Dan Campbell, Lions Ripped for Bold Onside Kick That Badly Backfired vs. Bills

Screengrab on Twitter/ @NFL

Over the past few years, the Detroit Lions have never been shy about pushing the creative boundaries of football. On Sunday, one of their half-baked ideas spectacularly backfired and proved extremely costly in a potential Super Bowl preview match against the Buffalo Bills.

Down ten points with 12 minutes left in the game, Dan Campbell curiously decided to go for an onside kick. Bills’ Mack Hollins recovered the bouncing ball around the Lions’ 40-yard line and ran it into red zone territory. Buffalo would score a touchdown on the ensuing play to extend its lead to 45-28.

The NFL world collectively scratched their heads over Campbell’s baffling move, with many fans believing the Lions recklessly jumped the gun with their onside kick decision.

Campbell likely wanted to go for an onside kick to save time, thinking that if the Lions could hold the Bills to at most a field goal they would have saved valuable minutes for their offense to get down the field in the fourth quarter.

The actual result was disastrous, to say the least.


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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.