Dan Campbell admits to one critical mistake in loss to 49ers.
Dan Campbell, the Detroit Lions’ head coach, has been chastised for numerous mistakes he made during his team’s NFC Championship Game loss to the San Francisco 49ers, and it appears that at least one of them he would like to reverse.
The Lions were behind 34-24 when they got the ball back after a 49ers score with just over 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter. They had three timeouts left and were able to travel down the field rapidly without utilizing any of them. Detroit drove all the way to the San Francisco 1-yard line before calling a run play on third-and-goal with 1:05 remaining. David Montgomery was stuffed for a two-yard loss.
Because they were losing by two scores, the Lions had to call a timeout when Montgomery was stopped. They went for it on fourth down instead of trying a field goal, and Jared Goff connected with Jameson Williams for a touchdown throw.
Detroit then attempted an unsuccessful onside kick, which the 49ers recovered. The Lions could only have gotten the ball back with three stops if they had all of their timeouts, but they used one on the previous possession.
On Monday, Campbell conceded that he “probably should have” called a third-down pass play instead of rushing on Detroit’s previous drive.
“The easy thing to do is throw it,” Campbell told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “It may not have been the best decision, but I wanted to run it. I figured we’d just pop it. We had only 2 minutes to toss the football down the field, and they were in a four-down front. However, we missed a block, requiring a timeout. In retrospect, I should have thrown it four times, but at the time, I thought it would be a walk-in. And that did not work out. So I gambled and lost.
Campbell thought he’d take the 49ers off guard by rushing, but the defense was prepared. That was hardly the coach’s only poor decision.
Campbell was also chastised for going for it on fourth down earlier in the game, when a field goal would have given the Lions a three-score advantage. When asked about the decision, he responded sternly. He may regret the late-game rush to the goal line more than being aggressive on fourth down.
