Angry Dan Campbell Blames Himself for Loss: 'They Whipped Our Ass'
For all their struggles to start the season, the Detroit Lions' roster mostly fought tooth and nail through its first five games.
On Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, a depleted roster that has sent 14 different players to the injured reserve at some point this season, played like a team that did not have the proper focus to compete for all 60 minutes.
"They heard plenty from me in there," Dan Campbell said, following his team's lopsided loss. "But, the bottom line is -- it’s just the truth is that I didn’t help them, I didn’t help them prepare for this game properly or help our coaches help them prepare properly. So, yeah, they have a hand in it, and we’ll be evaluating them. But, everybody’s going to be evaluated, as well. Everybody.”
The outcome would likely not have changed when the clock finally hit 0:00, but the performance certainly could have been much better, and Dan Campbell knows it.
Following the Lions' 34-11 loss to the Bengals, Campbell took to the podium visibly frustrated about the poor film his team put out for public consumption.
Missed assignments, penalties, not being able to get into any sort of rhythm offensively and missed tackles left Campbell visibly angry during portions of his postgame media session with reporters.
"State the obvious here -- we got whipped. That was brutal," Campbell said to open his media session. "We took it and they got after us. Credit Cincinnati, they were ready to go, and we didn’t do anything right. Thought we played a little defense early in that game, the first half. But, we ran it and just we couldn’t sustain. And offensively, we had no rhythm. We had no tempo. We couldn’t execute on third down, missed opportunities and that’s the story of the game. That was a beatdown.”
Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports
Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports
It was a performance at home that was all too familiar for supporters of the Lions.
The less-than-capacity crowd wanted to voice its support for the team, but the excitement quickly turned to boos and displeasure as the mistakes piled up.
“It’s just because -- we weren’t in this. We weren’t even in this game," Campbell said. "It’s demoralizing when you are under two and they’re kneeling the ball and I had three timeouts. It’s just -- kudos to them. They did a damn good job. They whipped our ass.”
While their was plenty of blame to go around, Campbell did not want to solely focus on the play of the quarterback.
At no point did Campbell ever consider pulling Goff, even though the offense has now failed to score a touchdown in the first half for four consecutive games.
"No. Nope. Did not," Campbell replied, when asked about the possibility of substituting Goff.
Campbell continued, "I don’t feel like we can accurately judge him one way or another. I don’t feel that way yet. I will say this -- I feel like he needs to step up more than he has. And, I think he needs to help us, just like everybody else. I think he’s going to need to put a little bit of weight on his shoulders here, and it’s time to step up, make some throws and do some things. But, he needs help. He needs help. This is a collective effort now. Everything goes hand-in-hand. But, I want to see him step up. I do, I do, because I think he can do it.”
The Lions (0-6) will now head to Los Angeles to face a familiar foe in Matthew Stafford and the Rams.
