Dan Campbell sends pointed message after Lions sloppy Hall of Game showing

Preseason results, good or bad, are easy to overreact to. But when starters don't play, those results have to be kept in context. The Detroit Lions have an extra preseason game for those who are in position battles to show themselves as the best option, but there was not a lot of good to be taken from Thursday night's 34-7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in the Hall of Fame Game.

Five turnovers, including an opening kickoff fumble by linebacker/experimental return man Grant Stuard and three total interceptions by quarterbacks Kyle Allen and Hendon Hooker, kept the Lions from getting any rhythm offensively. Defensively, they got zero takeaways as Chargers backup quarterback Trey Lance had a banner night.

Stuard has worked as a kickoff returner in practice, he ran the 400m in high school and he played some running back in college. But he hadn't carried the ball in a meaningful game since 2018, so having him return the opening kickoff was odd. There's testing players, or seeing what all they can do, then there's setting them up to fail. Lions head coach Dan Campbell straddled that line by having Stuard return kickoffs in a game, even if it was only the preseason opener.

Dan Campbell sends pointed message after sloppy HOF Game performance

After the game, as expected, Lions head coach Campbell was generally not too happy with his team's performance. He was able to find a few positives though, and he was (rightfully so) not going to overreact to the first preseason game.

"First one out of the gate", Campbell said. "The story of the game is we turned it over five times, and then we didn't get any takeaways. So, that's that's hard, you know? Just from that standpoint, when you put your defense in that kind of position, man, that's tough....."We're excited to watch some of these guys. See how they did, grade the tape, learn from it, grow from it. That's what it's about. So, next one."

READ MORE: 4 winners and 3 losers from Lions' dropped game vs. Chargers

Campbell was asked how he judges, or how big a concern, the Lions' sloppiness in the preseason opener is.

"Concern is not the right word", Campbell said. "It's just more, we have our own standards and it doesn't matter if you just walked in the door, or you've only practiced, you've had ten practices. Look, we turned it over five times and we didn’t get any takeaways."

Then came the message to players who are battling for spots on the Lions' roster.

"You’re wearing Lions gear, you’ve got to take care of the ball", Campbell said, "or it’s going to be hard to keep you around."

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