Dan Campbell Will Likely Call Plays for Remainder of 2021 Season
The Detroit Lions' offense has not drastically improved since the bye week.
In three games since its week off, Detroit's offense has failed to tally more than 20 points, and appears to have even regressed.
Head coach Dan Campbell expressed a desire to become more explosive after taking a look at the film over the bye week.
During media sessions, Detroit's first-year head coach has repeatedly explained to reporters the reasons his wide receivers have struggled and techniques that need to improve across the entire unit.
Unfortunately, execution on offense has not propelled the team to any wins and has become the focal point of the team's struggles, overshadowing quality defensive performances over that same timespan.
"Ultimately, it’s -- even the other day that -- what really killed us, we weren’t even able to get into a lot of things we did, because of our own mistakes with the penalties, which is a lesson," Campbell told reporters on Monday.
Campbell added, "And when the game starts going that way and they start calling it that way, you’ve got to let off. You can’t finish those blocks. That’s a lesson learned, because when it starts going a certain way, that’s the way you have to respond. There’s no other way to do it. Get out of there and we’ll cut our -- you’ll take what you get. ‘Hey man, there is nothing wrong with getting a 2-or-3-yard gain. It’s better than having to back it up 10 yards from where you were just at.’ We clean those up and I think it will be better. But, look, our pass game has got to get much better, much more improved.”
Does this mean that Campbell would consider giving the play-calling duties back to offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn?
In a radio interview this week on 97.1 The Ticket, Campbell was asked point blank if he was going to continue to call plays moving forward.
"Yeah, I think right now I probably am," he said.
Campbell went on to explain that he wished he would have dialed up a different play on third-and-32 from the Bears' 49-yard line.
"More importantly, it’s not even the run call so much as the run that was called. Wish I would have called something a little different, too," he said. "So yeah, I wish I had that one back. Third-and-32, that’s a hard one, which we created ourselves with penalties."
