The conclusion of Week 4 is typically an important milestone for every NFL team, including the Detroit Lions. The sample size is now large enough to see trends both in terms of team strengths and weaknesses.
For the 2026 Lions, it’s pretty obvious where the weakness lies — on defense, particularly in the secondary.
The Lions yielded 445 yards of offense in the 32-26 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday night. Of those yards, 318 of them were through the air.
In three of the first four games this season, the Lions have allowed at least 440 yards. The team’s secondary is yielding 304 passing yards per game.
Most importantly, opponents are averaging 32 points per game against the Lions defense.
After the Week 4 loss Sunday night, head coach Dan Campbell didn’t put anyone on notice or threaten to make personnel or coaching changes. But he made an indirect yet rather blunt admission on his secondary.
“It’s not good enough right now. That’s the bottom line. It’s just not good enough,” Campbell said to reporters. “We’ve got to score more points. We’ve got to be more efficient than we’ve been. We got off to a slow start. We had two opportunities there at the end, and we didn’t get it done.
“So we’ve got to be better there, and we have to get takeaways on defense. That’s going to have to be our recipe.”
In other words, Campbell’s defensive game plan going forward isn’t going to be centered on trying to stop all the passing yards. Instead, it sounds like Campbell’s defense will try to limit the opposition’s scoring through takeaways and red zone defense.
The other part of the head coach’s 2026 recipe is the offense scoring more than the 29.8 points per game it’s averaging through the first quarter of the season.
Dan Campbell Lays Out How Lions Can Still Be Successful in 2026
It was tough to hear what Campbell was indirectly admitting Sunday night with that answer on his secondary. But essentially, the head coach said his secondary isn’t going to be able to stop many opposing passing games this season.
After the team’s previous loss against the Buffalo Bills, Campbell sounded more confident the team would get things right in the secondary. The head coach also emphasized that they would look for players to bring in to help.
The Lions did that, and it hasn’t helped yet. The next thing it sounds like Campbell is going to do is change the defense’s philosophy.
While tough and frustrating to hear, Campbell’s reaction wasn’t wrong. The way things are going, the Lions secondary looks like it might finish this season the worst in the league.
However, this season is savable. The margin for error just gets much thinner for Campbell and his team.
As he put it, the Lions defense will have to generate takeaways. Whether preventing points with red zone takeaways or setting up the offense in prime scoring position, either type of takeaways will help. The Lions created zero takeaways in Sunday’s loss.
Detroit has to be better in the red zone on both sides of the ball as well. The Panthers scored touchdowns on three of their four red zone possessions while the Lions only had two out of four red zone touchdowns.
Winning in those areas will allow the Lions an opportunity to win despite yielding some of the most passing yards in the league.
Is Pressure Mounting on Detroit’s Offense?
There’s one potential flaw in Campbell’s recipe. It assumes the offense is perfect every single week.
The Lions offense racked up 452 yards and 26 points. The unit also didn’t turn the ball over, and yet, that really wasn’t close to being enough.
Quarterback Jared Goff and the offense freely moved the ball until they got into the red area. There could be several reasons why the Lions red zone offense wasn’t stellar in Week 4. One of the possibilities, though, is the pressure of needing to score a touchdown on every possession to keep up with the other team’s offense.
After Carolina’s first punt, the Panthers’ next six possessions went touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown, field goal.
Lions offensive players looking at that drive chart will be naturally drained. The unit needs to score on every possession and nearly needs a touchdown on each drive just to be even.
Perhaps Goff and company will be able to play more freely if the Lions defense gets stops in the form of takeaways in future weeks. But right now, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Lions offense is pressing a little because the unit knows anything less than 30 points is not going to be enough to win.
Dan Campbell Gives Lions Secondary Harsh Reality Check After Panthers Loss