Dan Campbell: 'I Gambled and Lost'
The sting will linger over quite some time for the Detroit Lions after a crushing 34-31 defeat in the NFC Championship game.
After storming to a 24-7 lead at halftime over the San Francisco 49ers, a cacophony of mistakes doomed the Lions. Their offensive execution faltered, and the defense couldn't slow down a potent 49ers offense.
Driving late in the game down by 10, coach Dan Campbell elected to dial up a run play on a crucial third-and-goal. Running back David Montgomery was stopped for a loss, forcing the Lions to burn a critical timeout.
Detroit scored on the next play, but was forced to attempt an onside kick after using the timeout. The 49ers would recover and drain the remaining 56 seconds to stamp their ticket to Super Bowl 58.
Looking back on that moment Monday, Campbell admitted the correct decision in that moment would've been to throw the ball rather than take the risk of being stopped short on a run.
"Look, the easy thing to do is throw it. Probably should've been the right thing but, for me, I wanted to run it," Campbell said. "I thought we would just pop it. We had just -- two-minute drill all the way down the field, throwing the football and they were in a four-down front and I believed we'd walk right in and we just missed a block, so then, yeah, I've got to use a timeout. So, hindsight, throw it four times but I believed in that moment it was gonna be a walk in run and it didn't work out. So I gambled, and lost."
That moment underscored what had been a forgettable second half. Prior to that touchdown drive, the Lions had been outscored 27-0 over the final two quarters of the game.
With the heightened importance and stakes of the game, the Lions simply made too many mistakes to survive and overcome their setbacks.
"I think, there again, this is what you hear about all the time with catastrophes. It doesn't take one or two, it takes 12 things to go wrong and we did all 12 of those wrong in all three phases," Campbell explained. "Ultimately, where we've been so good, when one area is struggling a little bit, the other two pick them up. We've been really good about that and that was the game, the second half, where all three phases were just, we were not good. And we continued to make mistake, after mistake, after mistake in all three phases and when that happens, that's where a game like that against a very good opponent -- their guys showed up."
Notes
1.) Campbell said he has not begun to consider a potential replacement plan for offensive coordinator Ben Johnson should he be hired as a head coach. However, he added that he would not rush to hire a new one, citing the importance of finding a good fit.
"If it comes to that, that's obviously very important," Campbell said. "He was a critical piece for us, he's a critical piece and I'm not worrying about that just yet. I need to get at least two hours of sleep and then I'll begin. But I'm not gonna rush, I can promise you that. I'm not in some mad rush, I'm gonna make sure it's right."
