DETROIT — Dan Campbell gets framed as this tough-minded, old-school, meathead type of coach by national voices and those outside of Detroit.

While those on the ground locally know better than most to doubt him and his Lions at their own risk. Sunday’s 52-21 beatdown of the Chicago Bears and Ben Johnson offered a firm reminder to the rest of the NFL that this offense has always had Campbell’s DNA and fingerprints all over it, and it can still pack a punch no matter who the offensive coordinator is.

With Johnson standing on the opposite sideline, new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton and Campbell bounced back with an impressive showing. There has been so much speculation about the Lions regressing this year due to the loss of Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn. There have already been growing pains, and there are sure to be more, but the lifeblood and driving force of this franchise’s resurgence is still calling the shots.

Campbell trusted Morton to take over his offense, and made sure his trust in his offensive coordinator was known after the toothless opener. He said Detroit’s issues last week, while glaring, were easily diagnosed and that it wasn’t as bad as it appeared in Green Bay. For now, Campbell was right again.

The Lions sure corrected last week’s mistakes against the Bears, with Campbell and his team again responding to defeat in impressive fashion.

They set a franchise record by averaging 8.8 yards per play. It also was the first game in team history where the Lions had 500 net yards of offense with five touchdown passes and two rushing scores, coming within 3 points of matching the team record.

Lions quarterback Jared Goff completed 82.1% of his passes, totaling 334 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. Detroit’s offense had three players with 100-plus scrimmage yards, including Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs. They had none last week. Goff’s passing chart was a thing of beauty, with balls placed all over the field back at home in a surgical performance.

The Lions didn’t have one of those headline-grabbing trick plays. But let’s not pretend like Morton’s plan lacked creativity. They tried an end-around to Kalif Raymond after selling the fast motion by the receiver all game long. St. Brown took two handoffs out of the backfield, including one to move the chains on third-and-4. That’s not nothing.

And the aggressive nature to go for the fatal knockout blow, one of Campbell’s trademarks, was as evident as ever. Instead of kicking a field goal with no timeouts and the clock winding down before halftime, the Lions opted to try to score with no margin for error, but a whole lot to gain. St. Brown caught a laser from Goff, pushing Detroit’s lead to 14 points at the break, and they never looked back, again playing ignited by Campbell’s aggression

With the Lions leading 45-21 in the fourth quarter, Campbell let his offense go put the final nail in the coffin on fourth-and goal. Goff hit St. Brown for the receiver’s third touchdown catch of the day as Campbell let his dependable leaders put the game away for good with an emphatic statement.

Johnson, who spent the past four years on the sideline with Campbell, said he wasn’t surprised. He even responded to the reporter asking the question with one of his own, “What’s he supposed to do?”

“They don’t kick field goals,” Johnson said. “They go for it there.”

That approach is something Johnson thrived on as offensive coordinator here. It’s part of what they do and who they are, and Morton seemed up to the occasion in his second game calling the offense.

Campbell has also mastered the art of recovering from defeat better than almost anyone. The Lions have not lost consecutive regular-season games since 2022, always finding a way to come back and correct what needed to be corrected after any loss.

Last week, the offensive line struggled with communication, the passing attack was bottled up, and the ground game was limited by getting hit in the backfield on 16 out of 22 rushes. On top of that, the pass rush made no noise, the offense choked in the red zone multiple times, and the defense failed to create a single takeaway.

But this week?

All of those issues showed marked improvement, even with the offense failing to take advantage of a couple of those takeaways in the first half against the Bears.

Goff did not get sacked once. The rushing attack was able to hit a couple of big ones, finishing with 177 yards with two touchdowns on 30 attempts. And the offense had seven plays go for more than 20 yards, after having only one of those last week.

Detroit’s offensive line said it needed to re-focus on getting on the same page and improving its communication. There were no glaring miscues in the trenches, with guards Tate Ratledge and Christian Mahogany, and center Graham Glasgow enjoying better days. Taylor Decker, the team’s longest tenured player, toughed it out through a shoulder injury after not practicing all week. And the offensive line looked like the group we all expect when the Campbell-led Lions are playing.

The offense is always going to get a ton of love when they score seven touchdowns on the way to 52 points in a win. But the defense deserves some praise, and one could argue that they gave the offense an opportunity to score even more points.

The Lions created two takeaways, got home for four sacks and forced the Bears off the field with a pair of turnovers on downs. Johnson sent Bears quarterback Caleb Williams on a sneak on third-and-1, and got nothing. He called another sneak on fourth down, and Detroit’s defense held strong.

On a day when the Lions scored only 7 points via those four takeaways, they did everything else right. Campbell and Morton will likely focus on what went wrong on those series, and they’ll attack it head-on in practice before heading to Baltimore next week.

Whenever the Lions get backed against the wall or lay a dud, Campbell has them more ready to go the next week, through a player-first mentality on adjustments and saying what needs to be said. Everything the Lions needed to correct this week was better, which is a testament to the head coach.

Sunday’s showing against the Bears and Johnson after an ugly opener was a firm reminder to the rest of the NFL to put more respect on Campbell’s name.

The schedule does not ease up. Detroit heads to Baltimore for a Monday Night Football date with the Ravens next week. But as long as Campbell is here and running the show, his Lions can beat anybody.

“I just think you’re motivated to get that taste out of your mouth,” Campbell said. “You don’t ever want to lose focus or not play your best game, but sometimes it happens … No matter what it is, I think it just — it re-focuses you.

“There’s a sense of urgency that to just, ‘Man, let’s go back to what we do. Let’s clean this up and let’s go get a win.’”

Campbell’s group took the challenge to recover after their Week 1 drubbing personally. They responded like a legitimate contender should, reminding the football world what they’re about and who they are.