CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Detroit Lions can still score points with the best of them.
But a leaky defense could be what keeps coach Dan Campbell's bunch from making some noise in the postseason if they're unable to get things turned around over the final 13 games of the regular season.
The Lions (2-2) entered Sunday night's game against the Carolina Panthers ranked last in the league in points allowed and yards passing on defense. There has been growing pressure on coordinator Kelvin Sheppard to straighten out the problems.
But that didn't happen against Carolina.
Bryce Young torched the Lions. He completed 29 of 41 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns. Second-year wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan lit up the secondary with a career night — 14 receptions for 192 yards and two TDs. And the Panthers won 32-26.
The 32 points allowed were right on par with the Lions' weekly average.
“I’m know there’s frustration," Campbell said. “The players are frustrated. I’m frustrated. You’re a few plays away and a few penalties away.”
After the Lions forced a punt on Carolina's first possession, the Panthers scored on their next six possessions, including four touchdowns, to build a 32-19 lead. Young picked apart the Lions secondary — much like other quarterbacks have done this season — repeatedly finding an open McMillan to move the chains.
The Panthers, who have struggled to run the ball this season, found success with the RPO (run-pass option) and running back Chuba Hubbard eclipsed 100 yards on the ground and scored twice.
"We knew McMillan was going to be an issue, especially when (No. 2 wide receiver Jalen) Coker got hurt. We knew that would be a guy that they would try to go to," Campbell said. “He’s a really good receiver and he made some plays."
None were bigger than McMillan's 18-yard toe-tap catch along the sideline on Carolina's final drive on third and 14 to move the chains and burn time off the clock with the Panthers nursing a 6-point lead.
“That was a huge catch at the end of the game,” Campbell said.
Campbell said he'll take a close look at the defense on tape Monday.
“One of the things for me coming into the game is discipline and effort," Campbell said. “Effort always going to be a big thing for me. I’m going to be anxious to see that and look at the tape.”
He added bluntly, "It’s not good enough right now. That’s the bottom line.”
The Lions have been battling some injuries on defense and it didn't help that cornerback Rock Ya-Sin went down Sunday night with a hamstring injury.
Despite all of the issues, the Lions defense did eventually get a stop on Carolina's final drive, giving quarterback Jared Goff the ball at the Lions 13 with 2:12 remaining. But the drive quickly fizzled out and the Lions turned it over on downs. Young took a knee twice and ran out the clock.
“I legitimately felt we were winning the game when we got the stop at the end and gave it to our offense with two minutes and whatever it was," defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said. “I had the utmost confidence in them.”
But, Hutchinson added, “we shouldn’t have put them in a hole. I wish we would’ve gotten stops earlier.”
As for Sheppard, Hutchinson has faith he will get things turned around.
Sheppard took over as defensive coordinator in 2025 after working four years as a position coach.
“I’ve been with Shep for years now," Hutchinson said. “I have the utmost faith in him. We have to evolve as a defense and we have to continue to grow. Because we can’t keep putting our offense in these shootout games.”
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Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (4) scores a touchdown during an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (4) celebrates after he scores a touchdown during an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (4) scores a touchdown during an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
VIENNA, Ga. (AP) — Law enforcement officials are still working to determine just what happened when a chaotic homecoming party spanning a four-block radius of a southern Georgia town erupted in gunfire early Sunday, leaving two people dead and nearly three dozen others injured.
Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy identified the two people killed as 21-year-old Jaquevion Jackson of Cordele and 23-year-old Macaleb Jackson of Hawkinsville, Georgia. He did not say if the two were related.
Some of the three dozen injured had gunshot wounds, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Chris Hosey said Sunday evening, but he could not provide a number.
“We’re still trying to work through that,” Hosey said during a news conference Sunday evening.
No arrests had been reported hours later, and authorities gave no possible motive for the gunfire.
The injured ranged in age from 14 to 51, and they were taken to several regional hospitals, Peavy said. Some were in critical condition Sunday evening and others were stable, he said.
More than 1,000 people had gathered at the site, and more than 50 shots were fired in at least two locations about a block apart in Vienna, Peavy told WMAZ-TV. Vienna is a small, rural community about 130 miles (about 210 kilometers) south of Atlanta.
Deputies were near the scene when the shooting began, Peavy said, and after they arrived more gunfire erupted about a block away.
“We don’t know if it’s coming at us or someone else,” he said. “You just have to keep doing what you’re doing and hope you don’t get hit by gunfire.”
The incident took place over homecoming weekend for Dooly County High School.
Ashley Gee, 30, who lives in nearby Turner County and came to Vienna for the party, described to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution a constant barrage of gunfire, imitating the sound of rapid-fire shots.
“Like a machine gun,” she said. “One person ran, and everybody started running.”
The AJC said the party drew in people from other surrounding counties in south Georgia following a local high school football team’s victory at a homecoming game Friday night.
The shooting was not at a school-sponsored event, said Sherrod Willaford, superintendent of the Dooly County School System.
“We recognize that its impact may reach many of our students, families, and staff,” he said in a statement. Schools will open Monday, he said, but additional safety measures have been put in place. He did not specify what they are.
Peavy said the festivities began Friday night, and that it had “gone well” with “respect from the community” that evening as deputies patrolled the event.
But the party Saturday night was a “different story,” he said.
“We’re still working through the investigation to see what went wrong. But at large parties with people from different places, not just your locals, sometimes problems come,” he said.
“Our deputies were just about on the scene when it happened. They were at the end of each, most directions of where the block party was being held. But it was so many people. And it was just hard to figure out what was going on,” he said.
Peavy said the shooting was “a learning experience,” for his law enforcement team.
“There's just hardly no way to know how to operate when something like that happens on the scene,” he said. He later continued, “We thought we'd been involved with a lot of stuff. But sometimes it surprises, and it was overwhelming.”
Vienna is about a 50-mile (80-kilometer) drive south on the Interstate 75 corridor from the central Georgia city of Macon, where authorities say 12 teens were wounded by gunfire during a confrontation between people at a birthday party the previous weekend a city park.
Deputies in Vienna found two people dead at the scene and multiple others who had been shot, officials said. Police also did not specify how many of the injured had been shot. The victims were taken to several hospitals for treatment, the GBI said.
Dooly County Coroner Brett Walls said the two men were pronounced dead at the scene with fatal gunshot wounds. He said multiple other people were also shot, calling the scene “horrific.”
Walls told the AJC that multiple people were struck by bullets and roughly a dozen others were hurt while trying to flee.
“This doesn’t — it’s not supposed to — happen in a small town like that. It’s something you hear on the news in bigger cities,” Walls told the newspaper, adding hospitals were flooded with the injured. “And even in bigger cities, you don’t hear that kind of a number.”
Authorities have not said whether any suspects are in custody or being sought. No motive has been given for the shooting.
Vienna Mayor Eddie Daniels said the shooting was about a block from his house and he “saw a lot of blue lights.” Daniels said he hadn’t spoken with law enforcement officials yet and had no details about what had happened.
Daniels said the city hadn’t issued any kind of permit for the block party and he didn’t know if it was a homecoming party.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Lydia Bullard declined to answer questions about the shooting, saying it was an ongoing investigation.
Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press reporters Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.
A water tower is seen as investigators work the scene of a mass shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured when struck by bullets Sunday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Authorities investigate the scene of a mass shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured when struck by bullets Sunday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A vehicle drives in the scene of a mass shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured when struck by bullets Sunday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Authorities investigate the scene of a mass shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured when struck by bullets Sunday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Authorities, below to the right, investigate the scene of a mass shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured when struck by bullets Sunday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Authorities investigate the scene of a mass shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured when struck by bullets Sunday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
