Everything Dan Campbell Said After Lions Beat Texans

Dan Campbell breaks down Lions' win over Texans.

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Here is everything Dan Campbell said after the Detroit Lions defeated the Houston Texans, 26-23, at NRG Stadium. The Lions improve to 8-1 and have won seven consecutive games.

Opening statement:

"Credit to (Texans coach) DeMeco (Ryans) and that crew, man. They fought, we knew they would. And they were ready to go. Man, they gave it everything. That was a hard-fought game. We had to fight our way back in there and, look, I'm proud of the guys. There's things that we've obviously got to clean up, but man, they just wouldn't go away. Our guys wouldn't go away. For our defense to play the way they played -- I thought our defense played good early, we just had one play here, one play there that hurt us. But second half, you come out and it's four punts, two picks and a missed field goal. That's huge. And we talked about it at halftime, we just needed to get our takeaways. So the defense did that, and I knew we'd wake up on offense, it was just a matter of time and once we were able to pull it within one score, you felt like, 'Okay, now we're starting to find our way here.' And man, our fans helped. With about eight minutes left in the fourth, they helped, got a false start over there on them, caused one. So listen, our fans were huge, travelling like they did. But anyway, proud of the guys, big win."

On his confidence in K Jake Bates:

“Let me start here. Thursday at the end of practice we did an end-of-game situation live, offense versus defense, we were at the minus-40, 6 seconds left, one time-out for the win. (Jared) Goff hit Saint (Amon-Ra St. Brown) and got it to the plus-43, and there we are at one second left after the timeout and rolled him out there, and he nailed it. This was outside, slight wind in his face. It was the first thing I thought of when we got there, and I'm looking at it and thinking about, you know, you go for this, and I just felt good about it. I just felt like he was going to make it, and he did. He stepped up and nailed it. That was great.”

If this is the most confidence he has had in a kicker:

“Yeah, probably. I had a lot of confidence in Badge (Michael Badgley). I really did, but I think probably at this point, yeah, I would say that's a fair assessment. We're getting some pretty long kicks here. I don't particularly like to do that all the time, but sometimes you need it when you get in a game like that. He's (Jake Bates) answered the bell.”

MORE: Studs and Duds: Bates' Booming Kicks Seal Comeback Win

On Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn and the defensive performance in the 2nd half:

“If we don't play defense like that, we don't win that game. We did what we had to do at the end offensively. We found our way, and we were able to get in position to score some points, but without the defense, five turnovers, it's hard. It's hard to win that way. That's really where it begins, and then we were a little off on some stuff. If the defense doesn't play that way, we don't have a chance to come back and win it. I can't say enough about A.G. (Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn), man. We made a couple of adjustments at halftime, but we also knew we were playing good ball. It was one play here, one play there. Once we kind of got rid of that stuff and kept playing the way we were playing. I know it didn't work out, but C.D.'s (Carlton Davis) interception coming out at halftime, we talked about it. It just happens like that. The guys believe we can make this happen. It's going to happen. For our defense to have to reload again, three and out or interception on offense, and they're off the bench, on the field, off the bench, on the field. That's a credit to those guys. A.G. is a huge part of that.”

On his reaction to the game winning field goal:

“It's good. Inches are right down the middle. As far as I'm concerned, it's right down the middle. I was excited. That's a hard-fought game. You're living in the emotions of that type of game. You realize when you get in that one, you are playing the long game. You've got to do it one possession at a time and just find a way to get this thing all the way down to the end of the game because you're not going to be able to do it as far down as we were. You're not going to be able to do it within just a couple of possessions. We hung in there. For him (Bates) to just step up and make those kicks, it's good, and his confidence is growing.”

Brad was fired up after this one pic.twitter.com/IS2ZKUEr1C

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 11, 2024

On Jared Goff's performance:

“Forget the one right before halftime. That was a hail mary. We were just trying to get it up, hope and a prayer. Didn't work out. So now you're down to four. Really only one of them was kind of, eh, okay, I got it. The rest of those, it just kind of was circumstance. There's some things that happened. The one to (Lions TE Sam) LaPorta, it was a good throw. That's what we tell him to do. LaPorta was a little late getting his head around, and then he didn’t quite get himself to the ball, but the timing says, rip that ball. We were a little off. He and Jamo (Lions WR Jameson Williams). Jamo should be a little higher angle. There are just these little circumstances that come into play. For me I'm not going to tell him anything because I don't feel like this is, oh, man, what are you doing? These weren't ill-advised throws. It wasn't our day. When it's not your day and you can still win, that's a sign of a good team.”

On his defense getting pressure on the quarterback:

“There’s been so much put on our back end, our secondary. We've asked them to do a lot. Particularly since Hutch (Aidan Hutchinson) went down. This was the game that we really challenged our D-line. This was one where we said, you guys got to win. Mac, you have to go and take this game over to an extent. We felt like we could have success, and I felt like we did that. We shut that run game down. We were able to apply pressure, particularly Mac, and it helped us. So those guys answered the bell.”

On TE Sam LaPorta's injury:

“I don't know how significant it will be. It's not something like -- this is not, 'He's going to be out four weeks, whatever.' He might miss this week. We'll see. He's got a little sprain in here, kind of the AC joint. He tried to go back in, and it wasn't quite right. Didn't quite feel right. We'll get it checked tomorrow, see where it's at, see how significant it is and just take it day-to-day.”

On how he feels about the team at this point in the season:

“I feel really good about our team. They haven't done anything that would surprise me negatively. They're exactly what I thought they would be, the fight they got in them, the ability to reload, reload one more time on the road. After the win we had in Green Bay and to face an opponent, a dang good opponent that plays damn good defense and takes care of the ball for the most part, we knew they were going to be ready to go. It says a lot. Like every week for us we just have to stay focused on what's right in front of us, and I really believe if we do that, we're always going to have a really good shot. The odds are going to favor us that we can win every week. We're in it now. There are no byes. There's no nothing. We're in the meat of it. Head down, and we just keep plowing forward.”