Dan Campbell’s postgame press conferences are quickly becoming the stuff of NFL legend. And while the chaos and quip quotient weren’t as dramatic as it has been in other weeks, the Lions head coach delivered quite a few pointed messages after his Detroit team lost to the Los Angeles Rams, 28-19, in Week 7 at SoFi Stadium.
Coach Campbell was frustrated with the loss while still obviously proud of his team for making it quite a bit closer than just about anyone expected. The Lions led entering the fourth quarter and had chances to regain the lead late before making a couple of critical errors that swung the game solidly to the Rams.
Campbell concluded his opening statement by stating the obvious,
“We just made one too many mistakes.”
The coach, hoarse after the intense game, continued,
“That’s too good of a football team to make – you’re not allowed to make one or two errors against a football team like that.”
Campbell shouldered responsibility for some of the errors himself. Most notably, he explained the failed fourth-down run to D’Andre Swift was all on him.
“That’s on me,” Campbell said, tapping his chest. “That’s my fault, I called for that … we should have tightened the wing up, which I should have done. That’s 100 percent on me.”
Swift was stuffed behind the line when reserve tight end Brock Wright, the wing Campbell was referring to, didn’t line up properly and wrecked any chance the play had of succeeding. Wright was making his NFL debut after being promoted from the practice squad for the first time.
Campbell didn’t want any moral victory. He pulled out the old Bill Parcells platitude, “We are what the record says we are.” It’s a sentiment Campbell learned well from his one-time coach. Another thing he picked up from Parcells was the focus on the hatred of losing.
“If this (losing) does not continue to sting and burn and taste like you-know-what, then you’ve got a problem,” Campbell said forcefully. “You cannot allow yourself to go numb, you can’t. Because I’m not. All it does is just piss me off even more. It motivates me to want to get out of this mess. I do think we have the right type of guys. As long as they continue to hate this taste, they’ll come back to work and be ready to go. They will.”
