Dan Campbell breaks down Lions’ loss to Commanders.
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Here is everything Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after his team’s season ended with a 45-31 loss to the Washington Commanders Saturday in the Divisional Round.
Opening Statement:
“Credit those guys, they played well over there. (Commanders Head Coach) Dan Quinn did a hell of a job, they had a really good season, and – but they earned that, they earned that win, and we didn’t. So, we didn’t, we just didn’t play good enough. And really we never complemented each other, felt that way going into halftime, and it really never got better. So, you come out three-and-out on offense, but when your defense gives you life – you stop them on downs, you get the ball back, you go down and score a touchdown – defense holds them, limits points, we come back, we turn the ball over. You have a chance to go up 14-3, and, so, that was where the beginning of it started, and so you need a stop, you don’t get a stop. When we do get a stop, we turn the ball over, so we just didn’t complement each other, and it was for, look we were – it’s just – as everybody knows, you turn the ball over five times – and the last one’s whatever, so call it four, that’s fine – it’s just too much, it’s too hard against a team like that to come back, and we tried, we just couldn’t quite get over the hump. We knew if we could just pull it within one score we’d have a chance here. We just could not get over the hump.”
On if he can summarize the season:
“Can’t do that right now, and I told the team that. Look, they know, and I told them, I said, ‘At the end of the day, after all of this, the loss today, I still –‘ I love the guys, and I respect them, and I appreciate everything they put into it, but I’m – it’s not the time to talk about ‘What a great year,’ or how many wins – it just – because at this moment, I don’t think any of us feel that way. The whole point of doing what you do is to get to the show, man, it’s why you play this game, and we fell short. Short.”
On if the loss hurts more as the number one seed:
“No. It just hurts to lose, man, and I don’t care if you’re the seven seed, six seed, five seed, one seed because I’ve lost at all of them damn near and it stings, and it hurts. So, that hurts.”
On where today’s performance came from given how consistently good the team has been this year:
“Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what it was. And, it was one of those, it just was one of those odd days. Things were a little bit off. I mean look, the first one we had, we’re going to (Amon-Ra St. Brown) Saint and Saint just kind of trips a little bit, and then (Jared) Goff has got to move back in the pocket and reset, and then he ends up getting sacked, and the ball gets knocked out, and they recover it, it was just a – it’s a chain reaction. It’s a ripple effect of things happening all in one play, and so it’s not just one thing. And that was kind of how the day was a little bit, and it was just – that has not been our MO. We had a couple of penalties – we just, we just didn’t play great. And I mentioned we didn’t complement each other, and look, man, that’s the same thing. End of the day, man, I didn’t have them ready. It’s hard to look at it.”
Detroit Lions fans react after the 45-31 loss to the Washington Commanders in the NFC divisional round / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
On if he thought Commanders QB Jayden Daniels would play like a 10-year veteran today when he watched his tape this week:
“Yes. Tape says so. We knew we were going to have our hands full. That’s a good player.”
On if he thinks the offense got outside of themselves with the early deficit:
“Man, I don’t – I didn’t feel that way. That’s something we’ve been really good at. We talked about it, hell, we made the point of it even today with where we were at. Talked about it early in the first half, talked about it at halftime, talked about coming out. Just don’t press, stay in the flow of the game, let the plays come to you.’ So I didn’t feel that way, you know. We just – we just didn’t get it done. And, I wish I had a better answer. It’ll be something that I’m going to be – I’m going to have a lot of time here to really look at it and think about it, and figure it out, ‘How do we improve? What do we need to fix?’ The what’s, the why’s, the how’s, all of it.”
On whether he thinks this is a moment in sports that is hard to explain because of everything that the team has been through:
“No. I just think it’s just not the time, man. It’s hard when you lose, and you lose these games, man. It’s like the players, what they put into it. A lot of people don’t know what they go through. You have to get up, body’s beat to shit, mentally stay locked in and do those things, so long season.”
On what happened during the extra man on the field penalty:
“It’s my fault. It’s my fault.”
On how much Amik Robertson going down early due to injury changed the defensive game plan:
“It didn’t change what we did. It hurt a little bit, but (Kindle Vildor) KV did it – came in, did a good job for us, he competed out there. He competed.”
On the play where Jameson Williams threw the ball in the fourth quarter:
“Yeah, I would’ve liked for him to run, but listen, take a risk, and it didn’t work out.”
