Detroit Lions chasing No. 1 seed, have one goal for final nine games: 'We have to improve'

Alex Anzalone knows better than to look too far ahead in an NFL season, when the only game that matters is the next one on your schedule. But the veteran linebacker gave himself a pass to do a little scoreboard watching during the Detroit Lions’ bye week.

At home with his nine-months-pregnant wife, Anzalone saw an ad for half-off NFL Sunday Ticket and decided to splurge on the package to watch some of the league’s Week 9 games.

Of particular interest, a couple matchups featuring playoff contenders: The Seattle Seahawks against the Baltimore Ravens and the Philadelphia Eagles against the Dallas Cowboys.

“The main thing is win our division, that’s No. 1,” Anzalone told the Free Press this week. “We have these divisional games coming up again, but the thing really, you’re thinking about seeding, too, so just putting yourself in a good position as far as playoffs go.

“That’s really the thought process, and it’s not getting ahead of yourself or whatnot, but I think it’s more just focused on the actuality of the situation and what we really can do. It’s not everyone has that mindset, but as a mature, big-picture person, I think that way. I know Dan (Campbell) does, too.”

The Lions begin the second half of their season Sunday when they visit the Los Angeles Chargers for what should be a virtual home game at SoFi Stadium.

The Chargers (4-4) have won two straight and are in a muddle of teams competing for an AFC wild card spot, while the Lions lead the Minnesota Vikings by 1½ games in the NFC North.

At 6-2, the Lions are tied for the fourth-best record in the NFL and in good position to get a home playoff game (or two) for the first time in 30 years.

The Eagles lead the NFC with a 7-1 record, while the Seahawks and Cowboys loom as potential first-round playoff opponents.

With no game of his own last week, Anzalone said he was curious to see how those teams looked.

“That’s the thing is you have to win your games because you look at some other teams like Eagles, 49ers, Cowboys, they’re going to win most of their games and it’s going to come down to the last stretch,” he said.

In the NFL, it’s almost a universal truth that the teams with the best chance to make noise in the playoffs are the ones playing their best football in November and December.

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Last year, the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs won 10 of their final 11 regular season games and hit the playoffs on a five-game winning streak. Since the league expanded to a 17-game schedule in 2020, every team to make the Super Bowl has had a winning record in its final nine games. No team has gone on to make the Super Bowl with a losing second-half record since the New York Giants in 2011.

“We’ve been able to earn six wins up to this point after eight games and now, we’re not guaranteed six more wins playing the way that we played on the first half,” Campbell said. “We have to get better. We have to. Say it every year, there’s teams that are jockeying for these spots and what happens, some of these teams that look pretty good right now will begin to fall. And then some of these other teams, they’ll start rattling off some wins. So, we have to improve, and I believe we can.”

The Lions have been a good second-half team during Campbell’s tenure as coach, showing steady improvement as the season went on.

In 2021, they won three of their final six games after starting 0-10-1. Last year, they went 8-2 down the stretch to narrowly miss the playoffs. The 49ers, Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals — all teams that played in conference title games — were the only teams better during that span.

“It’s about improving. You’ve just got to improve,” Campbell said. “(In) 2017 at New Orleans, we started the year 0-2 and we were written off for dead even after just two but — and what people didn’t understand is we knew we were getting better even though we had lost. And it was a little bit that way last year. Yeah, we were losing, but every game, man, we were doing some things so much better, and we were so close.

“And so it really is about improving, and so as long as you stay focused on that and you identify what you want to improve on and make sure it’s better the next week, and the next week, and the next week, then there again, you should be playing your best ball by the end of the year.”

Campbell said he came out of Lions’ bye week self-scout with three specific areas that need fixing in the second half of the season:

∎ The Lions have a neutral turnover margin through eight games, with 10 takeaways and 10 turnovers. They’ve done a fair job taking care of the ball, but just nine teams have fewer takeaways. The Chargers are tied for the NFL lead with a plus-nine turnover margin.

∎ Red zone offense and defense have been a problem. The Lions rank in the bottom third of the NFL in both categories. They’ve had too many negative plays on offense inside the 20-yard line, and they’ve given up the seventh-highest percent of touchdowns (65.4%) in the red zone this year.

∎ And the Lions have negative point differential in the third quarter, where they’ve been outscored, 38-28. They’ve scored at least 51 points in every other quarter this year.

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Campbell said his message to players this week was they are in a good spot with a 6-2 record, but it means nothing if they don’t follow through with a strong second half.

“This is going to shape the rest of the season,” defensive tackle Alim McNeill said. “This about the time where things start getting a little drawn out, the season gets long, but we don’t feel that way. Not in here at all. We feel like off of that bye week, this is a brand new season so that’s our mentality right now. It’s a brand new season and we’re starting over and we’re going to finish the second half like how we started off the first half of the season.”

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions rejuvenated, ready for Los Angeles Chargers after bye