Campbell's Lost Lions Are the Disaster Detroit Didn't Need
Surprise, surprise. The Lions found a way to lose yet again Thursday, this time with it coming on Thanksgiving and in front of a national TV audience.
It was a winnable game against the Bears, with Chicago having lost five games in a row going into the contest and having to start veteran backup Andy Dalton under center in the place of the injured Justin Fields.
With the loss, you can easily argue that Detroit has now played in three straight games where they should've won. In those three games, including the team's 16-16 tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 10, the Lions have lost by a combined five points (13-10 to the Browns in Week 11 and 16-14 to the Bears in Week 12).
There have also been other games that the Lions could've won. Two games from earlier this season come to mind -- Week 3 against the Baltimore Ravens and Week 5 against the Minnesota Vikings. They lost each of those games by an identical 19-17 score, with a game-winning field goal being made as time expired in each instance (Ravens kicker Justin Tucker's was an NFL record 66-yarder).
That's five games right there where the Lions had a surefire shot to win. They lost by no more than three points in each of the contests and by a total of nine points.
Heck, if Detroit's offense just scored 20 points in every game up to this point, the Lions would own a 5-6 record.
Yet, they remain winless through the first 12 weeks in the 2021 season.
And all the while, Detroit head coach Dan Campbell has gotten a pass from fans and pundits alike, due to the ineptitude of the roster.
However, that can happen no longer after the Lions' latest defeat, at the hands of their NFC North divisional rivals.
I don't care that the Lions have no wide receiver help for Jared Goff or that they've started a bunch of inexperienced guys in the secondary throughout the year (i.e. Jerry Jacobs, AJ Parker and Bobby Price).
Throw all those excuses out the window, because they're no longer going to work for Campbell, who proved once again Thursday that he's in over his head as the sideline boss in Motown.
His absolute lack of awareness of game situations and inability to properly manage the game clock were on full display against the Bears.
It was a scary sight and something the Detroit fanbase was surely not going to give thanks for during Thanksgiving dinner with its family and friends.
Kirthmon F. Dozier, USA TODAY NETWORK
Of all the dumbfounding decisions made by Campbell on Thursday, the most egregious of them all was the double timeout situation he got the Lions involved in late in the game.
With the Lions leading, 14-13, and Dalton and the Bears driving with 1:54 to play, Detroit found itself in a predicament: It was out of position defensively.
Confusion arose when the Lions tried to get into a Cover 2 look -- where the two safeties are supposed to be the last line of defense -- but found themselves with no deep safety after originally bringing eight defenders up to the line of scrimmage.
Campbell's remedy for that was calling back-to-back timeouts.
The only problem with that is that it's against the rules to call one timeout after another, and it led to a 5-yard penalty against Campbell & Co.
It gifted Chicago with a third-and-4 play on Detroit's 11-yard line -- during which Detroit almost got caught with too many men on the field -- and the Bears made the most of the advantageous situation, getting a first down on a 7-yard pass from Dalton to Damiere Byrd.
Campbell talked about his decision to call the back-to-back timeouts during his postgame media session.
"Obviously, you can't do that, but we had miscommunication," Campbell said. "Half of our secondary had one call, half had the other and so yeah, (we) banged a timeout."
And as we all know by now, to cap off the drive, Chicago brought in kicker Cairo Santos, who proceeded to nail the game-winning 28-yard field goal as time expired.
Even with Campbell's timeout mismanagement playing a role in the loss, he still defended the decision after the game.
"It's a call, and it’s got basically a check on it to what they’re going to do and what they line up in offensively," he told reporters. "We had half in one call, half in another, so the first thing in my head is, 'Well, we’ve got a blown coverage, and they’re about to score a touchdown.' So, I do it, which you can’t do, and now, it’s a penalty. But, I know that if he threw it out in the flat, that was about to be a touchdown. So, can’t do it."
Oh, and I almost forgot to bring up that Campbell's squad committed 10 penalties, which resulted in 67 free yards for Chicago.
His team has seemingly become more and more of an undisciplined bunch as the season has progressed, and that just can't happen.
I don't care if he's a full-time head coach for the first time or not. It doesn't give him an excuse for the team committing as many penalties as it did or give him the license to be as reckless and as clueless with in-game decisions as he has been.
Even with the franchise's porous history, Lions fans expect more, and it's why he's started to lose the support of even his most ardent backers. These are the fans that previously defended him to a fault and blamed the woes of the team on the lack of talent on the roster.
Campbell's days of getting a free pass from the fanbase are gone, and if he isn't careful, he might just start losing the support of Sheila Ford Hamp and Detroit's front office, too.
