Tag: postgame press conference

Lions coach Dan Campbell after beating the Packers: ‘I want to go home and drink a beer’

A happy but exhausted Dan Campbell was ready to chill after the Lions big win over the Packers

The Detroit Lions got a taste of sweet victory on Sunday, beating the visiting Green Bay Packers 15-9 in Week 9. It’s just the second win of the season for Detroit and head coach Dan Campbell.

After the game, a weary but happy Campbell was thirsty for a taste of something else.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m exhausted,” Campbell told reporters after the game. “I want to go home, put the feet up and drink a beer.”

Campbell continued with a smile,

“It feels real good. I’m just proud of, I’m proud of the coaches, I’m proud of the players. I’m proud of everybody.”

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Falcons HC Arthur Smith on loss to Bucs: ‘I’m proud of our guys’

WATCH: Falcons head coach Arthur Smith gives postgame press conference following Sunday’s 21-15 loss to the Buccaneers.

The Atlanta Falcons lost their third game of the season on Sunday, a 21-15 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Playing on the road without their top two offensive weapons, the Falcons fought back from a 21-0 deficit to make it six-point game with four minutes remaining.

The Bucs would hold on for the 21-15 victory, which gives them sole possession of first place in the NFC South. After the game, Falcons head coach Arthur Smith said he was proud of the way his team fought until the end.

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Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota took the podium shortly after Smith and also praised the team’s resilience.

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Frustrated Dan Campbell ‘going to look at everything’ to fix Detroit’s broken defense

Frustrated Lions coach Dan Campbell is “going to look at everything” to fix Detroit’s broken defense

There was no hiding from the dismay and disgust of the Detroit Lions defense after the team’s 48-45 home loss in Week 4 to the Seattle Seahawks. Head coach Dan Campbell addressed his woeful defense head-on following the disappointing loss.

“Yeah, we’re going to look at everything. We’re going to look at it all, top to bottom,” a visibly frustrated Campbell told reporters after the game.

Seattle ran for 235 yards and passed for another 320. The Seahawks never punted in the game, the first time in franchise history they’ve done so. The Lions defense failed to record a sack and did not force a takeaway; Seattle’s lost fumble came on a punt return.

Coordinator Aaron Glenn’s defense often seemed completely helpless to stop journeyman QB Geno Smith playing behind an offensive line starting two rookie tackles. It was too easy, too often against Glenn’s defense, something Campbell noted after the game.

“And I look at everything with (Glenn) AG,” said Campbell. “We’ll look at everything we need to. To the scheme, to our personnel, and we’ll find the best fit and whatever we feel like’s going to give us the best chance and the best chance in three or four weeks too. If that’s a young player, it’s a young player.”

Campbell made a tough call in his first season in Detroit, taking the offense away from coordinator Anthony Lynn midway through the year. That decision paid off for Campbell and Detroit, which has had one of the NFL’s top offenses ever since. The head coach has proven he’s not afraid to make changes, and they could be in order again. The Lions defense ranks dead last in points allowed and could wind up last in yards allowed once Week 4 wraps.

“Yeah, listen it’s frustrating,” Campbell said. “It’s frustrating and I have nobody to blame but myself. So, I’ll – that’s on me to handle that and can’t keep saying that, can’t keep writing that, can’t keep – so, there again I’ll look at everything. It is frustrating.”

We all are frustrated, coach. It’s time for more than just words, unfortunately…

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Taylor Decker thought the Lions would go for it on 4th down instead of trying a field goal

“I thought we were going to go for it, I did,” Decker admitted in the locker room after the game.

Lions left tackle Taylor Decker is among the many who expected that Detroit head coach Dan Campbell would elect to go for it on 4th-and-4 late in the team’s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. It’s easy to see why Decker would think that after Campbell had gone for it five previous times on fourth down in the game, successfully converting four.

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“I thought we were going to go for it, I did,” Decker admitted in the locker room after the game.

Campbell chose to try a 53-yard field goal instead. Kicker Austin Seibert badly missed, his second botched field goal of the game. Minnesota capitalized on the good field position and quickly turned Detroit’s 24-21 lead into a 28-24 Vikings victory.

Decker shed a little more light on his thoughts,

“I know there are some analytics to football but I also know Dan (Campbell) is very apt to just be like, ‘I believe in our guys’, so let us go make a play. You know, what if we kick the field goal and it works — great. It just didn’t work out in our favor.”

The veteran left tackle continued,

“We do know coach believes in us. We know our coaches believe in us to be able to get the job done. We just didn’t make enough plays to get the job done … we get one first down and the game is over.”

Decker also added that he had faith in the defense to make a stop. Unfortunately, the Detroit defense gave up the game-winning touchdown in less than a minute.

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Everything Brian Kelly said after Saturday night’s win over New Mexico

Kelly praised his team and updated the status of some injured players after Saturday night’s 38-0 shutout victory over the Lobos.

The Tigers cruised to an easy win on Saturday night in their first-ever matchup against New Mexico.

LSU held the Lobos off the scoreboard in a 38-0 win, the first shutout the team has registered since the 2018 season. It was a dominant defensive performance as UNM was held under 100 yards of offense, while LSU accounted for more than 600 yards of total offense.

It was a nice tuneup, though the Tigers did walk away with some injuries that Kelly addressed after the game. They may be a bit shorthanded as they continue SEC play next week on the road against Auburn.

Still, it’s hard to find many flaws with LSU’s performance in this one. Here’s what coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] had to say after the game.

Everything Brian Kelly said after LSU’s win over Mississippi State in SEC opener

Kelly broke down his first conference win as an SEC head coach.

The first SEC win for Tigers coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] came in impressive fashion.

In Saturday night’s conference opener at home against Mississippi State, LSU had to battle back from a 13-0 deficit in the first half. But thanks to a very impressive defensive performance and a 21-point fourth quarter as a result of some powerful running down the stretch, the Tigers sit at 1-0 in SEC play after a 31-16 win.

Just two weeks removed from a disappointing performance in the season-opening loss to Florida State, the Tigers look like a vastly improved team. With upcoming games against New Mexico and Auburn, who lost big at home to Penn State on Saturday, this team could be 4-1 entering the meat of the SEC schedule.

Here’s what Kelly said after the huge win for his team.

Dan Campbell ‘not displeased’ with Lions backup QBs despite ‘bitter taste’ from loss to Falcons

Lions coach Dan Campbell offered a mixed and pointed assessment of backup QBs Tim Boyle and David Blough after preseason loss to Falcons

There were no issues with the starting quarterback in Detroit’s preseason opener, a 27-23 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Jared Goff was 3-for-4 in leading a 10-play touchdown drive on the opening series, and the incompletion was a drop by RB Jamaal Williams.

The backups behind Goff, however…

Tim Boyle and David Blough both had their moments. Boyle authored a nice scoring drive that he capped with a beautiful fade throw to TE Devin Funchess in the back corner of the end zone. Blough escaped pressure several times and made some pinpoint throws, many to WR Tom Kennedy.

8 quick takeaways from the Lions preseason loss to the Falcons

But the game outcome turned on critical mistakes from Blough and Boyle. A bad INT from Boyle set up the Falcons for a short field goal. Blough botched a shotgun snap as the Lions were trying to bleed out the clock late, a costly giveaway that led to Atlanta’s go-ahead touchdown.

Head coach Dan Campbell weighed the positives and negatives of his two reserve QBs after the game.

“Both of them, I thought made some really good plays, man. But then there’s a couple of these plays that leave a bitter taste in your mouth,” Campbell said succinctly.

The coach continued on the backup battle,

“Certainly, the interception that Tim had, he didn’t quite lay out in front
enough. And then the snap – the exchange there, the critical play there in the red zone by Blough. Those two hurt you man and that’s kind of what all this is about at the end of the day, you know. You do a lot of good things, but those will bite you.

But look, I thought they ran the huddle well, I thought they made some really good throws, I thought they found a way to improvise a little bit at times, and they had command of the huddle. So all of those were good and certainly something to build off of. I’m not displeased with those guys, at all. You just wish you would have had those couple plays and so do they that’s the reality. But it is certainly something they can build off, we can.”

During the week in training camp, Campbell left open the possibility that the Lions could keep just two QBs instead of three. He and QB coach Mark Brunell also declared the No. 2 job still open for competition. After the mixed bag that was the first preseason game, it’s tough to see any change in the status with Boyle and Blough.

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Dan Campbell: ‘I’m finishing the season as the OC’ and feeling better about calling plays

Lions head coach Dan Campbell will remain the offensive coordinator for the rest of the season and is feeling better about calling plays

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It did not equate into a victory in Atlanta, but the Detroit Lions offense once again showed more vitality and cohesion in the Week 16 loss than it had earlier in the season. It’s a continuation of the theme for Detroit’s offense, which has played markedly better since head coach Dan Campbell took over the playcalling and more input on the scheme from offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn.

On Sunday, despite starting backup QB Tim Boyle and missing top weapons T.J. Hockenson and D’Andre Swift, the Lions offense outperformed the Falcons in every category except the red zone. That’s not a coincidence with Campbell calling the shots.

 

The rookie head coach is feeling more confident and positive about how he’s handling the in-game play calls and decisions. It was a focus of Campbell’s postgame press conference.

“Definitely, I feel like every week I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable,” Campbell stated. “And there’s a number of challenges that you go through as a head coach and a play-caller together that you get over. Even that little wrinkle today where you lose a couple of guys, you’re out of these personnel groups, to have to adjust and adapt and do it on the run. Man, you memory-bank all this you learn and grow from it. I do, I feel like I’m getting get a lot more comfortable.”

Don’t expect any change in the final two weeks. As for the long-term, it’s still up in the air. But Campbell made it clear Lynn won’t be retaking the role.

“Look, I’m not even worried about that right now. But we’ll cover that whenever the time (comes) — I just know I’m finishing the season as the OC.”

That certainly doesn’t bode well for Lynn’s future with the team. Based on how the offense has perked up under Campbell’s control despite myriad injuries, that’s not a bad thing either.

Dan Campbell, Lions proud to finally play a complete team game

Dan Campbell and several Lions were proud to finally play a complete team game in the win over the Cardinals

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It was a long time coming for Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions. The team played its best, most complete game across all three phases of the matchup with the Arizona Cardinals in Sunday’s shocking 30-12 win in Ford Field.

Getting the offense, defense and special teams all playing well at the same time is something Detroit has struggled to do for several years. On Sunday, Campbell’s crew finally pulled it off despite myriad injuries and COVID-19 absences.

Campbell mentioned it in his opening statement after the game.

“That was fun. So proud of our guys,” Campbell stated. “We knew what we had to do today and we did it, really in all three phases across the board. The minute it felt like something may go the wrong way, we were able to tilt it back into our favor. I was proud of those guys, golly. We showed next-man-up mentality. The next man up did a good job today across the board. But as a team, man I was proud of them.”

“I mean, how we played the game today is how we talked about playing it all week, left tackle Taylor Decker said after the game. “You know we’ve had spurts of where the defense will do what they need to do but then maybe the offense doesn’t, or the offense will, you know whatever. Special teams has been pretty damn good all year. But we just played a complete game. We wanted to dictate how the game was played. When we were able to start fast, we were able to do that.”

Fullback Jason Cabinda, who scored his first career touchdown, echoed the same sentiment.

“I think today was really a complete effort. We played well on special teams, we went out and covered punts, covered kicks, “Cabinda said. “Our defense held up so well. That’s an explosive offense. You guys see how many points they put up week in and week out. They got in the red zone and had to kick field goals, that was huge for us.

We kept them off the field because our offense was churning out first downs and keeping the ball, keeping possessions. We were running the ball really well. Craig (Reynolds) was running his freaking butt off. It was just a really good combination of a great team effort.”

Quarterback Jared Goff sang a similar refrain. Goff had an outstanding game, completing 21 of his 26 pass attempts, throwing three TDs and he did not turn the ball over once.

“It was a full-team win, a full-team win,” Goff said proudly. “All of the times we’ve talked about it this whole year, what it looks like, what it looks like, that’s what it looks like. We make a mistake, we have a fumble, Amani (Oruwariye) makes an interception and almost takes it back to the house, we score on the next play. That’s how good teams win in this league and we put it on display in all three phases today.”

Watch: Falcons HC Arthur Smith discusses loss to 49ers

Three failed fourth-down attempts in the red zone ultimately doomed the Falcons, who are now 6-8 following their 31-13 loss to the 49ers.

The Atlanta Falcons played hard on Sunday but again proved they’re not quite ready to compete against playoff-caliber competition. So it’s only fitting that the team’s postseason chances have mostly evaporated.

Three failed fourth-down attempts in the red zone ultimately doomed the Falcons, who are now 6-8 following their 31-13 loss to the 49ers. After the game, head coach Arthur Smith discussed what went wrong after what appeared to be a promising start for Atlanta.

Watch Smith’s full postgame presser below, courtesy of team’s Twitter account.

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