Sunday’s 29-0 shutout loss to the New England Patriots represented an epic failure on so many levels for the Detroit Lions. But there is one common denominator to all those levels.
Coaching.
Dan Campbell was woefully outclassed by his Patriots counterparts. In and of itself, there is no shame in being outcoached by Bill Belichick. He’s in the argument for the best NFL coach of all time. However, Campbell’s crew made it way too easy for Belichick and the Patriots in this one.
If Belichick was playing chess, Campbell was breaking his Hungry Hungry Hippos game by slamming the handles way too hard and always at the wrong time to catch those pesky marbles.
Every single fourth-down failure, all six of them, was a simultaneous master class from Belichick and Campbell licking the frozen pole in the playground. If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Maybe after the third or fourth abject failure, stop trying the same darn thing. That lesson is one Campbell has yet to learn or embrace.
Yet the game was gone on the very first of those six failed fourth down attempts. It was vintage over-aggressive Campbell actively hurting his team with a poor decision and an even worse play call.
The scene: 4th-and-1 from the Detroit 45-yard line. The Lions bring in an extra lineman as a blocker and aligned in a tight formation. It’s an obvious interior run to Jamaal Williams based on formation, down/distance and tendency. New England shifts into a 9-man box and easily blows through the Lions line to get the stop. Right guard Logan Stenberg, mysteriously back in the starting lineup after being benched for two weeks for inept play, chooses the wrong side of the gap to block.
It’s the first drive of the game. New England is starting a rookie QB making his first NFL start. Instead of relying on Pro Bowl punter Jack Fox to pin the Patriots deep in the shadow of their own goalposts, Campbell opts to set them up in Lions territory. That’s a completely unnecessary risk at that point in the game. Zappe leads the Patriots to a confidence-building field goal when the Lions defense nicely holds up on third down in the red zone.
Now look at it from the Patriots’ point of view. They clearly fed off the Lions’ failure:
Davon Godchaux said it was “very insulting” for the Lions to go for it on fourth-and-1 on their opening drive.
“I feel like as a defensive lineman, it’s disrespectful.”
Godchaux and Barmore stuffed Jamaal Williams, and the Lions wound up going 0-for-6 on fourth down.
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) October 9, 2022
These are the kind of tactical errors Campbell cannot keep making. He needs to account for the potential of failure. There’s a line between being ambitiously aggressive and being reckless. This line appears invisible to Campbell after five weeks of 2022.
Perhaps the past success of being overly aggressive on some fourth downs has emboldened Campbell. It has at least clouded his in-game judgment. The defenses have figured out what’s coming. Campbell, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and QB Jared Goff have collectively failed to adjust.
I wrote about another example in the postgame takeaways,
Midway through the third quarter, 4th-and-2 from the Patriots’ 34-yard line. Jared Goff rushes the snap count to try and catch the Patriots flat-footed. But the Patriots baited Goff expertly here. Knowing Goff would look for Amon-Ra St. Brown, they feigned a little off-coverage on No. 14. But the Patriots quickly just abandoned covering the outside option and had two defenders closing on St. Brown before he caught the ball — on a zero-yard route that required run-after-catch to succeed.
Everyone knows Goff will default to the easier, shorter route there. Campbell and Johnson have to know that too, but they’re not showing any ability to counter the other team’s adjustments.
When Campbell stands at the postgame podium and declares, “That’s 100 percent on me,” he’s 100 percent correct. That doesn’t make it acceptable though.
Campbell refused to even try a field goal, makeable ones based on new kicker Michael Badgley’s history. There were opportunities to put points on the board early, to cut the lead and maybe build a little momentum. Campbell seems too enamored with trying to make up a 13-point deficit on one play. This keeps happening and it needs to stop.
The bye week is a perfect opportunity for Campbell to self-scout. It needs to be a collective and thorough examination by the assistants and the front office too. It’s way too early to call for heads; the collective talent level isn’t good enough to justify change for change’s sake on the coaching staff.
However, this is a time when Campbell and his coaching staff need to collectively show real improvement coming out of the bye to prove they can be the long-term fixtures so many Lions fans, players and management want them to be. Right now, Campbell has not helped himself prove it.