Dan Campbell cost the Lions SB appearance

[Jet2020]

Last night was a terrible example of how to be aggressive. Up 24-7, you don’t need to be aggressive. Not in a playoff. You just need to ensure you get home safely. 

MISTAKE 1: Up 24-10, he chooses to give up a 35 yard FG to make it a 3 possession game and instead goes for it in 4th and 2 from the 28. Take the 3, make it a 3 possession game. Mental advantage. You gave a FG and the crowd started getting back into the game. Kick the FG, shut them up again.

MISTAKE 2: 27-24 49ers. Crowd really really pumped now. Lions on a massive slide with several mistakes. But are driving, 8 mins left, 4th and 3 at the 30. 47-48 yard FG attempt to tie the game. Campbell decides this is an easy call. Boneheaded call, boneheaded play. Take the FG and tie the game. Math is simple. It’s too deep into the game to be going for it. 

MISTAKE 3: Keep your timeouts. 1 min left, 3rd and goal at the 1, calling a run play. Loses 2 yards. That forces you to call a timeout. 3rd down call was terrible. Even then, you should have had a play ready for 4th down and should’ve lined up right away within 15 seconds and throw it. If you get it, you still have 3 timeouts and maybe about 40 seconds. Gives you an outside shot of forcing 3 and out, and maybe 15-20 seconds left to go about 40 yards to kick a long FG (that you passed on twice already). If you fail on 4th, you lose. If you use a timeout instead and score a TD, you still lose cuz onside kicks are near impossible these days (3%). 

[Jet2020]

Yes, I know he had a great year. I know he took risks all year long. But he screwed up time management last week. He was lucky he was just facing an even worse time management HC. Lions won, so he gets a pass there. 

His players made lots of mistakes. And that happens every game. No one plays a perfect game. Execution is always on the players but it’s the coaches that put you in spots to win you games. That aspect isn’t about execution. It’s about using your brain. Execution is all about what is called and what the D is doing, won’t always work. But like I said, a coach can simply NOT make boneheaded mistakes. And Dan made several last two weeks. Todd Bowles gave him a pass last week but 49ers weren’t going to show any pity. 

[Dcat]

Was discussed extensively in game thread, but yeah. Blame is on him. 

[y2k8]

To me, mistake 2 was the biggest blunder. You have to tie the game there.

Mistake 1 would have been a 45 yarder (not 35), but sill, they have a good kicker.

What's funny is that I though Campbell had his head on straight and did the right thing at the end of the half kicking the FG and making it a 3 score game.

He clearly panicked in the 2nd half

[TuscanyTile2]

If the Lions did recover that onsides kick, do you think Dan Campbell would've even taken a shot at a FG (if given the chance) or would he have tried for a Hail Mary?

[BigRy56]

Live by the sword, die by the sword. The Lions wouldn't have been in the position they were in if he didn't roll the dice all the time. It's a huge part of who he is as a coach. That's the way it goes

[TuscanyTile2]

2 minutes ago, BigRy56 said:

Live by the sword, die by the sword. The Lions wouldn't have been in the position they were in if he didn't roll the dice all the time. It's a huge part of who he is as a coach. That's the way it goes

Except they didn't have to go for it every time.  Just like they didn't go for it before the half (when they elected to kick the FG), they could've also kicked a FG in the 3rd quarter to try to go back up 3 scores.   Plain and simply, Dan Campbell single-handedly screwed his team over.

[RedBeardedSavage]

The most puzzling move was not going for the FG when down 3 with 8 mins left.

Besides that, the Reynolds drops, the Gibbs fumble and what I thought was a massive whiff by Jameson on a well-thrown ball by Goff for a tuddy all contributed.

The whole team made mistakes in the second half, I can't put it all on Campbell.

[Maynard13]

1 hour ago, Jet2020 said:

Last night was a terrible example of how to be aggressive. Up 24-7, you don’t need to be aggressive. Not in a playoff. You just need to ensure you get home safely. 

MISTAKE 1: Up 24-10, he chooses to give up a 35 yard FG to make it a 3 possession game and instead goes for it in 4th and 2 from the 28. Take the 3, make it a 3 possession game. Mental advantage. You gave a FG and the crowd started getting back into the game. Kick the FG, shut them up again.

MISTAKE 2: 27-24 49ers. Crowd really really pumped now. Lions on a massive slide with several mistakes. But are driving, 8 mins left, 4th and 3 at the 30. 47-48 yard FG attempt to tie the game. Campbell decides this is an easy call. Boneheaded call, boneheaded play. Take the FG and tie the game. Math is simple. It’s too deep into the game to be going for it. 

MISTAKE 3: Keep your timeouts. 1 min left, 3rd and goal at the 1, calling a run play. Loses 2 yards. That forces you to call a timeout. 3rd down call was terrible. Even then, you should have had a play ready for 4th down and should’ve lined up right away within 15 seconds and throw it. If you get it, you still have 3 timeouts and maybe about 40 seconds. Gives you an outside shot of forcing 3 and out, and maybe 15-20 seconds left to go about 40 yards to kick a long FG (that you passed on twice already). If you fail on 4th, you lose. If you use a timeout instead and score a TD, you still lose cuz onside kicks are near impossible these days (3%). 

A 12 year old on madden would have made better decisions onall those three scenarios.  You know campbell will be called into teh principal's office today and given a WTF UP scalding at WTF were you thinking.   

[Lupz27]

1 hour ago, Jet2020 said:

Last night was a terrible example of how to be aggressive. Up 24-7, you don’t need to be aggressive. Not in a playoff. You just need to ensure you get home safely. 

MISTAKE 1: Up 24-10, he chooses to give up a 35 yard FG to make it a 3 possession game and instead goes for it in 4th and 2 from the 28. Take the 3, make it a 3 possession game. Mental advantage. You gave a FG and the crowd started getting back into the game. Kick the FG, shut them up again.

MISTAKE 2: 27-24 49ers. Crowd really really pumped now. Lions on a massive slide with several mistakes. But are driving, 8 mins left, 4th and 3 at the 30. 47-48 yard FG attempt to tie the game. Campbell decides this is an easy call. Boneheaded call, boneheaded play. Take the FG and tie the game. Math is simple. It’s too deep into the game to be going for it. 

MISTAKE 3: Keep your timeouts. 1 min left, 3rd and goal at the 1, calling a run play. Loses 2 yards. That forces you to call a timeout. 3rd down call was terrible. Even then, you should have had a play ready for 4th down and should’ve lined up right away within 15 seconds and throw it. If you get it, you still have 3 timeouts and maybe about 40 seconds. Gives you an outside shot of forcing 3 and out, and maybe 15-20 seconds left to go about 40 yards to kick a long FG (that you passed on twice already). If you fail on 4th, you lose. If you use a timeout instead and score a TD, you still lose cuz onside kicks are near impossible these days (3%). 

While I agree he should have kicked the first FG to go up 17 again but the Lions are NEVER there without Campbell being who he is and I hope he never changes that.

[rangerous]

The bigger question is does campbell take the blame for those calls?  He should because a fourth and three is tough even if Allen or Jackson is at qb.  He should’ve kicked the fg and gone back up by seventeen.

[bonkertons]

I think we all can agree they are there because of him.  Anyone saying he should be fired because of last night is a moron(not that anyone is here, but I often see this "you can't criticize him because he's the reason they are playing in the NFCC" narrative that I just don't agree with).  But yes, he made some terrible decisions.  That said I don't think any of his decisions were any more impactful than the two drops by What's His Face and the crucial Gibbs fumble when SF started to build momentum.  I won't even count the fluky catch off the defenders helmet, since weird bounces happen.  The others are all self inflicted wounds though and if any one of them goes the Lions' way, they probably win that game.

 

...but yeah, Campbell's aggressiveness didn't help.

[Sperm Edwards]

15 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Except they didn't have to go for it every time.  Just like they didn't go for it before the half (when they elected to kick the FG), they could've also kicked a FG in the 3rd quarter to try to go back up 3 scores.   Plain and simply, Dan Campbell single-handedly screwed his team over.

This -- he should've only gone for it on those times where they converted!

[DoubleDown]

There is aggression, and then there is stupidity.  Campbell made some stupid decisions yesterday.

[GreenFish]

The entire team collapsed and that falls on him:

- poor decision on 4th down tries

- defense collapsed in the 2nd half

- offense stopped throwing those over middle slants that were working so well

- Josh Reynolds and Jahmyr Gibbs lost focus

We can point to the 4th down tries as the start of the collapse but all those were needed for them to actually lose. All mostly on coaching.

[#27TheDominator]

Remember when everybody complained about all the rotation on D?  That is why they do it.  The Lions did sh*t on O in the 2nd half.  It is not necessarily adjustments.  In turn, that gasses the D out and the steamroller comes quickly.  

[TuscanyTile2]

27 minutes ago, Sperm Edwards said:

This -- he should've only gone for it on those times where they converted!

Fwiw, I called it at the time.  I said it was idiotic to go for it and that it was a catastrophic mistake.  The move there was to go up 3 scores just over the halfway mark of the 3rd quarter.  

Not that it takes a football expert to know that point, of course, but I specifically remember Tony Romo making that same point when Dallas kicked a FG to go up 3 scores against us early in the season.  He talked about how the odds of winning go greatly in your favor when you go up 3 scores as opposed to 2.  IIRC, that was early in the 4th quarter against us, while this was a little past the midway mark of the 3rd quarter.  But I still think the logic applied.

[TuscanyTile2]

42 minutes ago, Lupz27 said:

While I agree he should have kicked the first FG to go up 17 again but the Lions are NEVER there without Campbell being who he is and I hope he never changes that.

I certainly hope he doesn't change if we're his opponent that week.

[Creepy Lurker]

Stupid Lions. I bet they wish they had a coach Saleh. Give me “all gas, no brakes”every day. 

[CanadienJetsFan]

All gas, no brains.

[dbatesman]

 

 

[freestater]

1 hour ago, Dcat said:

Was discussed extensively in game thread, but yeah. Blame is on him. 

Personally, I blame Belichick 

[greenwichjetfan]

4 minutes ago, dbatesman said:

 

 

Their final run play of the season was the biggest mistake. 

[Beerfish]

His 1st gamble to me was the worst.  SF just scored and you have a chance to score points back.

But it is what it is, that is the problem with analytics, if you want to make use of them you cannot cherry pick when to use them the whole basis of them is that over a long period of time if you do this every time it is the proper thing to do.

Part of it is having a feel for the game and though he is all about we want to be aggressive you have to temper it a bit.

If he got all conservative all of a sudden and they lost he would be getting roasted just as much for going away from what got him there.

[Larz]

Players ****ed it. Drops, face mask fail and the Gibbs fumble  

Also, I checked , the defense is allowed to stop the offense.  They got trucked. 
 

Purdy was clutch but nobody wants to give him credit. 
 

Blaming it all on the HC is lazy scapegoating 

[CanadaSteve]

2 hours ago, Dcat said:

Was discussed extensively in game thread, but yeah. Blame is on him. 

Sorry, who else do you blame the decision on NOT kicking a field goal to make it a three-score game, OR the one that would have actually tied it?

 

[Jetsfan4life90]

2 minutes ago, Beerfish said:

His 1st gamble to me was the worst.  SF just scored and you have a chance to score points back.

But it is what it is, that is the problem with analytics, if you want to make use of them you cannot cherry pick when to use them the whole basis of them is that over a long period of time if you do this every time it is the proper things to do.

Part of it is having a feel for the game and though he is all about we want to be aggressive you have to temper it a bit.

If he got all conservative all of a sudden and they lost he would be getting roasted just as much for going away from what got him there.

The first attempt at going for 4th down in the second half made a little sense, and the receiver should have caught that ball, point blank.

The second fourth-down attempt was stupid. At that point, the 49ers had all the momentum, and you could have silenced it a little bit with a decent FG-made chance.

There's a time when you don't have to be aggressive EVERY single time. It's why I was shocked that Campbell actually kicked the FG at the end of the first half.

[PS17]

I was killing Campbell yesterday in the game thread but maybe he played the odds correctly with a subpar kicker. You’re in the NFC Championship; your players have to make the plays. Gibbs and Reynolds lost the game as much or more than Campbell did. 
 

That said I agree with the poster above that said you have to kick to tie the game with eight minutes left. 

[#27TheDominator]

Reynolds should still be doing pushups when mini-camp starts.

[UntouchableCrew]

On the 4th down stuff -- I get it... But I don't intrinsically hate going for it when you've gone for it all year and that aggressive play got you here.

Imagine if he goes against what he's done all year, gets conservative, and they miss the FG?

The timeout/clock mismanagement at the end was 100% unforgivable/idiotic though.

[#27TheDominator]

Every mistake is unforgivable!  This is Jetnation!

[PS17]

Losing Ben Johnson is going to reveal a lot about Campbell. That offense was so well coached and schemed. 

[TuscanyTile2]

22 minutes ago, Beerfish said:

His 1st gamble to me was the worst.  SF just scored and you have a chance to score points back.

But it is what it is, that is the problem with analytics, if you want to make use of them you cannot cherry pick when to use them the whole basis of them is that over a long period of time if you do this every time it is the proper things to do.

Part of it is having a feel for the game and though he is all about we want to be aggressive you have to temper it a bit.

If he got all conservative all of a sudden and they lost he would be getting roasted just as much for going away from what got him there.

Completely agree.

[TuscanyTile2]

1 hour ago, rangerous said:

The bigger question is does campbell take the blame for those calls?  He should because a fourth and three is tough even if Allen or Jackson is at qb.  He should’ve kicked the fg and gone back up by seventeen.

He already said he didn't regret any of it.

[SomebodytoAnybody47]

They lost as a team. From the HC to the players. 

But yeah...you lost momentum to SF..its the 4th quarter. There's like 8 minutes left. Tie the f'n game. It's common sense. I don't think people would be saying "UGH. Why did you tie! Should have gone for it!"