After what seemed like forever, Dan Campbell and his Detroit Lions finally got back on the field for a regular season game as they hosted the Philadelphia Eagles at Ford Field.
Unfortunately, things did not go as the Lions had hoped they would as the Eagles built up a big lead before eventually holding on for a 38-35 loss.
Near the end of the first half, Campbell made a questionable decision that involved running an offensive play rather than allowing the clock to run down to the 2-minute warning.
After the game, Campbell defended his decisions.
Dan Campbell defends head-scratching decisions during loss to Eagles
With the Detroit Lions down 21-7 with just over two minutes remaining in the half, they had the ball third-and-1 at the Eagles 7-yard line. Rather than allowing the clock to run down to the 2-minute warning, Campbell made the decision to run a play. After getting stuffed on third-and-1, the Lions did score a touchdown but it gave the Eagles time to march down the field and score three points of their own before halftime.
Following the game, Campbell spoke to reporters and he defended his decision to run a play rather than letting the clock run down to the 2-minute warning.
“The one offensively was, we finally got in a rhythm and I didn’t want to lose that rhythm going into the two-minute,” Campbell said. “Now, you can judge it however you want, but that was me. I’m like, ‘Look, he’s up there, we’re moving a little bit here so let’s go.’ And that was just my mindset on it. And it’d have been easy enough to do it, but that’s kind of how I felt.”
Then during the Eagles final drive of the half, which resulted in a field goal, Campbell called a pair of timeouts in an attempt to get the ball back one more time before going into halftime.
Campbell said he took his first timeout after Walker’s sack because “I wanted the ball back (and) I had faith in my defense.”
In the third quarter, the Eagles got the ball first and they went right down the field for a touchdown to go up 31-14. But the Lions answered with a touchdown of their own to cut that lead to 31-21 and Campbell decided to roll the dice by attempting an onside kick, which was recovered by the Eagles.
When asked why he elected to try an onside kick with so much game time left, Campbell was short and to the point.
“Because I wanted the ball back,” Campbell said.
Nation, what do you think about these calls by Dan Campbell? Do you like his aggressiveness or do you think he should be more conservative moving forward?
