Everything Dan Campbell Said After Lions Loss to Chargers

Here is everything Dan Campbell said after the Detroit Lions were defeated by the Los Angeles Chargers.

Opening statement: All right. First one out of the gate. 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 did have two sudden change stops, which was really good defensively. I thought we handled the run pretty good. There was a couple of runs that kicked out of there. But, I mean really they rushed for 2.8 (yards per carry). So that's pretty good. I mean we held in there. And then offensively, like we said, it's hard to get in a rhythm when you turn the ball over like that. Or you're getting ready to start a drive, and we kick off return, punt return. So, just that was kind of the nature of it. 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.

One of the disappointing things coming out of this game is just a couple of turnovers. The illegal kick, a little bit sloppy.

Campbell: You don't want all those. You get caught in the, it's the alright, we need to see some of these guys. You got to put them out there and cut them loose and let them go play. You also want to win the game. You also want to play really well. And we just, we didn't do that. So, that's the frustrating part of it, but like I said, we're going to learn from it. We're going to be able to coach off of this tape and help some of these guys get better, and that'll serve us well. And I would expect us to play much better next week. These guys that played in this game.

First off with the quarterbacks, how would assess their performance?

Campbell: I think for both of them, it was up and down. You know I thought Kyle -- the hard thing is Kyle had two bad plays. But those are two, those were two turnovers. But I thought, man, he ran the offense. He did so many good things. But you know, it's hard when those are the two, you know. But the guy's a pro. He's played ball. He knows how to run a huddle and communicate things of that nature. He did make some good throws in there.

And then Hooker, same thing. Hooker, got to a couple of good checks for us. He saw the defense, audible on his own, which was outstanding. So that was promising. But he was up and down, too. And it's hard to, I mean, I don't want to make excuses for him, but when you come in and you're down two scores and you're trying to get him in a rhythm, but do we push it, do we not? That's not the easiest thing either for him -- to get a guy in a rhythm when you're kind of where we were at. But it was up and down. I was encouraged with some of the plays that he made. I thought that was kind of some next level stuff for him. Shows he's grown. So that was good.

Your thoughts on the two rookies, (Isaac) TeSlaa and (Dominic) Lovett. TeSlaa, he made a couple plays there and both were productive. I know you always want to watch the tape, but just for those two specifically, what did you like?

Campbell: Well, TeSlaa made some plays. Look, they both did. And I just go back to Lovett, it's two plays, two negative plays. He's going to learn from those. You know, college, you're making those plays. You're snatching them. You're going to continue to go -- well this one man, the guy's coming to knock it down, out of your hands. And the other one, you know, you got it. And then he just takes it from you. It's just squeezing the ball, get it tucked as fast as possible. It's just one of those emphasis deals. He's going to be better for this. You hate that. You got to learn it the hard way. But he will be better. But you know, we wanted to get TeSlaa and Lovett the ball. We wanted to get these receivers some throws. And I wish we could have gotten all those guys some throws. But, it was good to see. I did think those two guys showed up.

Two veterans you have that you brought in, Rock Ya-Sin and Grant Stuard. Just wondered what maybe you thought you had, especially with the roles they play. Stuard had the sack this evening.

Campbell: We like those two guys. Especially here we are, I don't even know how long we've been in camp anymore. But those are two guys that have shown up to us and really have improved over what's been, what, eight practices or so. And then for them to come out here and make some plays that, you know, that's good. And quite honestly, it's kind of what we expect. I kind of expect that out of both of those guys. So it's encouraging. They both, man, they bust their rear. They give you everything they got. They play hard, they practice hard, they learn. They don't make the same mistake twice. And those are the type of guys you're looking for.

First time, just the operation of it. The headset, where guys were, the pace. How did you assess how the operation went?

Campbell: Well, honestly, I thought it went better than I thought it would. For the first time out of the gate, I thought it flowed pretty dang good. I was like, 'Okay, this is good.' There's a couple of things that we can clean up and get better at. But man, I thought it went pretty dang well, you know? So that's good.

Dan, in any football season, you guys especially needed depth down the stretch last year. How much is that as a message to these guys in game one in the preseason?

Campbell: Well, that's not honestly, it's not the message yet. The message is 'Man, when you get an opportunity to make your plays, you got to make your plays. But you got to do it within the system.' You got to do it with the fundamentals you've been taught. And play your roles. Make sure you play your responsibility. And now you got one on tape. We got to clean this up. We have to get significantly better. We got to coach them better, and they got to play better next week. They got to practice better, and then they got to play better next week. I got to coach better. I want to give these guys a chance to to play better. And so, we will. And that really is the message right now.

How do you judge or how big a concern are these things, the sloppiness?

Campbell: Concern is not the right word. 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've got to take care of the football. And it doesn't matter if you're wearing Lions gear, you got to take care of the ball, man. Or it's going to be hard to keep you around. And so, it's a hard lesson to be learned out here like that, but it's also, we got to put a little pressure. We got to apply a little pressure in a good way. In a good way, so we get better, man. We got to put some urgency on this. It is early, but it's never too early to get better, right?

What is your perspective on just this whole experience of being in the Hall of Fame game? What did you take away from being in the game?

Campbell: Honestly, I mean, we were in Cleveland last night. And then we drove in a day. It all happened fast. I know this, those guys that are going in (to the Hall of Fame), man, those are outstanding players. I did tell the team before we went out, 'Man, you're in the presence of greatness.' And maybe one day -- how do you know one of you is not going to be here. It's pretty special. And so to see those guys come out, two of them, I was in their era. The other two, I was on the back end of their era. And so, you know it's pretty cool to see those guys and the careers they've had, the durability, the production, all of it. I mean, you got to be doing some, you got to be taking care of your body. You got to be doing all the little things, right? I mean, there's so many things that go into it. So anyway, special, those guys, they deserve this and happy for them.