Jalen Hurts Leaves Lions Coach Dan Campbell Frustrated, Wanting a Rematch

The day after the post-mortem in Detroit was a lot like what was going on in Philadelphia, absent the victory to temper the frustration.

Lions coach Dan Campbell was lamenting shoddy tackling and poor execution, particularly against Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who was often a magician with his legs and had the Lions' defenders grasping at air too often.

“I go back to the quarterback [Hurts],” Campbell said. “... First of all, we can’t stop our feet on the guy and it doesn’t matter that he’s the quarterback, like you have to finish on the quarterback.

"If he’s running with the football you can’t worry about, ‘Is he going down? Is he not? How is he going to run this?’ Like, treat him like a running back.”

Some might say that’s what Detroit did with a couple of borderline late hits when Hurts was giving himself up and another when Tracy Walker got tossed from the game.

Campbell acknowledged it’s tough to prepare for the Eagles’ QB.

“With some of it, if you haven’t dealt with in – we really haven’t seen. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I think it’s something that now we’ve seen it, we’re going to be better for it,” said Campbell. “First game out of the gate, but a number of them [runs], man we’re in great position. Just run your feet, there’s no – we don’t have to lunge on the guy, we’re in position.

"... I was hoping it would show up better than it did.”

The Eagles aren’t likely going to see Detroit again this season but the competitive Campbell was already dreaming of a rematch.

“Yeah look, I’ll be honest, I really feel like if we played that opponent again, we’re going to be so much cleaner on it than we were,” the Lions coach said. “... We would handle it so much better. Because there and now, like our guys are watching it right now and they’re seeing everything that we talked about and preached, and man, just do your job.”

With Hurts, it’s alignment, assignment, and discipline.

Campbell seemed frustrated his defenders didn’t stay true to the message when the live environment arrived.

“‘I’m responsible for the quarterback," he said. "Don’t even look at the running back.’ You just – and literally just the trust and just hone in on your assignment.

"Look, it was really what we did a hell of a job of last year against (Ravens QB) Lamar (Jackson) when Baltimore came in. Man, we were on it. We were on every little detail to it, but we had also gotten beat. We lost the week before, it was a point of focus.”

The frustration was palpable with Campbell replicating what his defenders did on Sunday, reaching for a ghost that has already disappeared.

“I’ve got to do a better job of fabricating a quarterback that can give them [the right looks],” the coach said. “We did a couple of things, but it wasn’t enough in my opinion.”

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Sports. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talker Jody McDonald, every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube.com and JAKIBSports.com. You can reach John at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen