Orchard Park, N.Y. — Here’s what I learned bouncing around the Detroit Lions’ locker room following the team’s 41-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Shellshocked captain
With tears welling up in his eyes and his voice cracking, Lions linebacker Jack Campbell tapped his chest and put the blame on himself for the loss.
“We played terrible,” Campbell said. “It starts with me and I feel like it's on me. I gotta be better and I ain't got no other thing to do other than look in the mirror and be better. That’s really where it starts.”
It’s been said, both by his college coach Kirk Ferentz and Lions leadership, one of Campbell’s greatest traits is that “it’s important to him.” That shows up in his durability — he hasn’t missed a game through his first four seasons — and his leadership, which saw him elected captain by his teammates for the first time this year.
But how personally Campbell took this loss, as if he had missed a tackle that cost the Lions the Super Bowl, and not had an uncharacteristically rough performance in Week 2, resonated with teammates.