Monday recap: Nearly four decades after quitting baseball, Lions' coach Campbell gets his walk-off moment
Allen Park — With baseball fever taking over the city, and the postseason's opening game running on mute in the background during Dan Campbell’s Monday press conference, the coach was asked if he ever played baseball.
“I did until I was probably a sixth grader. …The last time I ever played baseball, we were in the playoffs. I don't even know what you would call it — it's not for my school, it's league baseball. And it's the classic bases loaded, two strikes, the whole deal. I get up there and I hit a grand slam for the win.”
But not so fast. For whatever reason, Campbell carried his bat down the line and handed it to the first base coach, drawing a protest from the opposing coach. The umpire agreed and ruled Campbell out, resulting in his team losing.
“We lose the freaking game, so I was like, I hate this sport,” Campbell said.
With the gathered reporters laughing at his story, Campbell hopped off the podium in the media room at the team’s practice facility, getting the walk-off moment he was denied in his little league game all these years ago.
“That was the last time I ever played, but I'm rooting for the Tigers,” Campbell said as he walked away.
Promising performance
With the Seattle Seahawks recording 90 offensive snaps, many Lions defenders logged a season-high workload Monday night. That included defensive end Josh Paschal, who doubled his snap count from the first three games combined.
Paschal was penciled in for a bigger role coming into the contest, part of the replacement plan for Marcus Davenport, who was lost to a season-ending injury a week earlier.
Campbell was asked what he thought of the third-year lineman’s performance and offered brief, but high praise.
“I thought he played really well,” Campbell said. “I thought he played a really good game last week and I thought it was even better this week.”
Pro Football Focus had Paschal with three quarterback pressures, which matched his single-game high from last season.
Snafu resolved
Even though Campbell’s postgame comments about forgetting to give Jared Goff a game ball after the QB completed all 18 of his passes in a win over the Seahawks were tongue in cheek, the situation managed to make national headlines when ESPN picked it up the quote and made it a front-page story.
On Monday, Campbell was playfully asked if he had rectified his mistake.
“Yeah, we did, we found one,” Campbell said, chuckling. “Normally what we do, I'll give out an immediate game ball afterwards, and then, normally, we have another one or two that show up when we do it here the day after the game, after a win. That was an easy one to give him that one. It was a great job.”
A missed opportunity
At the end of the first half, the Lions had a chance to accept a penalty that would have given them one, untimed play from their own 37-yard line. But ultimately saw no value, declined it and headed to the locker room.
But they weren’t that far off from Campbell doing something wild: Had the penalty taken the Lions to their 45-yard line, Campbell would have considered running kicker Jake Bates out for a field goal try. That means an attempt from 72-73 yards, well beyond the NFL record of 66.
“It might’ve been worth it just to see him swing at one,” Campbell said. “But yeah, I would’ve liked to see that too. I told (special teams coordinator Dave) Fipp today, I was like, ‘Man, it would’ve been nice just to get in — just to let him swing at one.’ But we couldn’t quite get there.”
Rest and reflection
Because of the timing of the bye week, Campbell said there isn’t as much to glean from a self-scout time of year. Instead, he intends to give his coaching staff some downtime to prepare for the grind ahead.
“You’ll kind of gain a few things looking at yourself over four weeks, but you’ve kind of been in that (self-scout) mode,” Campbell said. “You’ve already been in that mode, so there’s not a lot that we’re going to learn here. …I told the coaches, I really want us to look at ourselves more than the players.
“…Let’s look at ourselves here, individually, as position coaches, coordinators and myself, head coach,” Campbell continued. Let’s say, ‘Where are we at? What are we doing well? What are we not doing well? How do we help these guys?’ And I think that’s really got to be the emphasis right now. I’m going to give them some time off, just so you know. Because we’re about to have a long push here. Players are off and I’m about to give the coaches off some days and they can work from home.”
I really like how Campbell is using the time to evaluate his own coaches and is having his coaches do the same. I don't think many in coaching positions do that. What can I find that can help our players be better prepared? Awesome, we are going to be winners for a very long time.
That would've been cool to see Bates try a 72 yarder