Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell didn’t mince words when discussing his team’s 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
“We did everything we needed to do to lose that game,” he said. “We made every critical error you needed to at the right time to lose it. Perfect storm. When you don’t play well in all three phases, that falls on the head coach. That’s me. I did not have them ready coming out of a bye. … We were out of sync. We never looked comfortable. We just didn’t make enough plays.”
Quarterback Jared Goff wasn’t about to let Campbell shoulder all the blame, though.
“I know Coach likes to take ownership of what happens out there, but I thought we were ready to go,” Goff said. “I’m sure he would like to do some things separately, but we did what we were supposed to do coming off a bye.
“We just didn’t play well as players.”
On the surface, Goff’s numbers weren’t bad. He completed 25 of 37 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns without a turnover. He started the game with a 40-yard touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta on fourth down, and he gave the Lions one last chance by hitting Jameson Williams for a 38-yard score with 1:55 to play.
But he also took a season-high five sacks, and the Lions had a 29% conversion rate (5-for-17) on third down.
“It starts with first and second downs, certainly,” Goff said. “Third and short always helps, but we need to convert on third-and-long. That keeps us on the field, allows us to get into the red zone and to score more points.
“But it is tough sledding in third-and-seven-plus.”
Campbell, though, thinks it is too easy to pile blame on the quarterback when an offense plays poorly.
“Look, on offense, it takes all 11 guys to get it right — it really does,” he said. “One guy can kill you, and that’s what is going on right now. It puts us in a bad way, and we can’t get out of it.”
Over the past few years, the Lions have specialized in following a bad play with a big one. Against the Vikings, that didn’t happen.
“We get out of those by making a play at the right time,” Campbell said. “We’re just not doing that. The fact we had 17 third downs is crazy — that’s a high, high number of third downs.”
The Lions also struggled in the running game. The Vikings give quarterbacks fits with their varied blitz packages, but teams have been able to run against them. David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, though, managed just 65 yards on 20 carries with a long of 11 yards.
“When you can’t run the ball, it is hard to be an explosive offense,” Campbell said. “Now the quarterback is a sitting duck back there.”
Goff, though, took some of the blame for that as well.
“If we’re more efficient on first and second down, some of those runs probably end up hitting for more yards,” he said. “It all works together — the running game and the passing game aren’t exclusive from each other.”
Of course, the Vikings played a huge role. Not only did they sack Goff five times, they hit him 11 times and had 10 tackles for loss.
Even Detroit’s vaunted special teams struggled. Minnesota averaged 32.8 yards per kick return and returned a blocked field goal 41 yards in the final seven minutes.
“It has been a long time since we’ve had this feeling of playing poorly in all three phases,” Goff said. “We have a ton of things to fix, but that’s what we do best.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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