Kelvin Sheppard: No more excuses as Lions try to fix flailing defense
· Yahoo Sports
ALLEN PARK — Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard delivered a seven-minute opening statement at his press conference on Thursday, Sept. 24.
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Sheppard provided an honest assessment of the defense's shortcomings through the first two weeks, when the Lions have allowed 71 points and 915 yards en route to a 1-1 record.
Among a litany of plans and goals to fix the flailing defense, one notable part of Sheppard's monologue and ensuing answers was his promise to no longer excuse the defense's performance by saying that the end result wouldn't be too ugly if you took out all of the biggest plays that went against them, which he frequently did during the team's second-half collapse last season.
"I know before, guys, I stood up here and I said, 'All right, we played three quarters good, but in the fourth quarter you take that play out...' Well, we're no longer doing that this year because taking those plays out is the exact plays that's been a demise to our defense," Sheppard said during his opening statement.
Sheppard acknowledged that while the Lions' defense was playing well in the first half of their season opener against the Saints, it was one bad play — a 47-yard completion to receiver Chris Olave — that "broke the dam" and ignited a 410-yard passing performance by New Orleans quarterback Tyler Shough. One breakdown begot many more.
Here are some more notes from Sheppard's 17-minute press conference:
Tough conversations and an early self-scout
The quick turnaround from Week 1 to Week 2 didn't give the Lions much opportunity to focus on the mistakes that plagued them in their opener.
But the long weekend after their 41-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills certainly did, and Sheppard said the defense held a "transparent" and "very healthy" meeting that included "a lot of honesty said out loud in that meeting, player to player, player to coach, coach to player."
"It starts with me, guys. That's all the message was this week. How can we close this gap on this play? Is it something else that you want to be doing? Because we did this here, but it's not showing up. And that's all I've been focused on," Sheppard said.
Sheppard added, "It was more so in that meeting the players being honest because outright they were forced to. 'No, I want to hear you. You tell me.' Because that's the only way at the point where we get the answer. A coach can stand up here ... (but) you're only as good as the tape says."
Sheppard said throughout the offseason that the biggest goal for his defense in 2025 was to limit the explosives that inflicted pain during the second half of the season. That goal has been unsuccessful thus far; Detroit has allowed more passes of 20-plus yards (10) than any team in the league and is tied for the second-most runs of 20-plus yards (three) allowed.
Sheppard said that 75% of the 23 explosive plays allowed was "self-induced."
"It doesn't frustrate anybody as much as it does these coaches and these players (putting) this time in to correct this stuff and make it happen," Sheppard said. "So, let's turn on the tape, turn on all 23 and just go down the list. Let's bang away."
Sheppard concluded the discussion about explosive plays and blown assignments by saying, "That's things that I won't share publicly."
Kerby Joseph's absence not an excuse
One of the key blows to Detroit's defense has been the extended absence of All-Pro safety Kerby Joseph and Pro Bowl safety Brian Branch. Branch has not returned as early as some of the most optimistic projections, and as it stands, there's no reason to believe Joseph will be back at any point this season.
Sheppard said he hasn't thought much about how losing Joseph and Branch has impacted his defense, saying that mentality is "for losers."
"What am I going to stand up here and keep saying? 'I don't have Kerby?' I've never thought that," Sheppard said. "Obviously, you would love to have All-Pro-caliber players, but again, I can't control that. All I can control is what I am given to work with and that is my job, and we feel like we have the resources needed to operate and function the system that we want to run here.
"So, I'm not going to — that's the point-(the)-finger mentality to me. 'Oh, I got injuries. Oh, this guy's down. Oh, if I had BB (Branch), we would —' no, man. In my mind, I've never operated like that."
Time of possession battle
The Jets lead the league in average time of possession (36:57) through two weeks, which poses a challenge for the Lions — 22nd in the league in this stat (29:05) on both sides of the football.
The Lions stopped the run extremely well in their opener against the Saints (3.6 yards per carry), but after giving up 135 yards on 21 carries to Bills running back James Cook, it seems slowing down the New York attack led by Breece Hall will be no easy task, even if the Jet's efficiency hasn't been great to this point.
"That's not by accident," Sheppard said of the time-of-possession superiority. "They are a run-first-oriented team. They're going to run it, run it, run it, and when you think they're not going to run it, they're going to run it again."
Sheppard reemphasized the team wants to hang its hat on a strong run defense, which it has done pretty well over the last few years, right up until the Los Angeles Rams opened the floodgates on a collapse in Week 15 of last season.
"I'm going to be loud and clear about this, was we are going to stop the run and we will create takeaways and we have to thrive and build on that," Sheppard said.
On the other side of the ball, Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said considering the other team's ability to control the clock is "a fine line" when drawing up their own game plan.
"I don't think you want to change what you do because of that, but I think you also need to be aware that you may not get as many opportunities as you might in another game," Petzing said. "That's just the nature of the way they play football. So, it's something, every possession, probably the importance of it is elevated just a little bit in terms of how we want to do things.
"But again, am I going to call different plays because of that? No, but I think we do need to be aware that that can happen."
Scruggs a work in progress at center
Juice Scruggs was a bright spot of the Lions' season-opening win against the Saints, but was part of the problem regarding Detroit's offensive line struggles in the loss to Buffalo.
He snapped the ball over quarterback Jared Goff's head during a critical third-down early in the first quarter as Detroit was trying to crawl out of a 14-0 hole, and was called for a false start on third-and-1 with under two minutes to go in the first half and the offense near midfield. As Detroit attempted to make it a two-score game going into halftime, Scruggs' penalty forced the Lions to attempt a pass on third down, resulting in a sack of Goff.
Generally speaking, Goff was under duress all game against the Bills; Petzing said Scruggs' ability to identify protection and get the line set is "an area we can improve."
"I wouldn't say it's been bad. I think it's a good start. I think we need to take another step," Petzing said. "I think a couple IDs in the first game, obvioulsy the false start in the second game ... but I think for the most part, the communication in and out of the huddle has been good. He's getting guys all on the same page at the line of scrimmage."
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Kelvin Sheppard: No more excuses as Lions try to fix flailing defense