First it was kneecap, now Detroit Lions' Dan Campbell wants players to 'bite the ball'

First it was kneecaps, now Dan Campbell wants his players biting something else — the ball.

Campbell offered up that vivid football colloquialism as a way to solve one of his defense’s shortcomings two games into the regular season, a frustrating lack of takeaways that’s contributed to the Detroit Lions ranking near the bottom of the NFL in turnover margin.

“The way we hit, we bite the ball,” Campbell said Monday, referencing a commonly taught technique of placing your facemask on the ball while making a tackle. “We’ve got to get strips. We have to make a conscious effort. And look, these are things we work in practice, but there again, man, if you want it, you’ve got to emphasize it. So what we’re emphasizing is not being emphasized. So we’ve got to go back and there’s got to be a different way to do it.”

At 1-1, the Lions are right about where most thought they’d be entering Week 3 of the NFL season, even if this wasn’t how they were supposed to get there.

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They upset the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on the road in Week 1, then lost at home to a Seattle Seahawks team down both its starting offensive tackles in Week 2.

They’re a play away from being 2-0 or 0-2, and no, losing to a solid Seahawks team that’s had their number three years running does not mean the Same Old Lions are back.

This is a good team and one that still has the feel of a division winner, but as my colleague Shawn Windsor wrote Sunday, this is a team that also is operating with a modest margin for error.

The Lions are a receiver or two short on offense. They have injury issues to navigate on their very good offensive line. They don’t have an elite playmaker on defense. And they won’t win many games that come down to a long field goal.

That’s where takeaways come in, and that’s why Campbell seemed especially perturbed at his team’s negative turnover margin Monday. With two Monday Night games still left on the Week 2 schedule, the Lions were minus-3 in turnover margin, better than just four teams: The Minnesota Vikings (minus-6), New York Giants (minus-4), Las Vegas Raiders (minus-4) and Chicago Bears (minus-4).

“Everybody says, ‘You’ve got to catch the ones that come to you,’ but to me, it’s more about us forcing them,” Campbell said. “You have to force takeaways.”

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The Lions have one takeaway in their first two games, an interception that Brian Branch returned for a touchdown after it sailed through Chiefs receiver Kadarius Toney’s hands.

They should have at least two more — C.J. Gardner-Johnson dropped an interception against the Chiefs and Kerby Joseph was a hair away from a pick-six Sunday against the Seahawks — but the defense hasn’t done enough to create its own turnover luck with big hits on quarterbacks or strips of ball carriers.

On offense, the Lions have been surprisingly careless with four turnovers in two games, tied for third-most in the league behind the Vikings (seven) and New York Jets (five).

Jared Goff threw his first interception since last November on Sunday, when he threw behind running back Jahmyr Gibbs on a mistake that may or may not have been his fault, and Marvin Jones, Amon-Ra St. Brown and David Montgomery have lost fumbles.

“It’s a little bit like how we started last year, man, it becomes contagious in the wrong way,” Campbell said. “And we’ve got to stop the bleeding and get back to where … the football is, man, your life depends on it. You’ve got to think of it that way. Your teammate’s life depends on it. And it is the most important thing that we have on gameday. At all costs, you must protect the football.”

The Lions started 1-6 last season when they had a hard time both protecting the football and taking it away. They were minus-5 in turnovers over their first seven games and won the turnover battle in only one of those losses.

When their turnover luck changed midway through the season, so did their fortunes. The Lions went 8-2 in their final 10 games with a plus-12 turnover margin. They forced 16 turnovers in the final 10 games of the season, including six fumbles, and gave the ball away just four times.

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I suspect the Lions will flip their turnover script this season, too. They targeted players with proven ball production in free agency and the draft when overhauling their back seven this offseason for a reason, and Goff seems to have turned a corner when it comes to turnovers after giving the ball away far too much early in his career.

But there’s no guarantee that will happen, and that’s why Campbell spoke about the topic with urgency Monday.

Wins are hard to come by in the NFL, even for good teams, and the Lions let one slip away against the Seahawks. They face an Atlanta Falcons team this week that’s 2-0 thanks to its rushing attack and defense, and next week they visit Lambeau Field on short rest for a Thursday night showdown with the Green Bay Packers.

There’s no panic in Allen Park, and there shouldn’t be among Lions fans.

But the season gets short quick in the NFL and sharpening those chompers is the surest way to make sure it extends into mid-January.

“We have to emphasize it for those players and until we get that cleaned up, it’s going to be a hard road,” Campbell said. “But I know we will, I know we can. I know we will emphasize it, I know we can emphasize it a different way. And look, offensively, man, we did some really good things. We were, honestly, we were much more efficient, more productive than we were against Kansas City. God, we – there was so much good stuff on that tape, but those turnovers just, man, it just puts a bad taste in your mouth. And it’s hard, it’s hard to win in this league.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

Next up: Falcons

Matchup: Lions (1-1) vs. Atlanta (2-0).

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Sunday; Ford Field, Detroit.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Terrapins by 3½.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Bite the ball:' How Detroit Lions plan to win the turnover battle