Lions Defense Will Make Changes After Recent Struggles

Detroit's defense has not played well the last month of the 2025 season.

Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard talks to defensive tackle Tyleik Williams (91) | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions' defense has been a liability the last month of the 2025 NFL season.

Giving up an average of 30 or more points the past four games has put Dan Campbell's squad in a bind, struggling to stack victories and currently needing help to even make the playoffs this season.

Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard accepted responsibility for the struggles and acknowledged the unit will make changes. He did not reveal the details if the changes would be schematic or personnel.

Clearly, the defense has given up far too many explosive passing plays. While he did not fully admit to the unit struggling mightily against the run, the Los Angeles Rams were able to record explosive rushes at key moments.

"There will be some changes, whether that's schematically, whether that's personnel based," said Sheppard. "These guys are all in on it. That's the thing. There's some guys that need to play better." 

Detroit's first-year coordinator expressed during his weekly media session the defense must work even harder to limit the amount of points being scored, key players must step up, explosive plays must be reduced and defenders must win more 50/50 battles.

"The elephant in the room, I will go ahead and get it out there, whenever your offense scores over 30 points, you have to win those football games, in my opinion, as a defensive coach," said Sheppard. "I'm just to be brutally honest with you, that bothers me. Dan knows that, and I know he's going to try to deflect and say, no, we gotta score more and all that.

"We know we have to limit more," Sheppard added. "If your offense scores 30 points, especially with where we're at this point in the year, you have to win those football games. So, the first thing I do is sit back and assess the past month. Essentially, we hit a rut where we were (previously) playing damn good football as a defense, as a collective unit. It wasn't pretty."

As a result of the struggles of the defense, the margin for error for the offense has been greatly reduced.

"A ton. This goes back to last week, it is minimal. And when you struggle to run the ball, then to keep up or to stay ahead of them, you have to be perfect in the pass game," said Campbell. "We have no margin for error to not have a completion, or miss on a shot play, or give up a sack. Like, we don’t have that. And that’s very difficult if you’re asking that of your pass game in today’s game and the League, the way it’s set up.

"So, it does, it puts a lot of strain on you. But at the same time, you find the run game like I talked about the third quarter, you reduce the stress off the defense," Campbell commented further. "And now you make their offense one-dimensional because you’re up two scores late in the third. So, that’s why it all goes hand in hand and offensively we can help the defense, and in turn the defense helps the offense, and then you gained a little confidence, you find your way.”