold up its end of the bargain. As Sheppard put it to local reporters, “.
"We're gonna do our one-third here, hell or high water. Point blank period."
That confidence comes at a time when the defense has taken plenty of heat. Through the first four games, the group has been hammered by coverage busts, shaky tackling against the Panthers and an inability to keep opponents out of the end zone. The result has been a unit that has lost the trust of a lot of supporters.
Sheppard, though, isn’t looking to tear things down and start over. He defended the blitzes called against the Panthers and said he believed those were the right decisions. Rather than a major overhaul, the plan is to make adjustments and tweak personnel groupings, especially once Brian Branch returns in the near future.
The hope inside the building is simple: the defense needs to come together fast and start righting the ship. Sheppard is very much under pressure as that process plays out.
Dan Campbell also addressed the growing sense that he expects more from the offense than the defense. Earlier this week, the head coach pushed back on that reading of his recent radio comments.
“Well look, my message to the offense is, we came into this thing saying that we had our standards for the way we wanted this offense to run. That was my message to the offense," said Campbell.
"So, if we're okay offensively with what we've done, then we're not looking at it the right way because it's not good enough. That was a message to the offense is what that was.
Defensively, we just need to get in the right position. Let's get in the right position.
Let's be where we're supposed to be.
"We'll make a couple little tweaks here personnel wise and get these guys in the proper places," Campbell added. "It won't be perfect, but at least if we know that we're fitting the right gaps where we're supposed to be in these zone drops, we give ourselves a better chance.”
Jared Goff echoed that same theme on the offensive side. The quarterback doesn’t see this as a situation where the offense is supposed to rescue the team, and he said the standard remains higher than what Detroit has shown so far.
“No, I think I feel like the offense is capable of a lot more and I think that we would all agree with that. Again, I think the sentiment is we have been good," said Goff.
"We've done some good things, and we've scored and had some good drives, but we haven't been great. And we're very, very capable of being great and above that.
We want to be the best offense in the League and we have to start playing like it.”
For Sheppard, the message is blunt: the defense still believes it can do its part, even if plenty of people outside the building have already made up their minds.
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