Everything Dan Campbell Said After Lions Beat Vikings

Campbell breaks down Lions' win over Vikings.

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

Here is everything Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after defeating the Minnesota Vikings 31-9 in Week 18.

Opening Statement:

“Hey, how’s it going? Woo, man, what a win. What a win. Guys, I can’t say enough about our defense, let me start there. (Defensive Coordinator Aaron) AG (Glenn) and this defense, they really controlled that game for us—particularly the first half, first two-and-a-half quarters. The guys on defense I thought executed exactly the way that we had worked, and what we had talked about. We were able to apply a lot of pressure, and it just paid dividends, you know. That’s a, that’s a good team over there. They’re well-coached. (Vikings Head Coach) Kevin O’Connell does a great job. Ton of weapons, and we were able to contain them, and keep them at bay until our offense was able to find our rhythm. So, just total team effort. Started with our defense and took the whole unit, but man, what a great job. Back-to-back division winners in the NFC North, got the one seed, 15 wins, I just couldn’t be more proud of those guys. And I just told them that to me, this has been in the making for a while. You know, it takes a special group of guys. And I think you kind of had to go through what we’ve been through over the last four years—the core of this unit—and then anybody that comes in, they fall in line because they, that’s what we’re built around, is our core. And they really delivered for us today. Our playmakers made plays when we needed it.”

On how big of a boost Alex Anzalone’s return gave the team: 

“It was huge. Look, I’ve said it before, he’s really our quarterback on defense. He’s our quarterback on defense, and you know, he just brings, there’s a lot of confidence he brings, a lot of energy. He can calm the storms, he just, to have him back, you know, and I thought it was going to take him a minute to work himself back in. And it didn’t take long at all. He was back to what he was before he got injured I thought, so I mean, he’ll get a game ball. It was outstanding. So to have him back was, it was huge.”

On why they took the defensive approach that they did tonight: 

“Yeah, yeah, great job there. And it was really, you look at all the—(Vikings QB Sam) Darnold has really played better and better every week. It feels like he’s just continued to make this gradual climb, and continued to improve, and what you really see is, man, when he gets the play-action pass and they nudge the edges, or they’ll max protect on some of this stuff, two receiver routes, three receiver routes, and he can see it and has time, he’s deadly, and we could not allow that to happen. We didn’t feel like there was any way we could let him sit back there because we did think he would pick us apart, you know? If you give him that much time, because he was playing at such a high level with the weapons they had, and so, we knew it needed to be the right balance of coverage and pressure, and we tried to bring more than they could handle for most of it, and then we had to hold on in the back end and those guys did, man. They really, they covered their tails off for most of that game. And then we were able to play enough to where we could double (Vikings WR Justin Jefferson) 18, take care of him, and we singled some guys out—like Alex (Anzalone) was one-on-one with (TJ) Hock (Hockenson) on a number of things. And so it just, it worked. It really worked exactly like we kind of envisioned it to, so I couldn’t be more proud of those guys. (Defensive Coordinator Aaron) AG (Glenn) laid out the vision for it. The guys really showed up and performed, and, man, it was great.”

On RB Jahmyr Gibbs’ performance:

 “He was big, and I felt like he gained steam as the game went on. I thought he got better, and better, and better. You could really feel it after one of, you know, that last stop we got in the red zone on the fourth-down stop, and, you know, that next carry he has—where he just breaks it down the sideline—you know, you could feel it. So, he was big for us, and we felt like he was going to need to be big for us to win that game. He was kind of the, all those guys needed to play well for us, but we felt like Gibbs could somewhat be the x-factor here, and he did, man. He showed up in a big way in the run game and the pass game.”

On whether today’s performance exemplifies the defense’s identity:

“Yeah, I mean, I think with where we’re at, look it’s, there’s no secret. Like, we have to be able to play a certain way, and the recipe is right as long as our guys play lights out. They do exactly what they’re asked to do, they work as one unit and they go after the football. And if we do those things we can be effective and they did that today, man. I just, I felt like they played with high, high energy. They did exactly what the coaches asked them to do, everybody did their part to a T, and you see the results of it. And so yeah, it’s a special group, man, it’s a special group.”

Jahmyr Gibbs Gashes Vikings, Lions Earn No. 1 Seed After 31-9 Win

On whether he can put into words the meaning of the team’s accomplishments in the regular season so far: 

“I don’t know if I can put it into words, you know? There’s so many things on my mind that I’m not ready to share, if that makes sense? So, no different than anybody else on that team, on the coaching staff, and fueled by different things, and so, we did what we needed to do here. You know, this was a big matchup. We were coming off a Monday night game against an opponent that was, had gotten us last year, and our guys didn’t bat an eye. They line up, they compete, they play to win—and we knew what was at stake, and our guys just, man, they came out and played. Ultimately, when you sit back and you go through a game like this, you go, ‘Man, do we have enough? Did we…’ talking to the coaches, ‘Do we have enough in? Is this right? Is it too much? Have we really gone over the finer details of this? What if they do?’ And you finally step back and go, ‘Man, our guys are going to show up, they always do.’ Our players will show up and make plays, cause the core of this group has been doing it for four years now, and we’ve added to that, and those guys have just continued to add to it, and help us along the way, and enhance us, and they did it again now. Our guys did it again.”

On whether the offense told the defense anything after Terrion Arnold’s injury and the mood on the sideline: 

“No, listen we were good. Our defense was, we had talked about all along, we knew we were going to need to play a certain type, a certain type of game, and it didn’t totally play out that way because of circumstance. But our defense was ready. If things didn’t go right, our defense was fully ready to take the field and do what they needed to do. That was the mindset. And, you know, you don’t walk onto the field, you sprint onto the field, and you’ve got to get a stop, and they did that, you know, and they really set the tone for us.”

On CB Amik Robertson’s performance and impact on the team:

“Yeah, he’s, look, it’s the reason we signed him, you know. We were fortunate enough to be able to play against him, had crossover tape last year. He is competitive, he’s as competitive as they come. He doesn’t turn down any challenge, and you know no matter what you can say, ‘Hey, go cover that guy,’ and he’s going to give you his best—he’s not going to shy away from it, he’s not going to fear from it. He has skill, he has ability, and it’s not always going to be perfect, but you know you can bank on what he’s going to give you. And once again, man, he showed up for us. And look, we doubled some—you know, we fisted over him, we had it to where he had help over the top—but then we’d single him up too, and you know, Amik’s just been, he’s really one of the guys that has helped us play really good defense this year, and play the style of defense that we want to play, and (Defensive Coordinator Aaron) AG (Glenn) wants to play, to be able to challenge more on the perimeter. It’s big for us.”

On the injury update for CB Terrion Arnold: 

“I’ll know more tomorrow. I mean, it was obviously enough to where he couldn’t finish the game, you know, so take that for what it is.”

On whether Lions CB Terrion Arnold got x-rays: 

“He did. The x-rays were negative, but that doesn’t mean…he was pretty tender, so, you know.”