Campbell: Expensive clock gaffe, loss to Bucs 'on me'

DETROIT — An emotional Dan Campbell briefly held again tears when addressing the Lions‘ 20-16 upset loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Detroit’s coach made no excuses, as a substitute blaming himself for the crew’s 1-1 begin regardless of getting into the Week 2 matchup at Ford Discipline as a 7.5-point favourite, per ESPN BET.

“I requested for enchancment from final week was the story, and we did enhance. And their coach value them — their head coach value them this one,” Campbell stated. “So, essential error to finish the half, and one hundred pc on me. We improved. There’s areas we have got to proceed to enhance on, nevertheless it’s not OK.”

In a rematch of final season’s NFC divisional spherical playoff matchup, Detroit’s offense scored only one landing on seven crimson zone journeys in opposition to the Buccaneers.

The six crimson zone drives with out a landing have been probably the most by a Lions crew in a recreation since 1981, per ESPN Analysis. Nevertheless, Campbell pinpointed as a serious blunder the drive that ended the primary half by which they have been flagged for having too many offensive males on the sphere.

The Lions trailed 13-6 at that time and will have scored on third-and-2 on the Buccaneers’ 9-yard line, however the clock expired because of a 10-second runoff due to the penalty.

Quarterback Jared Goff spiked the ball to cease the clock, however the area purpose unit began working onto the sphere with a number of seconds remaining because the time was mismanaged.

“Look, it was nothing that is going to make any sense to anyone. There isn’t any approach to justify this. It is a huge error on my half, nobody else’s,” Campbell stated. “It was simply between hurry-up area purpose and clocking, and it was one hundred pc my fault. one hundred pc.

“That is why we have now guys on the sphere who attempt to clock it. And it is simply a kind of issues we work again and again on, and we have been good, we do every thing — after which I mess it up.”

Goff, who had been 3-0 versus quarterback Baker Mayfield all through his profession, went 34-for-55 with 307 yards in opposition to the Buccaneers’ protection. Goff additionally threw two interceptions and no touchdowns, however Campbell is assured the signal-caller will rebound on the Arizona Cardinals subsequent week.

“They seem to be a good crew. We’re a superb crew. It is early within the season. It’s going to be positively a studying expertise for positive for us to have a look at and go, ‘OK, what went mistaken and the way can we repair it?'” Goff stated. “I believe if I keep in mind accurately, we began 1-1 final yr and we have been capable of reply from that fairly effectively. So, it is early within the yr, nevertheless it’s a superb studying expertise and an opportunity for us to dive into what went mistaken and methods to not let that stuff occur once more.”

Lions All-Professional offensive deal with Penei Sewell was pissed off with the loss whereas exiting the locker room, however he additionally was appreciative of Campbell being keen to take accountability in defeat, significantly with the clock mismanagement.

Sewell views the defeat as considerably of a wake-up name amid expectations for this squad to make a deep postseason run.

“It form of simply displays what sort of folks we have now on this constructing,” Sewell stated of Campbell. “I do know that he stated that, however it is a crew sport, crew effort, so everybody has a job that performs into this loss. So, positively exhausting to swallow, however we have now to have the ability to bounce again and be higher for the subsequent video games.”