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<\/p>\nDan Campbell breaks down Lions’ loss to Commanders.<\/p>\n
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Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. \/ Junfu Han \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Opening Statement:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cCredit 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 \u2013 but they earned that, they earned that win, and we didn\u2019t. So, we didn\u2019t, we just didn\u2019t 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 \u2013 you stop them on downs, you get the ball back, you go down and score a touchdown \u2013 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\u2019t get a stop. When we do get a stop, we turn the ball over, so we just didn\u2019t complement each other, and it was for, look we were \u2013 it\u2019s just \u2013 as everybody knows, you turn the ball over five times \u2013 and the last one\u2019s whatever, so call it four, that\u2019s fine \u2013 it\u2019s just too much, it\u2019s too hard against a team like that to come back, and we tried, we just couldn\u2019t quite get over the hump. We knew if we could just pull it within one score we\u2019d have a chance here. We just could not get over the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n On if he can summarize the season:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t do that right now, and I told the team that. Look, they know, and I told them, I said, \u2018At the end of the day, after all of this, the loss today, I still \u2013\u2018 I love the guys, and I respect them, and I appreciate everything they put into it, but I\u2019m \u2013 it\u2019s not the time to talk about \u2018What a great year,\u2019 or how many wins \u2013 it just \u2013 because at this moment, I don\u2019t think any of us feel that way. The whole point of doing what you do is to get to the show, man, it\u2019s why you play this game, and we fell short. Short.\u201d<\/p>\n On if the loss hurts more as the number one seed:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cNo. It just hurts to lose, man, and I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re the seven seed, six seed, five seed, one seed because I\u2019ve lost at all of them damn near and it stings, and it hurts. So, that hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n On where today\u2019s performance came from given how consistently good the team has been this year:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t 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\u2019re 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 \u2013 it\u2019s a chain reaction. It\u2019s a ripple effect of things happening all in one play, and so it\u2019s not just one thing. And that was kind of how the day was a little bit, and it was just \u2013 that has not been our MO. We had a couple of penalties \u2013 we just, we just didn\u2019t play great. And I mentioned we didn\u2019t complement each other, and look, man, that\u2019s the same thing. End of the day, man, I didn\u2019t have them ready. It\u2019s hard to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/em><\/p>\n On if he thought Commanders QB Jayden Daniels would play like a 10-year veteran today when he watched his tape this week:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYes. Tape says so. We knew we were going to have our hands full. That\u2019s a good player.\u201d<\/p>\n On if he thinks the offense got outside of themselves with the early deficit:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMan, I don\u2019t \u2013 I didn\u2019t feel that way. That\u2019s something we\u2019ve 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\u2019t press, stay in the flow of the game, let the plays come to you.\u2019 So I didn\u2019t feel that way, you know. We just \u2013 we just didn\u2019t get it done. And, I wish I had a better answer. It\u2019ll be something that I\u2019m going to be \u2013 I\u2019m going to have a lot of time here to really look at it and think about it, and figure it out, \u2018How do we improve? What do we need to fix?\u2019 The what\u2019s, the why\u2019s, the how\u2019s, all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n On whether he thinks this is a moment in sports that is hard to explain because of everything that the team has been through:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cNo. I just think it\u2019s just not the time, man. It\u2019s hard when you lose, and you lose these games, man. It\u2019s like the players, what they put into it. A lot of people don\u2019t know what they go through. You have to get up, body\u2019s beat to shit, mentally stay locked in and do those things, so long season.\u201d<\/p>\n On what happened during the extra man on the field penalty:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my fault. It\u2019s my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n On how much Amik Robertson going down early due to injury changed the defensive game plan:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t change what we did. It hurt a little bit, but (Kindle Vildor) KV did it \u2013 came in, did a good job for us, he competed out there. He competed.\u201d<\/p>\n On the play where Jameson Williams threw the ball in the fourth quarter:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I would\u2019ve liked for him to run, but listen, take a risk, and it didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dan Campbell breaks down Lions’ loss to Commanders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Paula](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/GhooXRsWIAAITJG.jpg:large\")
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