Everything Dan Campbell Said After Lions Beat Packers

Dan Campbell breaks down Lions' Week 14 win over Packers.
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell.
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
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Here is everything Dan Campbell said during his postgame press conference after the Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers.

Opening Statement: 

“Alright. Man, what a win. That was a hell of a job by our players, and our coaches, that was a total team effort. We talked about it, what we were going to need going in, the style that we needed to play with, and we wanted that defense to just cut it loose, just go play. Effort, finish, and man they did that. God, they did that. Hell of a job by (Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG, and those guys just laid it on the line. We call them the northern savages, they just roll right in the door, and they’re in the game. It’s a hell of a job. And then our offense, we knew they were going to need to carry the load. ‘You need to carry a little bit more of the backpacks and such,’ and man, we did that, they did that, stepped up in a big way, and it was a number of guys, really, made plays for us across the board. It took everybody we had on offense. (Jared) Goff had another big game, (Tim Patrick) TP was big, (Sam) LaPorta made some big plays for us. Look, you can go down the line, but, man, I was proud of them. I just love the fact that we just find a way, and you feel like the narrative going in, we weren’t buying any of this stuff about where we were at. No excuses, and our guys knew where we were at. We don’t need to talk about being tough, we don’t need to talk about being resilient, we live it, and it’s what we are. We just proved it again. Proud of our guys.”

On why he decided to go for it on fourth down and run the clock at the end of the game: 

“I just felt like we needed to end it on offense, and I did not want to give that ball back, and I believed we could get that. I believed we could convert, and I trust that O-Line, I trust David (Montgomery), and they came through for us. It’s a hell of a call by (Offensive Coordinator) Ben (Johnson). I knew how I wanted to play this game, the team knew it, and everything in me told me, ‘Let’s finish this,’ and so we did.”

On Jared Goff getting rid of the ball to David Montgomery when he was knocked down:

 “He’s an athlete. He got the thing handed off, and David did the rest. It was great.”

On whether there were any questions in his mind after the team failed to get the fourth down early in the third quarter:

 “Nope. None. I told – look, the guys knew. Players knew, coaches knew. Listen this is, ‘Don’t ride the wave.’ We could be up two scores, we could be down two scores. But just because we’re one or the other, we’ve got to play our style of game going in, what we felt like we needed to do, what I felt like we needed to do. So, that meant the risk was there, and you fell in negative territory, you’re trying to hold them to a field goal, but I knew that was how I wanted to play that team with where we were at.”

On how he describes this win:

 “This is sweet. I told the team, ‘This will be one of those you never forget.’ I was telling (Lions QB Jared) Goff pregame, I said, ‘Man, you’ve played all these games, you’ve had this long career,’ and I’m sure there’s some he probably – you don’t remember everything when you’ve played as long as he has, but I said, ‘You will never forget this one. You will never forget this game.’ I think a lot of it is just that – what we’ve had to overcome, the hand we were dealt and I just love the fact, our guys don’t make excuses, they just find a way. Everybody on this team believed we were going to win that game, and we were going to find a way, and we just, we did it again. We did it again. Guys did it.”

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On if he knew that the team would go on fourth down every chance they had in order to keep the ball: 

“Yeah. I knew that if we needed to do that, I was prepared to do that. You’re hoping you don’t get into them, you just, you don’t have to get into fourth, you convert on third, if it comes to that. But, we were prepared. We were prepared.”

On what helps his conviction in fourth down moments to play aggressive:

 “Look, when you’re in it with these guys, and you’ve been around them long enough – I’ve been around Ben (Johnson), I’ve been around (Jared) Goff, I’ve been around Frank (Ragnow), and (Penei) Sewell, and (Amon-Ra St. Brown) Saint and (David) Montgomery now, and (Jahmyr) Gibbs, and now (Jameson Wiliams) Jamo’s been here going, (Sam) LaPorta. There’s been enough time on task with those guys – Graham (Glasgow) – that I felt good, and I felt like we’d find a way. You’d love to say that if you’re going to do that, you’re going to convert every one of them, but that’s not the reality. It doesn’t always work that way. So, you know you’re taking a high level of risk. There is risk with it, but I felt like with our guys, it wouldn’t be as big of a risk as it may appear to be.”

On making the Playoffs this early and what it represents: 

“I didn’t even – I just found that out actually, and I didn’t even realize that. Listen, it’s good. It’s good, but it’s like, man, we’ve got four left, and we want to get – of course we wanted in, we want in a different way. We want to go in on our own terms, and we want to find a way to get this one seed, and that’s the priority. Certainly, you’ve got to win the division, and then you get this one seed, and we took a step closer to winning this division and doing what I just mentioned. It’s great. We’re in the playoffs. I wish I’d have told the team. I didn’t even tell them. I had no idea. But honestly, I think they know. I think they feel like I feel, I really believe that. It’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I think everybody would be like, ‘OK, that’s great.’ We’d do the old golf clap, but then, we know what we want to do, and we talked about this, really, even after last year, we talked about it in the spring, talked about it in training camp. We know what our goals are.”

On how big of a fan he is of WR Tim Patrick: 

“Huge. What a great addition he’s been. He just continues to make plays for us in the run game and the pass game, stepped up big here. We talk about catching and knifing today. Catch, turn, and run. Catch it, tug it, turn, and run. Do whatever – if you can only get five, you’ve got to get a six. If you can only get a seven, you’ve got to get us eight, and man, I mean he did that multiple times, and then comes up with the two big touchdowns for us. He’s been an unbelievable addition, what a stud.”

On how he explains the team needing to lean on the offense without making it seem like the defensive team injuries are an issue: 

“I think you just tell them the way you want to play the game. Defensively, we play to our strengths and what are our strengths. (Aaron Glenn) AG did a hell of a job. Trim the package down to where these guys can come in and play, and it’s not like we’ve got guys that have never played ball. Kwon Alexander’s played football in this League, and Jamal Adams has played football in this League, and we brought in the other guys that are five-year guys – Mals, and Jonah (Williams), and then (Al-Quadin) Muhammad’s been here. So, we just, we wanted to trim it back to where those guys could play fast, and that was really just cut it loose. It’s not going to be perfect, it doesn’t need to be perfect, and so with that, any burden we can take off you guys to where you can just cut it loose. We knew there may be some errors, but I just want to turn on the tape and know the effort and the finish is there, and we’re going after the football, finding a way to get a takeaway. We got a takeaway. It was huge, man it was huge. Carlton Davis, big punch out there. Then we’ll shuffle the load a little bit to the offense or special teams if need be.”

On the NFC North as a whole:

 “Our division is damn good, I mean, it’s really good. It’s the best division in football, in my opinion. We’ve got top-tier talent. We’ve got top-tier coaching, and players, and the whole deal. The competition is just really elite. I think that’s just another reason why you’ve got to do whatever it takes to win this division because if you do, and you’re able to play at home, it’s going to go a long way with the teams that we have. I think the team we just played, Minnesota, ourselves, I think we can all make some noise.”

On what he tells his team going into a game like this about keeping their aggression but knowing the line: 

“Yeah, just keep your head, be disciplined. It’s really as simple as that. Our guys know. I thought they did a hell of a job – our guys did a hell of a job. Certainly, we’re not going to take anything from anybody, but we’re smart enough to know that we can’t have personal fouls and things like that, so you just tell them that. They understand that, they really do. They handled it well.”


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John Maakaron
JOHN MAAKARON

John Maakaron has covered Detroit Sports since 2013. Brings a vast array of experience covering the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Detroit Mercy Titans, and Oakland University Golden Grizzlies. John brings a wealth of sports broadcast experience. In 2013, John had the vision to establish the Detroit Sports Podcast Network. Has recorded over 3000 podcasts analyzing Detroit Sports. In 2019, Sports Illustrated Media Group, a historical sports media outlet, partnered with Detroit Sports Podcast to provide daily Lions content for their growing and expanding digital media outlet. Our Lions content can also be read in the newspaper at The Oakland  Passionate about Detroit Sports and it is reflected in his coverage of the local teams!