You don’t have to look or listen very hard to find complaints about Lions head coach Dan Campbell and his offensive playcalling over the last few weeks. The barrage of swing passes and ill-fated run plays. The converted lack of aggression on third downs. The woeful choices in critical situations.
Campbell understands the consternation. The rookie head coach, who took over playcalling duties from offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn last month, is striving to get better at in-game playcalling and situational football.
“Certainly, I can be better and there are things that – now it’s been three games and all three of those games there are three calls I wish I could have back,” Campbell told reporters on Wednesday. “So, you learn as you go, you grow and then look, I’m not going to lie, there are things about it between learning to be a head coach and a play-caller that are all – it’s stuff that I’m working through right now that I can get better at. Look, I look at all of it and I think about how do I prepare myself as best as I can and how do I improve on what I’ve done to help these guys?”
Coach Campbell even pointed out the one egregious call that poured some gasoline on the simmering fanbase, the run play on 3rd-and-32 in the Thanksgiving loss to the Bears.
“One of them would be last week. I kind of alluded to this, but when we’re on the minus-49 and it’s 3rd-and-32, I wish – it’s one thing to run it, but I hated the run that I called, that’s one,” Campbell said. “But, two is, hindsight, I wish I would have thrown. We would’ve had something a little deeper and if it’s there, great. If not, check it down, see what you can get and now you’ve got a decision to make. Do you still punt it or do you go for a field goal? I wish I had that one back.”
We all do, coach. Show me, don’t tell me.