The Detroit Lions have sputtered out of the gate offensively to start the 2024 season.
In their Week 2 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Lions doubled their opponent's total yardage offensively and yet mustered just one touchdown and 16 total points. Several methodical drives stalled out in the red zone, which helped ultimately lead to the team's defeat.
With the struggles to score surprising many supporters who have watched offensive coordinator Ben Johnson build a scheme that has been hard to stop, concern may begin to mount if the unit continues to struggle to finish drives.
Speaking on Lions flagship radio, Campbell tempered expectations during his weekly radio interview by stating that the team may still require some time to fully gel and become a finished product.
"I’m not shocked. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be shocked if we’re not cooking by the time we get to the bye. Sometimes it takes a minute," Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket. "All those great offenses we’ve had in New Orleans, the great offenses we've had here over the last three years, man, it’s not always perfect early, so I’m not rattled or shaken by this at all. We are so much closer than a lot of people realize. Our players understand it, the coaches understand it. But we just have to correct, really, those issues that came up the other day. Just the small little details and the nuances of the game plan per the opponent, because we made so many improvements from the Rams game."
One player who has been surprisingly quiet through the first two contests of the season is tight end Sam LaPorta. After a rookie season in which he set the receptions record for a first-year tight end and scored 10 touchdowns, the Iowa product's early impact has been limited.
After two games, LaPorta has six total catches for 58 yards. Against Tampa Bay in Week 2, he had two catches for 13 yards. When asked about LaPorta's impact or lack thereof, Campbell pointed to an injury in training camp that was cause for concern early in the year.
"I think some of Sam is, he had the injury coming out of training camp," Campbell explained. "And so we were trying to be smart with him for the Rams game, for sure, and I was actually worried about him getting too many reps in the Rams game. You start trying to build a huge game plan for a guy and you don't know if he'll be able to make it all those reps, and then he gets hurt or something happens, you just lost 40 percent of your game plan. So you've got to be smart about that."
The Lions have plenty of weapons on their roster, so distributing targets and touches to all of them in an even manner is difficult. However, Campbell remains confident in the offense's ability to click soon, and hopes the group of playmakers can continue to make a big impact moving forward.
"I think last week we had some things for him, hell we had a couple plays in the red zone they took away. Defense did a good job and we dumped it down, and so the ball didn't really find him for this game," Campbell said. "He's not somebody we don't think about. We want to get all those guys touches, we want to get Saint more touches and Saint had a lot. Let's get it in his hands. We want to Gibbs more touches, Montgomery, we want to get LaPorta, we'd like to get Leaf a couple more, Jamo. We've got a lot of mouths to feed, and we're gonna use everything at our disposal to help us win here."
