Dan Campbell says he made a mistake on the Lions’ third-and-goal run and wasted a timeout with the 49ers’ last possession, resulting in a loss.
The media talked about Dan Campbell’s decisions on fourth down on Monday after the Lions of Michigan lost 34-31 to the San Francisco 49ers and missed a chance to take part in their first Super Bowl.
It’s fair to look at Campbell’s choices about skipping two field goal attempts in favor of fourth-down tries, but his coach has always been more aggressive in those situations. It’s part of who he is and what the club is at this point.
The way the Lions thought helped them get into the NFC Championship Game just a few years after having a three-win season. David Montgomery attempted a run, but the Lion’s defense halted him for a loss of two yards.
It doesn’t matter what you think about the fourth-down calls; the worst coaching mistake on Sunday night happened when the Lions were down 10 points and had third-and-goal at the 1-yard line.
Campbell proceeded to call the first break for the Lions. Once again, bad calls put the Lions in a position where they had to recover an onside kick, which is a very unlikely play, in order to tie the game. Jameson Williams scored in the next play.
Campbell told the news conference on Monday, “The easy thing for you is to throw it.” “I think what I should have done was right, but I wanted to avoid it.” I thought we’d just pop it.
We had two minutes to throw the ball all across the field, and they had been in a four-down front. I thought we’d be able to walk right in, but we missed a block.
That’s why I need to use a period of time. Now that we can see it, throw it four times. At that moment, though, I thought it would just be an informal run. It didn’t work out. I took a chance and lost.
To begin, he did need to pass the ball on third down. A run at that point might have caught the Niners off guard, and Montgomery might have gotten in if Williams had made a better block.
But being stuffed wasn’t worth the risk. In that play, the Lions should have run the ball on fourth down if they were going to do so.
Second, the Lions did not need to use timeouts after being stopped. It was better to keep the timeout than to use it to stop the clock at that very moment.
Campbell had to waste the first of his three timeouts because Montgomery got him back for a two-yard loss.
A fourth-down call should have been made in conjunction with the third-down run play. Campbell should have enjoyed having his players ready to rush the quarterback if the run was stopped.
Let’s say the clock is reduced by 20 seconds. Having three timers and 40 seconds left is better than having two timeouts and 56 seconds left. You could say that the Lions still had a chance to get their possession back if they had timed out.
Yes, it’s not likely that they will come back from being down three points with less than a minute to play and no timeouts. Even so, that situation is still better than having to recover an onside kick.
It was only two quarters away for the Detroit Lions to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time.
On the other hand, they lost 34–31 after having a 24–7 lead over the San Francisco 49ers during the NFC Championship Game.
Lions fans were having a rough time because their luck had just turned around with their deep playoff run. Then they saw what may have been the most devastating loss in recent memory.
People are paying close attention to what head coach Dan Campbell did in the second half. It is known that he is an aggressive coach who likes going for it on fourth down.
Two of those chances didn’t work out. Campbell said that one of the calls he made during the game was wrong.
Campbell said that calling the running play with David Montgomery in third-and-goal late in the fourth quarter was wrong.
Campbell liked the call because of the way San Francisco’s defense was set up before the play. He also said he thought Montgomery would score.