NFL Fallout Week 7: Lions Announce Themselves As Super Bowl Contenders

For most of Dan Campbell’s tenure with the Detroit Lions, he’s had an offense good enough to compete for a Super Bowl, but a defense that played like an anchor dragging his team down. It’s been the only thing missing from his championship puzzle. But on Sunday, that missing piece was found. The Lions showed what they hadn’t shown all season long in their 20-17 win over the Green Bay Packers: They are capable of playing good defense against good teams, and coming away with big plays when they need them most. They threw a net over the Packers’ big-play passing game, got a key fourth-quarter interception, and made them struggle in the red zone. Those are the kind of things that championship defenses do. So yes, by doing that, the 4-2 Lions put themselves right back into the mix of Super Bowl contenders, even though there were some fortunate circumstances in the game. Sure, they needed one missed field goal, one blocked field goal, and a couple of questionable roughing penalties to fully escape. But that doesn’t change the fact that this was one of the best defensive performances by the Lions in nearly a year. The Packers came in leading the NFL in passes of 40 yards or more, but didn’t have a single one that long against the Lions. They did have six passes of 20-plus yards, but only one of those came in the second half. That was huge for a Detroit team that had given up at least 30 points in three of its first five games, and was surrendering a league-worst 337 yards per game. There were reasons for this rebound. Embattled defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard had the bye week to find what Campbell had called the "meat on the bone" of his defense. It also helped that safety Brian Branch returned to the lineup for the first time since he tore his Achilles 10 months ago. But most of the ingredients were already in place. The Lions have always had a dangerous pass rush. In fact, they led the NFL with 20 sacks before adding another on Sunday. And the run defense was pretty strong, too, giving up just 107 yards per game on the ground. The Lions, however, were being shredded through the air this season, which seemed to make them a perfect foil for the red-hot Love and his two dangerous receivers (Matthew Golden and Christian Watson). But Love’s day was only decent (274 yards and 2 touchdowns), plus he threw that fourth-quarter interception. And the Packers ended up with only 324 total yards. That’s far from a perfect defensive performance, but in most games it’s good enough for a Lions offense that came in averaging 32.8 points and nearly 400 yards per game (393.8). And that’s all the Lions need to make a real run at a title — a defense that’s good enough. Nothing more. But that’s been the Achilles heel of Campbell’s team since it gave up 481 yards to the Washington Commanders in the 2024 playoffs, spoiling a 15-2 season with a 45-21 loss in the divisional round. The defense was an occasional problem before that, too, but it really spiraled out of control from there, as injuries mounted and the Lions lost defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn. That spiral looks like it finally stopped on Sunday, though. And with games against the offensively-challenged Vikings, Dolphins and Buccaneers over the next four weeks, there’s a real opportunity for the Lions’ defense to get on a roll. If they can keep it going, they really can make a run at the title the franchise has forever been chasing. And maybe the Lions won’t even need the offense to carry them the whole way. With QB Aaron Rodgers reduced by age to the role of game manager, he needs someone to step up and carry the Steelers offense. And it looks like he’s found it. Over the past five weeks, running back Jaylen Warren has emerged as one of the NFL’s best and most elusive backs, and he's the main reason the Steelers still sit tied atop the bruising AFC North. After shaking off a slow start — he amassed just 89 rushing yards and 61 receiving yards over the first two weeks — Warren has been on a heater. And after adding 101 rushing yards and three catches for 36 yards on Sunday morning in Paris against the New Orleans Saints, he’s now averaging 94.4 rushing yards and 141 total yards over the past five games. Warren has been so effective, in fact, that heading into Sunday he trailed only the Falcons' Bijan Robinson, the Lions' Jahmyr Gibbs and the Chiefs' Kenneth Walker III among running backs in total yards from scrimmage. It’s no wonder Rodgers said two weeks ago that Warren isn’t getting nearly the credit he’s due. His emergence was perfectly timed, too, coinciding with a knee injury to RB Rico Dowdle — a favorite of Steelers coach Mike McCarthy — in Week 2 (he returned on Sunday). Since then, Warren has been exactly what Rodgers needs at this stage of his career. The 42-year-old QB can’t escape trouble like he used to, so he needs a power running game to keep defenses off balance. And he can’t throw downfield like he used to either (he’s connected on just 55.2% of his throws to deep-threat WR DK Metcalf this season). What Rodgers has become best at is dumping the ball off to running backs, which he’s done on nearly 20% of his passes (51 of 263). He did that last year, too, when RB Kenneth Gainwell led the Steelers in receiving (73-486-3). But Warren has used his elusiveness to nearly double Gainwell’s 6.7 yards per catch (12.3). And he’s carrying a revived rushing game. Over the past five weeks, the Steelers have averaged 118.8 yards on the ground. In short, Warren is giving the Steelers the power and the explosiveness they desperately need. So Rodgers is right. More people should recognize that. And they surely will, because Warren is the reason Rodgers’ last ride has a chance to finish with the 14th playoff berth of his Hall of Fame career. For one glorious half on Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals reminded everyone just how good and explosive their offense can be. They tore through a tough Baltimore Ravens defense for 299 yards and 35 points. They scored touchdowns on each of their first five possessions. When the Bengals play like that, they are one of the best teams in the NFL. So why can’t they play like that more often? It's the same reason as always: Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor, who runs a frustratingly conservative offensive scheme despite being blessed with some of the league's best passing-game weapons. He prizes efficiency over explosiveness. That’s the way it was over the first two quarters against Baltimore, when every play but one was either a run or a short pass. The result was a first-half total of 59 yards. It’s not a surprise, really. Burrow came into the game averaging just 7.2 air yards per attempt — below the league average. That’s great for his league-leading completion percentage of 71.7. But it’s also why he came into the game 14th in passing yards. The Bengals, with their arsenal, should be better than that. They are at their best when they push it through the air, and Burrow can do that with the receivers he’s got. He was 4 of 5 for 125 yards on deep passes in the second half. The Bengals need more of that, all game long. They do have other problems, most notably a running game that has tanked behind Chase Brown’s dismal season (285 rushing yards through six games). But they are so explosive through the air that it just shouldn’t matter. Efficiency is nice. But Taylor needs to get out of his shell and turn Burrow loose. That’s the only way this team can make a title run. Todd Monken was a 60-year-old coaching lifer who took the only head coaching job he was ever offered, even though it stuck him with a quarterback he really didn’t want. Yet somehow he managed to turn Deshaun Watson into a viable starter and keeps squeezing wins out of his imperfect team. As of today, he’d be an easy choice for NFL Coach of the Year. Through seven games, no one has done more with less than Monken, who has his surprising Browns sitting at 5-2 and atop the dangerous AFC North. They have become masters of winning ugly, like they did in their 27-24 win at the hapless Tennessee Titans on Sunday. But they do keep winning, whatever it takes. In Week 7, it took Watson’s first 300-yard passing day in five years. The week before, it took a defense that held the Ravens to just 235 yards. And just to prove their late-game toughness, Cleveland has won all five of its games by five points or fewer. There are other coaches in contention. Kevin O’Connell has the Vikings as the league's lone unbeaten team, this in spite of its offense and quarterback play. Kyle Shanahan has the 49ers on top of the NFL’s toughest division even though half his team is on IR. And John Harbaugh has the New York Giants in first place even after they lost their starting quarterback and best defensive player. But none of them can compare to Monken, who took on one of the NFL’s most star-crossed franchises — with a quarterback who has been sidelined more than he's played the past five years, and was terrible when he did play — and willed it toward success. Many saw it as a dead-end job for a coach with no other options. Monken, though, saw it as an opportunity to build a winner. Clearly, he was right. True New York Jets fans saw this coming. They’ve seen this all before. But any goodwill and trust head coach Aaron Glenn had built up by his team’s competitive start to the season was washed away in a tsunami of terribleness Sunday when the Jets lost to the winless Miami Dolphins 28-25 at home. They are now 2-5 and on the fast track to missing the playoffs for a record 16th straight season. And when they do, Glenn is going to lose his job. Even Woody Johnson has to know by this point that hiring Glenn was a mistake. He’s 5-18 so far with a legacy of late-game blunders, tense exchanges with the media, and a team that way too often looks unprepared. Glenn can’t continue to be the coach as the club heads toward an offseason in which it'll have money to burn in free agency, plus three first-round draft picks — all of which are currently in the top 10. The Jets are about to draft a quarterback in the first round for the third time in the past 10 years. They have to wipe the slate clean again and hire their fifth head coach in the past 10 years, too. And with the likes of Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott looming, it’s going to be an easy call for Johnson to pull the plug. Glenn was a terrific defensive coordinator in Detroit. He may even be a good head coach someday. But he was ill-fitted for this impossible task, right from the start. He’ll get the rest of the season to try and pull off a miracle. But the loss to the Dolphins all but ensured he won’t get any more than that. That very predictable loss to the NFL’s worst team will be remembered as the moment that catapulted him out the door.