Everything Dan Campbell Said After Detroit Lions Lost To Buffalo Bills

Here is everything Dan Campbell said, following the Detroit Lions 41-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Opening statement

"Give them credit. Joe Brady had those guys ready to go. They played well, all three phases, and they got after us. We didn't play good enough, and we didn't coach good enough. That falls on me. We just needed to play, uh, it didn't have to be spotless, but it certainly needed to be a lot cleaner than that. And we did not do that. We needed, we knew we needed to score some points. We stalled out early in that game, that got us early. You're down three scores, and really we haven't done anything offensively. And so, a lot of that help needed to come from there, to be able to answer back. So, we fell short there.

"You know defensively, we knew it was a tall task, but we gave up too much. There was some, there was some things in there that we have to get cleaned up. I mean, it's already, you have to play your best ball to have a chance to reduce points against that team and that quarterback. And we did not do that. We had a hand in helping them out there a little bit, and it wasn't good enough. It's not good enough. But like I told the guys, at least you know now. At least we know what it looks like now. It's a good team playing good football. Now we know after two games, we kind of know who we are. We're figuring some stuff out, and we got about three days here to kind of figure that out before we start getting ready for the Jets as a staff as well. So now, we can really digest, 'All right, here's our two game snapshot. This is what you are. This says what you are.' We can really deep dive these players and what they do best, what they don't do, or what they need help in. And we'll move on from that."

Where do you think you are after two games?

"Well, I think we're 1-1. And I think that we have to be able to run the ball better than we are right now. We have to be much more efficient doing it. You know, our (running) backs too good. We came into this game, we needed to be able to run it. I think there's a lot of meat on the bone there, and I do think we can get better. I think that I feel really good about us being able to improve from here, to continue to grow offensively. I do, all right, but I know the run game has got to be big for us. It can't just dissolve. It's there one game and it dissolves the next game. We can't play that game. We have to find a way to make that work and get ourselves going.

And then defensively, we just, we gave up too many explosives, you know. And really, we had them pinned on a couple of these second-and-longs. We couldn't keep them in the pocket. We're running some games up front, and we get snatched inside. We can't contain it, and he (Josh Allen) takes off. And those are some things we talked about. We knew it was we were going to need somebody to show up there. And we didn't. We had a couple of busts. We had more than a couple of busts on the back end, for touchdowns in the pass game that really hurt us.

We had a couple of busts in the run game, too. Our fits. We're fitting the wrong gap, or not where we're supposed to be. We got two guys in one gap, and (James) Cook busts in these runs. So, that doesn't, you know, that has nothing to do with them. That has to do with us. And it was already a tall task, much less when you don't handle your own business, your own job. So, we'll clean it up. And now we got a minute to look at it and figure out where we can go here."

Did any of the stuff that showed up in the second half of Week 1 show up again this game? Is that at all concerning?

"Not necessarily. We didn't necessarily get attacked the same way. I would say, and look, I need to look at the tape. But I can't, you know, I can't give you this definitive, 'Yeah, this was the same mistake somebody made last week.' It's just that that quarterback makes things very difficult. If you don't keep him in the pocket, keep him contained, man, he can hurt you. And he did that on multiple times, you know, multiple occasions. We talked about playing, trying to play and keep them in 2nd-and-long and make some of these third-downs to where now that would favor us, man. They had a ton of third- and-shorts. A lot of them. And that is hard, because they do a good job of that quarterback sneak and the quarterback push. So, we didn't make life easy on ourselves."

It seemed like in the first half, it was more of Gibbs. Ya'll went to St. Brown a little more in the second half. You were visibly frustrated at halftime, what was your message to them?

"Look, we we did come in, and we had scored. We found a way to get some points before halftime and knew we were getting it coming out. It was really just that, man. You really couldn't look at the scoreboard. You had to just focus on finding a way to score, man. Finding a way to get a first down, get the next first down, and then that'll lead to the next touchdown. And play that game. Just don't look at what we got to do to get it done, by the end. You just take it one series at a time. We wanted to get the pass game going. Of course, we wanted the runs to go, but we didn't feel like we were popping like we we thought we would and could.

Then it was about trying to get our receivers the ball and get Saint going, and we did in spurts, but it was just too little, too late. I thought we had some really good drives, some outstanding drives. I mean, things that really give you a lot of hope, make you feel pretty good. I do think we got places to go here on offense. We got a lot of room to grow, and that's encouraging. I do. We just got to clean up a lot. We got to clean up a lot of things on defense right now, particularly in the back end. And then offensively, you play an opponent as potent as this, we don't have the luxury of spitting and sputtering early. That is the thing. You don't have that luxury. And we knew that coming into this game."

What gives you confidence the defense can still come together?

"Because that's what we're tasked with, man. And I think this front is, we got some juice up front, man. I think we've got a mix of guys that can apply pressure, that can stop the run, and that relieves a lot of stress on your back end. The more those guys play together, the better they'll get. The more that we really digest what we're trying to do to opponents, or what we feel like we need to do any given week, I think will help those guys, and their confidence will grow and we'll get better. Listen, it stings. Nobody likes it. Certainly, I don't like losing. I don't like losing like that, but I also know this, we just finished Week 2. We're 1-1, you know, and we got a ton of room to grow. So, that is encouraging. We got a minute to look at it, and that helps too, when you get a couple of days here now to really look at it."

On the struggles early with the run game, forcing the offense to throw the football more

"You're asking why? We had some run throughs. Bottom line is we didn't handle this well enough. I'm talking about us as coaches. All right, we have a hand in this. This is really, we had basically one game on what they're doing over there. And that was last week's game. Preseason is not really, that doesn't tell you too much. So then, you're going by family trees right. The old family tree. Is he (Vic) Fangio or is he Rex Ryan. You're trying to do it, by what you think you could possibly get. You're trying to have an answer for everything.

"And then you come in and they did a couple of things different. But nothing that we couldn't handle. But we had some run through and they ran us down on the backside and had some safety pressures, which look, we know they have safety pressure. They just, they did quite a bit more of them. We've got somebody for them, but we just didn't get them blocked. So, it's little stuff like that. And at some point, you don't get it going and then the score is getting away from you a little bit. And then you got Saint over there and Jamo and Laporta. It's time, we might need to put it in the air a little bit . Then you're into, that's the different can of worms, right. You're dealing with a rush and all those things. But anyway, it was just too little, too late."

How tough was the, uh, the crowd noise in the first half? And just what was your thoughts on the environment?

"I didn't feel like it was anything, like, abnormal. It was a good environment. It was really good. It was loud, man. It was one of those, uh, you could really feel it. I mean, it was a good experience, a good vibe. But, I didn't feel like it, we have played in a lot of loud stadiums And I felt like this is certainly up there with them, but nothing that was something we couldn't handle, if you will.

Avonte Maddox was seen on crutches. Can you provide any update on his injury and how difficult that makes this over the next week?

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Maddox is pretty tough. And so, when he doesn't come back, that makes me nervous. But, I won't know until tomorrow for sure."

What is your concern or what is your biggest concern with the secondary right now?

"Yeah. I think it's those guys playing together and being on the same page. I think that plays into it a little bit for sure. There's a lot that we, that we do, by where we think we need to go. And look, we wanted to be aggressive today, too. If you just sit back there and play coverage on this guy, he'll light you up and he'll start throwing those bombs down the field. And you can die that death. So, we knew we were going to be a little more aggressive today now. And that can string you out. But it's not so much that as it is, 'Okay, if we are going to do that, let's just make sure we're all on the same page, that's all.' And if we get beat, we get beat. Listen, that's the way it goes sometimes when you play this way. But anyway, we got a chance to look at it and figure it out."

The message seems very opportunistic. What is the biggest opportunity that you guys can take away moving into this next week?

" I think for us just to be able to look at what we've done over two weeks. We really didn't get a chance to. You talk about some of these errors from New Orleans, four days ago or whatever. But you don't, you're coaching on the run, man, while you're getting ready for this game. And so now we'll have a chance to get the players together and really go over these last two games. When we get them in here and really go over that stuff, that's how you grow and you learn. You really get it taught the details of it.

"That'll be good for us. Listen, it's early. We're in Week 2. We got a long season. And the most important thing is that we get better. That's it, that's it. We just need to get better than we were today in all three phases. We need to play better against the Jets. And I believe we will. We can and we certainly will."

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