Locker room buzz: On fourth-down woes, critical penalty call, bat downs, gloves, slowing the tush push and more
Philadelphia — Here’s what I learned bouncing around the Detroit Lions’ locker room following the team’s 16-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Staying true to identity bites Lions
For better or worse, the Lions aren’t going to stray from their aggressive mentality, including the desire to put pressure on the opposition by regularly going for it on fourth down.
Against the Eagles, that was the Lions’ downfall, as they got stopped on all five tries.
“There are some things I wish I had done differently,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “Look, the bottom line is obviously — if you go totally conservative in the way this game played out and the way it was, you got a better chance of winning that game than some of those decisions I made. I understand that, but also that’s who we are. It’s who I am, and it bit us today.”
Detroit’s roster has always backed their coach’s aggression on fourth down.
“That’s just kind of who we are, and when it doesn’t work, it’s going to get questioned by you guys, and when it works, it’s going to get praised by you guys,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “It didn’t work today. I understand the question, but part of me says once you commit to it, you have to keep doing it.
“At some point you’re going to convert them,” Goff said. “Tonight wasn’t our night on fourth down and it sucks.”
Campbell said the Eagles didn’t do anything special, defensively, beyond executing coordinator Vic Fangio’s calls.
“He’s got a few (calls) that he rolls through, and he does a good job of variety, but I wouldn’t say it was anything exotic, or anything we haven’t seen or talked about,” Campbell said. “We were just a little off.
“It really was kind of one of those days,” Campbell said. “I hate saying that, but it was just a little bit of one of those days …We’re all involved in this. We all have a hand in it. For me, the coaches, all of us, man, everybody that’s part of this offense, we have to be better. Especially on a day like today, when you’re playing that kind of defense, that kind of team, the margin for error is so small.”
Campbell, in his second game calling plays after taking over the duties from coordinator John Morton, said he has to be better. But he also doesn’t want to overreact to what he believes is a performance outlier.