Four weeks in, the Lions’ defense has found a way to make every opponent feel real good about themselves. Every single game they've played, whoever it is they're playing has had their highest-scoring performance of the season

Well, almost.

New Orleans scored 30 against Detroit and hasn’t matched it since. Buffalo put up 41, their best total of the year. The Jets scored 24, which is also their season high.

Carolina’s 32 points Sunday fell five short of the 37 they scored against Chicago in Week 1, so the clean, perfectly packaged version of the stat isn’t technically true anymore. The Lions can have that small victory.

But it’s not much of one. Carolina still piled up 445 yards, Bryce Young had his best passing performance of the season, and Tetairoa McMillan turned Detroit’s secondary into his personal highlight reel. If that’s where we’re looking for good news, things are already getting pretty bleak.

Carolina Didn’t Need Much Help

The Panthers came into Sunday without two of their top receivers and starting left guard Damien Lewis. They were supposed to be the banged-up offense trying to hang around on the road.

Instead, they looked like a team that had been waiting all week for this matchup.

Young completed 29 of 41 passes for 329 yards, two touchdowns, and didn't throw an interception. His 70.7 completion percentage was his best of the season. McMillan caught 14 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns, setting career highs in both receptions and yards.

Carolina also ran for 116 yards, came up with 12 explosive plays, and didn’t turn the ball over once. Whenever Detroit seemed to have the Panthers behind schedule, somebody lost a matchup or ended up staring at an empty patch of grass while the ball went somewhere else.

The most frustrating part was that there wasn’t one single problem to point to.

Carolina used run-pass options to put Detroit’s second-level defenders in a bind. They moved McMillan into the slot and kept finding good matchups for him in the middle of the field. Detroit’s safeties played so deep at times that Young had shockingly easy throws underneath. And when they did come downhill, the angles just weren’t consistently good enough.

There were also some plain old communication breakdowns. On one McMillan touchdown, Christian Izien was left alone against him in a Cover 0 look with no help inside. On another big gain, Ennis Rakestraw Jr. and Roger McCreary seemed to be playing two completely different coverages.

Some of that falls on the players. Some of it falls on Kelvin Sheppard and the coaching staff for putting them in those situations. Unfortunately, the answer is both.

This Isn't A One-Player Fix

Detroit’s defensive problems have looked a little different every week, but they keep ending up in the same place.

Against New Orleans, the Lions held the Saints scoreless for nearly 40 minutes and forced three turnovers. Then everything unraveled. Tyler Shough finished with 410 passing yards when New Orleans erased a 21-point deficit and drove 80 yards for a touchdown in overtime before Detroit escaped on a failed two-point conversion.

The turnovers made the performance easier to stomach. They also hid just how much yardage Detroit was giving up.

Buffalo didn’t need a dramatic comeback. The Bills scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and ran for 203 yards on this unit. Buffalo’s tight ends combined for nine catches, 100 yards, and two touchdowns.

After that game, Sheppard said the Lions had allowed 23 explosive plays in two weeks and needed to sit down with his players and figure out why they were happening:

Let's turn on the tape, turn on all 23 and just go down the list. Let's bang away. Tell me what you're doing. Tell me what you're supposed to be doing. Coaches, don't say a word. Let's let them talk because right now guys, there's a gap. There's a clear gap from meetings and practice, what's taking place at 222 Republic and then game day.

Then came the Jets.

Detroit sacked Geno Smith five times and still allowed him to complete 31 of 37 passes for 321 yards and three touchdowns. Garrett Wilson and rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq both topped 100 receiving yards. The Jets hit on seven explosive passes and climbed back from down 14 in the fourth quarter before Chuck Clark’s strip-sack bailed Detroit out in the final minute.

One week, it’s a late collapse. The next, it’s the run game and tight ends. Then it’s busted coverages, RPOs, or missed tackles.

That’s what makes this more concerning than one bad cornerback or one defensive call that needs to come out of the playbook. The Lions keep finding new ways to end up blowing it.

The Pass Rush Isn’t the Problem

Normally, when a defense is giving up more than 300 passing yards a game, the easy answer is that the quarterback has all day to throw.

That doesn’t really fit here.

Detroit came into Week 5 ranked sixth in sack rate and eighth in combined hit-and-sack rate. Aidan Hutchinson's creating pressure. The front's getting into the backfield. The Lions have shown they can bother quarterbacks without sending everyone.

The problem is what happens next.

Quick throws and RPOs have helped neutralize the rush. Coverage mistakes have given quarterbacks way too many easy answers. And when the quarterback does hold the ball, Detroit can't cover for long enough for the pressure to finish the job.

Pressure and coverage are supposed to work together. Right now, Detroit’s pass rush is doing their part.

That’s also why just blitzing more isn’t an automatic fix. If the communication and matchups behind the blitz are off, sending another defender just opens up more space. Carolina’s red-zone touchdown to McMillan was a pretty clear example of that.

Once a Drive Gets Going, It Usually Ends in Points

The overall rankings are about as ugly as the game film.

Through four weeks, Detroit's giving up 31.8 points, 423.8 total yards, and 304.8 passing yards per game. All three numbers rank last in the NFL. Opponents are also converting 52.8 percent of their third downs, which is another league-worst mark.

The Lions have forced just four takeaways, and three of those came in the opener against New Orleans. They didn’t get one against Buffalo or Carolina.

It gets even worse near the goal line. Opponents have scored touchdowns on 77.8 percent of their red-zone trips, and Detroit's allowing 3.02 points per drive. Both of those are also at the bottom of the league too.

That’s the difference between a defense that bends and one that breaks. Good defenses can give up some yards, tighten up, and force a field goal. Detroit's letting drives end exactly the way the offense wants them to.

Brian Branch Will Help. How Much Though?

Detroit has been playing this opening month without starting safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph. Avonte Maddox is out for the season, and releasing Terrion Arnold in June only thinned out a secondary that couldn’t afford to lose many more pieces.

Branch coming back would be huge. He brings range, physicality, versatility, and, maybe most importantly, the trust of a coaching staff that knows he can handle complicated responsibilities without needing the rest of the coverage to protect him.

But Branch isn’t a magic eraser.

He can’t fix every missed tackle or pick the right coverage from the sideline. Detroit still has to figure out whether their scheme actually fits the players they actually have available. They have to stop creating mismatches like Jack Campbell or Izien isolated on an opponent’s best receiver. And they have to find a safety combination that can help their already-struggling corners.

Dan Campbell said after the Carolina loss that the defense has to find the right balance between coverage and pressure and do a better job of putting players in position to succeed. He also talked about how scheme and personnel changes could be on the table.

They should be.

The Lions take on the Cardinals at 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox and Fox One.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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