Dan Campbell didn’t mince words in his postgame press conference after the Detroit Lions’ 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
“I didn’t have those guys ready to go, not like that,” Campbell said. “Not when you’re playing a team like that. That’s with me. We had a number of guys that have played a lot better than that, just overall, and so that tells me that’s (on) me. I didn’t have these guys completely ready to roll.”
It’s not surprising to hear Campbell fall on the sword. He’s the kind of leader that would take blame even when it’s not his fault. In fact, Lions running backs/assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery talked about exactly that earlier in the week.
“I’ve never wanted to go harder for a coach than when he came in after a tough loss this year, and immediately said it was on him–and it wasn’t,” Montgomery said. “In his mind, it was, but (it was) on all of us.”
On Sunday, the Bills were able to put up 48 points, 559 yards of offense and an absurd 8.2 yards per play against the Lions. It would be easy to blame the Detroit’s mountain of injuries on the defensive side of the ball. They came into this game missing four of their top five linebackers and had a total of 13 defensive players on injured reserve. They ended up losing another three in this game: star defensive tackle Alim McNeill, No. 1 cornerback Carlton Davis, and reserve corner Khalil Dorsey.
Certainly that’s enough attrition of talent to deserve some of the blame, but when asked if the injuries have finally caught up with the team, Campbell wasn’t taking the excuse.
“I’m not buying it. I’m not. I don’t buy it,” Campbell said. “We can be better. We should’ve been better. We know how good they are, but that team was more urgent than us today, overall.”
Campbell was quick to point out that effort was not a problem for the Lions. He also doesn’t think that just because they weren’t on the Bills’ level Sunday means they can’t match up with the best teams in the league.
“It’s frustrating, everybody’s frustrated—the guys are frustrated—but, you know what, that’s part of life, man,” Campbell said. “You lose, and it’s a bad taste in your mouth, and now what are we going to do about it? We’ll sit there and feel sorry for ourselves? We’re going to bounce back and go to Chicago.”
Onside kick controversy
Early in the fourth quarter, the Lions scored to make it 38-28 with 12 minutes remaining. At that point, Campbell opted for an onside kick. The kick was recovered by the Bills and returned all the way to the Lions’ 5-yard line. One play later, the Bills were up by 17 points again.
Campbell was asked to justify his decision for the onside kick.
“I just thought we’d get the possession. I thought we were going to get that ball,” Campbell said. “It was one of (Jake) Bates’ best kicks that I’ve seen him have. That was a big kicker at the end, you know, that thing took a good jump on us, and (Bills WR Mack) Hollins made a heck of a play on it. And, you know, obviously, now sitting here hindsight after them taking it down to the 3-yard line, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that, but is what it is.”
Four minutes later, the Lions would get the score back to 10, and they opted for a normal kickoff after that touchdown. The Bills offense proceeded to take six of the remaining eight minutes off the clock and add a field goal. With the remaining two minutes, the Lions didn’t have enough time to erase the 13-point deficit.
So in the end, neither strategy worked out.
