Everything Dan Campbell Said After Lions' Loss to Vikings

Here is everything Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after the Lions lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 27-24, on Sunday.

Opening Statement: 

“Alright. Credit those guys over there, man. They had a good plan, came in, they executed, made the plays they needed to and that’s a credit to that team. As far as us, we did everything we needed to do to lose that game. We made every critical error you needed to at the right time to lose it. Perfect storm. When you don’t play well in all three phases, that falls on the head coach. That’s me. I did not have them ready coming out of a Bye. We weren’t – we made too many critical errors, man. Some of our discipline, the penalties caught up to us. Man, there were some things we were out of sync. We never looked comfortable. We just didn’t make enough plays. We had multiple opportunities to set ourselves up to have a chance to win that game and we made none of them, really. So that’s – I got to clean some stuff up, and we will, I will. We did have some guys who played pretty well, but it was just too much. The penalties, the turnovers (during) inopportune times really bit us there. Defense gets put in some tough spots, but there again, we expect our defense to get stops when it’s sudden change. Man, we just did not handle today well. So, we got to clean it up and move on.”

On how disappointing it was to not be able to handle the Vikings’ defensive pressure today:

 “Self-induced. Oh yeah. Very disappointing. We knew what we were going to get going into this. We knew there would be some wrinkles, but there was nothing that we hadn’t seen before. We did not – we didn’t handle it. We did not handle it well. I know we got beat on a couple of them, just physically beat on a couple that we expect not to. We expect more out of our guys. But some of it, we act like it was something exotic – it wasn’t. We just didn’t handle it well. We weren’t on the same page. We were not on the same page.”

On his level of concern with the offense: 

“Yeah, I mean, look, I know this. It’s something where – OK man, you go into the Bye and you look at a few things and then we make a couple of tweaks and come out and you’re like, ‘Ah.’ We didn’t finish the way that I thought we would and I’m sure everybody. So, I don’t know if concern is the right word, but we got to clean it up. We got to find the right balance there to help us convert. We probably got to do a couple of things a little different. And we were, we were doing a few things different. But we may need to change up in some areas. But, look, offense, it takes all 11, it does. One guy can kill you and that’s kind of what’s going on right now. It puts us in a bad way and it kind of affects everybody around it and then we can’t get out of it. That’s the other thing. When something bad happens, normally we can get out of some of those. We make a play at the right time that gets us going, man. We get the next first down. We’re just not – first of all, the fact that we had 17 third-downs, that’s crazy. That’s a high, high amount of third-down. We need to be – our first and second down efficiency has got to be better. I’d start there. Then, yes, the third-down is still an issue. We didn’t run the ball well, 3.3 average, that ain’t good enough. You can’t run it, it’s hard to be an explosive offense because now you’re a sitting duck. You’ll sit back there in gun and everybody knows you’re passing, and they just pin their ears back and they go after you and run all the games and get up there and mugs and all that good stuff. So, yeah we go to clean some things up. But I’m not in panic mode. ”

On the impact of the Vikings’ special teams making plays today: 

“Well it gives them a little momentum right, when you’re able to hit those. We got hemmed up on a couple, they doubled us on the perimeter a couple of times. We had some of the other guys we need if that happens to show up, they didn’t show up. They got cut out of their gap. Look, it’s a volatile play. We’ve said that all before. We’ve handled it pretty well and it caught us today, it did. It still – you don’t want any of these to happen. It’s like a slap in the face. That happens and you don’t want them to happen, but hey, here it is. So now you’re forced to stand there and stare at it. So, now, how are we going to fix this? No different from the field goal getting blocked. You stand there, you preach it, you talk it, and it freaking happens to us. You get hit square in the face. It’s about cleaning it up, it’s about correcting errors and we move on.”

On if there were any unexpected differences from the Vikings’ defense today: 

“No, I mean they changed a few things up. He changed his MO. But what I’m saying is, this is the third year we’ve played them. We’ve seen all of this at some point. That’s my point.”

On the issues facing the Vikings’ defense today: 

“Listen, we did not handle some of the communication well. Not well enough. Where we all need to be on the same page. That’s the bottom line. We’re better than that, we just are.”

On what went wrong during the blocked field goal today: 

“The height hurt a little bit. It was a little low. Hogan (Hatten) got knocked back a little bit. But it was really a – it was kind of a low kick there.”

On if he was surprised the team did not seem ready today coming out of the Bye Week: 

“Yeah, I thought we would play well. I really did. I thought we would play well. Ultimately, it was probably one of the worst games we played in a long time. We looked rusty, we looked out of sync, we were undisciplined and we didn’t make plays, not enough of them. That’s evident that I didn’t have them ready and got to do a better job. A much better job.”

On what the team will do with the injuries on the offensive line: 

“Well, we’ll have to see. I’ll know more tomorrow. (Christian) Mahogany is going to be out for a while, long time, probably. Then we’ll see where (Taylor) Decker is at and (Penei) Sewell, how they feel. (Tate) Ratledge came back in. But we’ll see. We’ve got some guys in the hopper. Skip (Dan Skipper) played today for us. We’ve got (Trystan) Colon, (Kayode) Yode (Awosika), we got (Michael) Niese on vet squad. We got some guys. So, we’ll do what we have to do. We’ll fill in and those guys got to be ready to go. ”

On if he considered an onside kick at the end of the game: 

“I thought about it, but I felt pretty good about getting the stop. Three timeouts and I thought they would be conservative. We kind of – we got what we wanted. They made a play, man. It was a credit to them. It was a hell of a throw, hell of a catch, and listen, they sealed the win. But, yeah I did think about it. I did.”

On if OL Christian Mahogany’s injury is season-ending: 

“Maybe not that long. But it’ll be – you’re talking about late December probably.”