The Detroit Lions have had their issues in recent seasons, but things seem to be worse now than ever before. They brought in Dan Campbell during the offseason as their new head coach, hoping he could be the man to lead the team forward. However, after eight games in charge he remains winless in Detroit as the Lions are now 0-8 on the campaign.
They came into their week nine contest against the Philadelphia Eagles as modest 3.5-point underdogs, but were downed 44-6 on home turf at Ford Field by the visitors. The Eagles came into the game with just two wins on the season, which had many Lions’ fans believing this was their best opportunity to win a game this season. It was not meant to be though, as Detroit found themselves down 38-0 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lions were booed unmercifully by their own fans at Ford Field, especially quarterback Jared Goff who Detroit acquired along with a bunch of draft picks in a trade for Matthew Stafford during the offseason. However, following the loss Campbell placed the blame on himself.
“I felt like we got outcoached today,” Campbell said, via SB Nation. “We got outplayed across the board. That starts with me. It really does. You don’t play that bad with a number of guys and areas, and turn the ball over, and (commit) penalties, and it’s low energy. You don’t do that unless that comes from the top, so that’s on me. I did not set the tone or the tempo properly, obviously. Because that was bad. We didn’t give ourselves a chance.”
Campbell did not shy away from the media and answered all questions thrown his way, including whether he believes his message is sticking with his players.
“I’m not worried about my message. Now—well, I guess maybe I should be worried about my message, right?” Campbell said. “When you come out and play like this, that’s why you’re asking that, right? I’m not worried about losing this team. I’m not worried about that. I am worried about that I didn’t deliver the right message to get them ready to go. That’s what I’m worried—that’s what concerns me about what I did.”
Fortunately for Lions’ fans, they won’t have to see their team lose next weekend as they are off on a bye week. It is a great opportunity for them to look in the mirror and try and resolve a couple of their issues.
“The good news is that we’re at a bye and I’ve got about a week now where I can really, really dive into this and just take it for what it is,” Campbell continued. “We know a lot of the issues, but now I can sit back and say, “Alright, let me look at all of it. Let me look at exactly where we’re deficient, where we’re not, where we can help.’ And I go back to this: where can we help ourselves schematically? Where can we help these players we have be better than they are? Where are we better suited to put some players (differently from) where they’re right now or what we’re asking them to do?”
The Lions visit the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field on November 14th for their next game. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.
