Emmanuel Acho: What Dan Campbell is Doing is Reckless, Asinine and Disrespectful

Acho took exception to Detroit's unusual onside kick decision.

Emmanuel Acho had a sharp critique of Dan Campbell. / The Facility on X

With his Detroit Lions trailing the Buffalo Bills by 10 points and 12 minutes remaining in regulation, Dan Campbell made the unusual choice to attempt an onside kick to skip that whole pesky "playing defense" portion of the game. The gamble did not pay off as Buffalo's Mack Hollins high-pointed the ball and raced it down near the goal line. A few seconds later Buffalo had once again pushed their advantage to 17 points. Even though this was not a turning point in the game and the outcome was etched into wet cement hours ago when a devastated Lions defensive unit tried and failed to stop Allen over and over again, it's still being discussed as a turning point.

By and large the discussion has been pretty reasonable. Many pundits have been able to realize that a very bad thing was happening to the Lions and, quite honestly, they were probably going to lose if they recovered the kick because Allen would have forced them to attempt another one after casually strolling into the end zone again. Emmanuel Acho, though, is here to offer the harshest take on the kick and Campbell's trademark aggressiveness.

"What Dan Campbell is doing is just asinine," Acho said on FS1's The Facility. "It's crazy, reckless, and disrespectful. It's no longer aggressive."

“What Dan Campbell is doing is just asinine. It’s crazy, reckless and disrespectful. It’s no longer aggressive.”@EmmanuelAcho reacts to the Lions onside kick to start 4th quarter pic.twitter.com/Q0y8vHjmNn

— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) December 16, 2024

Now the only way in the world the accusation that being too aggressive is dispectful makes sense is if Acho is implying it sends the wrong message to Detroit's defense. Yet they were on the field on Sunday and probably realized how futile their existence was more than anyone.

Acho went on to explain that if Detroit had kicked it deep and managed to hold Buffalo to a field goal, they would have gotten the ball back down 13 points, still very much alive. And he's right, which is actually a possible reason for Campbell to try an onside kick in the first place. Detroit's opponent was not just the Bills at that point. The clock was very much against them. There's a logical case to try to recover an onside kick knowing that even if you don't, then the Bills will conceivably spend less time with the ball and you'll get it back quicker. By kicking the onside kick there's an opportunity to shave off six plays from the Buffalo drive and save multiple minutes off the clock. Plus, if you get the stop on the first series there's a chance Allen and the offense could have stayed on the field for a fourth down or Tyler Bass comes out to attempt a long field goal. Win on those plays and the Lions could have gotten more advantageous field position.

With 10 minutes left and down 10 points a coach could also try to trade allowing two field goals for two touchdowns with successful two-point conversions to force overtime. Is this extremely unlikely? Of course. Anyone who watched the game, though, could reasonably conclude that the defense wasn't going to get the stop they needed anyway so failing fast might be better.

There is one reason the Bills beat the Lions and it doesn't have anything to do with Campbell's game management. His name is Josh Allen and in that specific case, keeping the ball out of his hands is the only way to make sure he can't inflict further pain.

Eleven straight wins perhaps does not buy the same type of respect it once did. And all of the disastrous injuries are only going to force Campbell to be more resourceful and aggressive in his decision-making. One thing we can all agree on is that he's going to go down swinging his way.

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