Dan Campbell strongly believes the Detroit Lions still have the strong defense they showed in the first three games of the season. However, he admits that it didn’t appear in Monday night’s 42-29 win over the Seattle Seahawks.
“I don’t believe what we saw yesterday is our defense,” Campbell said. “It was not our best performance, I don’t think anybody’s saying that. I thought Geno (Smith) played a hell of a game, but we can be much better. We need to be much better.”
The Seahawks gained 516 total yards, with Smith passing for 395 yards and running for 38 more. Kenneth Walker III had 116 combined yards and three touchdowns, while DK Metcalf caught seven passes for 104 yards.
Seattle set an NFL record with 38 first downs in a loss, and penalties cost the Lions another 101 yards. Starting cornerbacks Carlton Davis III and Terrion Arnold were called for pass interference or holding seven times, which has been a problem for Arnold in his first four games.
“Twelve penalties is a lot,” Campbell said Monday night. “Carlton was battling a good receiver — a physical receiver — so we needed to be physical as well. We have to clean it up — we can’t survive 12 penalties every game — so we will keep working on our craft.”
The Lions did have two takeaways, with Davis contributing a 49-yard fumble return that helped the Lions take an early 14-0 lead. Kerby Joseph sealed the game with an interception in the end zone with 1:06 left.
“We got the takeaways and we stopped them on downs near the end,” Campbell said. “That’s what we talk about with resiliency.”
