As of this writing, Dan Campbell’s Detroit Lions are struggling badly against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. Detroit trails 27-10 at halftime, with Allen torching the Lions and Buffalo controlling much of the opening half.

Detroit has struggled to stay on the field while Buffalo has consistently turned its opportunities into points. The Lions have also committed costly penalties, creating even more problems for a team already facing an imposing opponent.

Following the first half, Campbell gave a blunt assessment of what has gone wrong. He pointed directly toward Detroit’s mistakes, particularly the penalties that have repeatedly hurt the Lions.

“Yeah we gotta quit making some of these costly errors right now. We've had five possessions on both sides of the ball, we've let them score on four of them, which we knew was gonna be a tall task, and offensively we have not handled what we need to be doing right now. So, we scored on two of them, one of them is a field goal right there. We just got to stay on the field and we got to score points. And cut out the penalties because they're killing us right now. The little s*** is killing us!”

Importantly, Campbell’s “little s***” comment was referring to the penalties and small mistakes, not Josh Allen. While Allen has dominated the first half, Detroit’s self-inflicted errors have made its task even more difficult.

The Lions Still Have Two Quarters to Get Back Into the Game

Despite trailing by 17 points, Detroit still has another two quarters to mount a comeback. The Lions must start sustaining drives and converting their opportunities into touchdowns.

More importantly, Campbell’s team needs to clean up the penalties. Giving Buffalo extra opportunities is especially dangerous when Allen is already playing at such a high level.

Detroit now faces a major second-half challenge. If the Lions eliminate the mistakes, they still have time to make this game interesting.

Written by

Joseph Nithin