On the first three offensive possessions in the Week 4 loss to the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions offense drove the ball inside the Bears’ 10-yard line on all three. Those red zone drives produced zero points thanks to two fumbles and a failed fourth-down pass.
Meanwhile, the Bears cashed in two red zone possessions for touchdowns in the same span. It was a failure on both Lions units in the red zones, something that did not please Detroit rookie head coach Dan Campbell.
“You know what, we need a lot of third down work. We need a lot of red zone work,” an obviously frustrated Campbell said after the game. “So that’s what we’re going to start focusing on. We’re going to do a ton of work down there. We’ve been able to move the ball pretty good. We did it for the most part today inside the field, base downs, first, second down. But now we get into some of these third downs, fourth downs, got to have its, we get in the red zone.”
The Lions scored just once, a Kalif Raymond TD reception, in five offensive red zone possessions in Chicago. The Bears posted three touchdowns in four trips into the Lions red zone in the 24-14 win.
Coach Campbell continued,
“So we need work. And if we’ve got to do three days of that this week, that’s all we’ll do. We won’t even work base. But we’re going to get better at it.”
The Lions defense ranks 29th in red zone touchdown percentage, allowing the opposing offense to score touchdowns on 71 percent of their red zone possessions. Detroit’s offense is now tied for 17th at scoring touchdowns at a 61 percent clip, though they’re just two for their last seven over the last two games.