Dan Campbell Explains Why Starters Were Not Pulled Against Ravens

Dan Campbell explains why Jared Goff kept playing against Ravens.

The Detroit Lions were involved in a game that ended up being a blowout. 

Losing 38-6 left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, including head coach Dan Campbell, who accepted full responsibility for the team not being all that competitive, and for making a significant amount of mistakes. 

Training by multiple touchdowns, starters, including quarterback Jared Goff and Aidan Hutchinson, were not pulled from the game. 

Many supporters wondered why the coaching staff would continue to play significant members of the roster, despite the game being significantly out of reach. 

Head coach Dan Campbell was asked during his weekly radio interview on 97.1 The Ticket if the thought crossed his mind to pull players in the fourth quarter. 

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"I think there's a time (to pull starters). I think what's hard is, honestly, I didn't believe that we were out of it until there was two minutes left," said Campbell. "And then that's when we started running the ball, under the two-minute warning. You never know what can happen. You score, onside kick, throw a bomb." 

Campbell added, "I mean, Jamo (Williams) was over the top twice. I mean, that's a one strike score. We execute on those plays, and so, right, wrong or indifferent. But no, I don't believe we're sitting there and it's 12 minutes in the fourth, ten minutes in the fourth and it's like, 'Lets better just scrap it.' There's there's a lot of time left. So yeah, I think there's a time and place." 

Detroit's third-year head coach recalled a game in which he was coaching on the sideline where his team was leading and pulled starters, only to have the opponent make a comeback. 

"I've also been in a game where we took everybody out," said Campbell. "Part of the team I was with, and the team came back on us, and it got real scary in a hurry. You try to throw your starters back in and it ended up being a mess. And so I just think there's all kinds of things that can happen. But yeah, it's crossed my mind before."