Aggression is usually praised only when it yields results. However, Campbell is never passive.
Dan Campbell approaches fourth downs differently than any other football player, which often leaves people uneasy, occasionally angry, and, in the event that things don’t work out, haughtily critical.
“I recognize the scrutiny,” Campbell remarked. “That comes with the job.”
In the NFC title game on Sunday, Campbell’s Detroit Lions encountered fourth-and-short situations twice when they were close to making a field goal. It only took a kick to take back a 17-point advantage. The game may have been tied by the other.
Campbell made his choice without second thought on either occasion. He was definitely going to go for it.
The 49ers of San Francisco stopped the Lions twice.
These choices were made after the Lions blew a significant halftime lead. They arrived just as an avalanche was destroying a once-in-a-lifetime Super Bowl dream. They arrived in a moment when optimism was proving to be a cruel and dangerous thing, and Detroit fans were daring to think that this just may, maybe, could be, perhaps was feasible.
Before long, San Francisco turned 34, Detroit turned 31, and the confetti and joy continued in the opposite direction. While Lions fans stared on in gut-punch amazement, Niners fans were booking trips to Vegas.
Campbell needed to kick to stop the momentum. Campbell had a chance to kick to equal the score. Campbell ought to have…
Those missed fourth-down conversions didn’t force Detroit to lose, but they also didn’t make things any easier. They were both assertive, which is usually only praised when it succeeds. But Campbell is never one to back down.
He feels that this is the proper way to play the game and possibly the only way to make Detroit, a generational underdog, a team three points from the Super Bowl. More precisely, in a game like today, it’s the only way to defeat a heavily favored No. 1 seed away from home.
“After we converted, I just felt really good,” Campbell remarked.
Campbell wasn’t taking the math into account, even though the analytics were, at least somewhat, in his advantage. He was thinking about the game. Since Detroit’s offense is undoubtedly superior to its defense, the strategy is always to try to win games with Jared Goff and company.
The second fourth down was also about avoiding the Niners being able to run out the clock and take the lead with just a field goal in the late portions of the fourth quarter, which is how the Lions could have knotted the game at 27 with 7:03 remaining.
Campbell viewed a tie as an opportunity for a San Francisco offensive that Detroit had suddenly been unable to stop to play with minimal pressure and little hurry, while others saw ties as wise and safe decisions. That was not incorrect of him. Everything would have changed if Detroit had converted, scored a touchdown, and seized a four-point lead.
Campbell remarked, “Not letting them play long-ball.” “They were exhausting the clock.” They act in this manner. I desired to regain the upper hand.
After the game, San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan said, “It would have been really hard to deal with that if they moved the chains on that fourth-and-2,” not that he was shocked. For the most part of the year, it has been their method. They are here for that reason. Making those choices helped them win a lot of games.
Campbell’s lone complaint was that the plays fell flat, not that Detroit made an effort to produce them.
“I understand that it’s simple in retrospect,” he remarked. “I get that. However, I don’t regret the choices I made. It’s challenging. The fact that we failed to make it is difficult. We were unable to resolve the issue.
Nevertheless, Detroit’s issues in the second half went much beyond those missed opportunities to score.
Passes were dropped. Tackles were not made. A punt was not successfully downed inside the five. One slip-up, one penalty. A flea flicker that was untrue to everybody. A scramble a la Brock Purdy, followed by another and another.
Josh Reynolds, the wide receiver, remarked, “Just a lack of execution.”
In the first half, nearly everything went Detroit’s way; in the second, the opposite was true. Detroit found itself abruptly on the defensive after launching haymakers on the largest platform in the team’s history. After halftime, San Francisco scored on every possession but for the one in which Purdy took a knee with seconds remaining.
Would a field goal or two make a difference in that?
The quarterback Jared Goff stated, “Momentum changed.” “They scored, we turned the ball over, they scored again, and we didn’t convert the fourth down.”
Maybe later in his coaching career, Campbell will realize that sometimes it’s okay to let go of the gas pedal and kick field goals just for the purpose of kicking them. Perhaps not.
But that’s not how he coaches anymore, and it’s that coaching style that drove this whole wild, exciting run that saw Detroit go from a 1-6 start to the 2022 season to the verge of disaster in just 14 months. Campbell feels that football games are not won, but rather grabbed. Super Bowls aren’t given; they’re grabbed. Furthermore, it takes a stake through the heart to defeat seasoned, elite teams like the Niners.
Detroit may not win, but it won’t lose by staying inactive.
As Goff put it, “I love it.” “We must convert… He has faith in us. He has faith in us. We had a bunch of big-time conversions this year that altered games; I’m not sure what the numbers are.
After the game, none of that helped Campbell. This was hopelessness; the man shows his feelings through his clothes.
He remarked, “It feels like your heart was torn out.”
He appeared as though he had suffered a terrible fate. It was the same in a locker room full of thousand-yard glances and soft whispers. Critics or not, this club at least went out on a high note.
The mentality in Detroit may not be shared by others, but it isn’t evolving.
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