Everything Dan Campbell Said After Loss to Bills

Dan Campbell breaks down loss to Buffalo Bills.

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Here is everything Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said after his team was beaten by the Buffalo Bills, 48-42, on Sunday.

Opening statement:

“Credit that team. They were ready to go. We knew they would be, we knew they would have a sense of urgency coming off of that tough loss out there on the West Coast. We just couldn’t quite match it. They did a good job. Ultimately, it’s like I told the team, I didn’t have those guys ready to go, not like that. Not when you’re playing a team like that. That’s with me. We had a number of guys that have played a lot better than that, just overall, and so that tells me that’s me. I didn’t have these guys completely ready to roll. It doesn’t mean—I thought the effort was good, guys fought. It’s just, there was little things in there that bit us, things that we knew we could not give these guys anything—it’s too good of a team—and we gave them some stuff there. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but at least we know now where we stack up against one of the AFC’s best teams, and it’s not good enough—not today, it’s not. Tough pill to swallow, but like I told the team, nothing changed from whether we won or lost today. We’ve still got to win next week. I mean, that’s the bottom line. So we’ve got to bounce back and get ready to roll.”

On the disappointing defensive effort Sunday: 

“Yeah, it’s frustrating. I thought we would, we’d be better. It’s not the, you know, some of these things where they make a play, man, I can live with that stuff. It’s across the board, when you know that you have self-inflicted wounds—there’s things that we did on our own—and gave those guys something to where they had better opportunities. That’s the frustrating part. You just want to know that you didn’t help them, and I do feel like we helped them a little bit there.”

On how much today was a case of injuries catching up to the defense:

“No, I’m not buying it. I’m not. I don’t buy it. We can be better. We should’ve been better. We know how good they are, but that team was more urgent than us today, overall.”

On Bills QB Josh Allen getting outside of the pocket: 

“Yeah, you know, he got us a few times. We knew, unless we were in certain coverages, we had to keep him hemmed in there. And it was going to take a lot of discipline up front. And then there would be these things—particularly third down—where we could cut it loose and go get him, and we had some of those. And then somebody we may have that’s trying to spy out on him has got to get him, and we couldn’t get him. Look, he poses a huge issue, I mean, he’s tough, and we knew that going in, and certainly, we wanted to be able to handle that better, and it was just one of those days we just didn’t. And then we couldn’t counteract it on offense. That was kind of some of this issue too is, you know, I thought on defense we had two crucial stops at the end of half. One of them goes in at halftime, obviously, but at least you eliminate points. And the one before that, offense gets it back, we can’t score, we can’t turn it into points. And then vice versa, you know, offense starts going, and then we couldn’t stop them on defense. So it just was one of those games we didn’t complement each other well.”

On whether he views the game up as Allen being great and the Bills being ready, or the Lions having serious deficiencies on defense: 

“No, I just feel like we didn’t play at the same level that that team did today. That’s how I feel, and that’s why, honestly, I put this on me. I didn’t, I just didn’t feel like I had them ready to go, not like we’ve been. You can get away with, maybe if you’re not quite all the way to a 10, but not against the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs or Green Bay Packers, Minnesota, Philadelphia—whoever they are. It’s not going to be good enough, and it wasn’t good enough today.”

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Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn talks to defensive end Za'Darius Smith (99) / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On what motivated him to decide to go for the first onside kick: 

“I just thought we’d get the possession. I thought we were going to get that ball. It was one of (Jake) Bates’ best kicks that I’ve seen him have. That was a big kicker at the end, you know, that thing took a good jump on us, and (Bills WR Mack) Hollins made a heck of a play on it. And, you know, obviously, now sitting here hindsight after them taking it down to the three-yard line, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that, but is what it is.”

On whether something was going on today with Lions RB David Montgomery: 

“He just got a little banged up. He got a little banged up, and really, look, we only had 15 rushes. We never got our run game going, which was going to be a point of emphasis, and even out of those 15 carries, we just, we could never get it going. So that’s two weeks in a row. It’s not good enough. And it’s not them, it’s us, and that’s what’s frustrating too. We’re better than that. But then we got in this type of game where, you know, (Jared) Goff’s playing at such a high level, and we’ve got some receivers making plays—(Amon-Ra) St. Brown made some plays for us, (Jahmyr) Gibbs made some plays—you get in that type of shoot-out and you don’t feel like you can run it. Then you’re going to throw it, and like I said, we wouldn’t have had this much production had our quarterback not played as good as he did. I mean, he played top-notch now, that’s asking a lot of any quarterback with 59 attempts here. That was big time, big time.”

On if there is an injury update for Lions CB Khalil Dorsey:

“Yeah, he’ll probably be out for the year—he is going to be out for the year. It’s a tough injury, really got similar to (Aidan) Hutch (Hutchinson).”

On if there is an injury update for Lions DL Alim McNeill and CB Carlton Davis III: 

“Know more tomorrow. I don’t feel good about either one of those guys.”

On if Davis and McNeill are out for the season: 

“Normally if I’m like saying ‘I don’t feel good,’ that means not good for the rest of the year, so don’t feel good about it.”

On what he thinks today’s performance means for the team’s playoff readiness: 

“I think it’s, you know, I don’t really, I don’t know, I don’t take it into that like, ‘Oh, okay, well we’re,’ – I look at it more as, man, we were not ready to play today. I think so much more about finding ways to win the game, and we weren’t able to do that, and so we were not good enough today versus that opponent to have a chance to win it. Not enough. We’ve just got to be ready to go, we’ve got to be more locked-in, next time we play, and honestly, that’s what I’m saying. I’m serious, it starts with me, man. I have to do a much better job of getting these guys ready to roll, and be urgent about this type of opponent. So, no excuses, it just wasn’t good enough, and that was the bottom line. It’s frustrating, everybody’s frustrated—the guys are frustrated—but, you know what, that’s part of life, man. You lose, and it’s a bad taste in your mouth, and now what are we going to do about it. We’ll sit there and feel sorry for ourselves? We’re going to bounce back and go to Chicago.”

On if McNeill has an ACL injury: 

“I don’t know. I don’t know. We’re getting tests.”