A win was so close the Lions could taste it. And that's when they lost their way Sunday against the Vikings, turning a 24-14 fourth-quarter lead into a crushing 28-24 defeat.
Desperate to get the game over the finish line, Dan Campbell said his team went into overdrive at its own expense.
"You gotta show them where our own mistakes cost us," Campbell said Tuesday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "You show them that it’s not the opponents, it's ourselves."
Down the stretch, Campbell said the Lions neglected the fundamentals, like forgetting to "hold our leverage" or "clamp the run" or getting "off-balance up front."
"There were times where we’re trying to close it out and, boy, we look like we’re throwing haymakers, we’re so pressed to win instead of just worrying about the details. Just stay focused on the details, the little things that got you to that point. That’s the last little hump we gotta get over," Campbell said. "I do feel like we’re close, though."
Campbell, of course, was guilty of this himself. He abandoned his aggressive approach that had helped the Lions take the lead by opting for a field goal on Detroit's final drive when a first down on fourth and 4 would have sealed the game. It backfired when Austin Seibert missed from 54 yards and the Vikings scored the game-winning touchdown three plays later. He admitted he hated his decision in hindsight.
It's a reminder that the Lions are a young team led by a young coaching staff, learning on the fly. That said, don't expect Campbell to hire a specialist to help him make late-game decisions, like the Broncos did last week for rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett.
"Who do you want me to hire?" Campbell said, when the topic was broached.
"I consider all the information going into the game and I consider all the information in the flow of the game," he said. "And then I think it’s a matter of where you feel like you’re at with your personnel, where your offense is at, where you’re at defensively and what you feel is best for your team at that time."
Other highlights from Campbell's interview on 97.1 The Ticket:
On Jared Goff wishing he had demanded that the offense stay on the field: "It’s still my decision and then it’s a matter of whether you do it or not, but yeah, I want that, man. You want them to have conviction that they’re going to get it and they want it. He wants it in his hands, I do like that."
On whether Goff can further elevate his game: "Yeah, because he got better from last week. He’s playing at a very high level. You can feel his confidence. I could feel it going into that game. He was very focused but loose, and that’s a good place to be. You can tell he has a ton of trust in the O-line in front of him and those receivers, he knows where they’re going to be and he’s letting it loose.
"When he’s playing the way he’s playing right now, we can be in every game and have a chance to win. And that may have been his best game, in my opinion, since he’s been here. I just love where he’s at right now."
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