The Detroit Lions had a chance to make a statement after their bye week, facing a struggling Minnesota Vikings team with an opportunity to make a move toward the top of their division.
But the Lions fell flat in the 27-24 loss, struggling through all three phases of the game and losing in quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s return to the field. After the game, Lions head coach Dan Campbell assigned blame for the team’s failures — saying much of it fell on him.
Dan Campbell Says He Didn’t Have Lions Ready
Campbell called the loss “probably one of the worst games we’ve played in a while” and noted that the team looked lost after a week of extra rest. He put the blame on himself for failing to get the team ready for their division rival.
“We looked rusty… that’s evident that I didn’t have ’em ready,” Campbell said, via SI.com.
Campbell often praises “complementary football,” saying that team successes on defense and special teams set up the offense for success, and vice versa. He said it was the opposite on Sunday, with the team struggling through all three phases of the game.
“We did everything we needed to do to lose that game. We made every critical error you need to at the right time to lose it. Perfect storm,” Campbell said. “When you don’t play well in all three phases, that falls on the head coach. I did not have them ready coming out of the bye. We made too many critical errors, man. Some of our discipline, our penalties caught up to us. We never looked comfortable and we just didn’t make enough plays. We had multiple opportunities to and we made none of them, really. I gotta clean up some stuff up."
Dan Campbell Not Sounding the Alarm
While Campbell was critical of his team’s performance in the loss, he wasn’t giving in to panic and said all of the issues are fixable. He made similar statements after the team’s season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers, with the Lions responding by winning their next four games.
“No concern, there’s certainly an urgency with fixing things. … There’s a ton to fix and a ton of things to get better at. It’s a long season and we gotta get to it,” Campbell said.
The Vikings hounded Lions quarterback Jared Goff, sacking him six times even as Goff threw for 284 yards and two touchdowns. Running back David Montgomery lost a critical fumble and the ground game struggled overall, with Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs combining for just 65 total yards on the ground.
The loss robbed the Lions of a chance to jump into the lead in the NFC North after the Green Bay Packers suffered an upset loss to the Carolina Panthers. The Lions fell to 5-3, just behind the Packers at 5-2-1. The Vikings also jumped into the mix in the division at 4-4, getting the added boost of McCarthy’s return after an extended injury.
McCarthy completed 14-of-25 passes for 143 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
The Lions get a chance to bounce back next week against the Washington Commanders.
