Dan Campbell: We Made One Less Mistake

Lions coach explains if his team was rusty.

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) talks to center Frank Ragnow (77) / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Detroit Lions were able to defeat the Los Angeles Rams in their 2024 season opener, despite not playing their best brand of football.

Dan Campbell noted, after his team's 26-20 victory, typically those that make the least amount of mistakes in early season games often walk out victorious.

"I just give them a lot of credit. They did, they fought, now. But we’re hard to break, so we did what we had to do. And our defense held there. Before that (Jack) Fox makes a heck of a punt and defense holds, offense we get it back, and get it in overtime. We win the toss, and we don’t look back," said Campbell. "So, we eventually found a rhythm. We did what we had to do, and I said early in the week, ‘The team that makes the most mistakes is the one who usually loses these early games.’ And we made one less mistake. So now we just got to improve from there.”

During Campbell's tenure, key starters have not played a significant amount of snaps in the preseason, presumably to avoid injury and to get a detailed look at players competing for roster spots.

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"There’s always going to be that, and there’s always going to be. I’m telling you, I just pulled up the first two games, the Thursday Game, Baltimore-KC, and then Green Bay-Philly, and you just go through and you just try to fly through it and look at things that are, ‘What kind of games are these? Are they what you think they are?’ And some of these mistakes show up," Campbell explained. "Does it cost the other team? How many? It’s inevitable, it’s every year, and it really is."

Campbell noted teams that execute "basic" football early in the season have a distinct advantage.

"It’s first game and the ones that can just play basic football the best, the blocking, the tackling, targeting, communication, taking care of the football, being smart with it, the check down, they win," Campbell said. "So, yeah, there’s things that, man, they’re going to come along with it, and it’s the first time a lot of these guys in a while have played that many plays with that much intensity.

"So this is our first taste. We’ll get better. We’ll get in a better flow on both sides of the ball, we will," Campbell continued. "But, at the end of the day, our defense held these guys to less points than our offense, and our offense scored more points than their offense did. And so we found a way to win.”