The Lions were obviously without linebacker Jack Campbell at practice on Wednesday and two other key defensive players were also on the sideline as the team worked to get ready to face the Dolphins.
Cornerback D.J. Reed (hip) and defensive end DJ Wonnum (concussion) were both out of action for the Lions. Both players were injured during last Sunday’s win over the Vikings.
Center Cade Mays (ankle) was also hurt in that game and he missed practice as well.
Safety Brian Branch (concussion), safety Kerby Joseph (knee), linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga (toe), running back Jacob Saylors (neck), and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (rib) were all limited participants. Cornerback Rock Ya-Sin (cramps) was a full participant for the Lions.
In Dan Campbell’s first season as the Lions’ head coach, he went 3-13-1. By Year 2 the Lions had improved to 9-8, and in Year 3 they were in the NFC Championship Game. Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley wants to build his team the way Campbell built the Lions, and Campbell thinks Hafley is doing it the right way.
With the Dolphins set to face the Lions on Sunday, both Hafley and Campbell said today that they see similarities between where the Dolphins are now and where the Lions were in Campbell’s first season: Building a winning culture, even if their record doesn’t show it yet.
“That’s how I want to play football. Let me retract that: That’s how we are playing football,” Hafley said of the way the Lions play. “I think if you watch us right now, every coach has said it, and everyone who watches us, whether it’s on TV or they turn on the tape, I get texts or phone calls, that’s what’s showing up on tape right now. And while it’s disappointing that we’re 1-6, the foundation of that with young guys, that’s really important to us. When you see the physicality and the toughness and how hard guys are playing, it means that they’re playing for each other and they’re bought in. We’ve brought the right guys here. That’s very, very important to me, and it will continue to be.”
Campbell said he thinks Hafley is building his team exactly the way a new coach should.
“Coach Hafley’s done a good job in his first year,” Campbell said. “A lot of similarities — it reminds me of what we were when we came in. They’re young, they’re hungry, they’re active, they run, they hit, they hustle, they finish, try to play disciplined ball. And they’re playing that way.”
Bob Heinz, a member of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins’ “No-Name Defense” and winner of two Super Bowl rings, has died at the age of 79.
Heinz was born and raised in Milwaukee but went out West to play his college football at the University of the Pacific. After an excellent college career, he was a second-round pick of the Dolphins in 1969.
The Dolphins defense that Heinz joined was known as the No-Name Defense, a term given to them by Cowboys coach Tom Landry, who called them “a bunch of no-names.” Some players might have taken offense, but the members of the Dolphins’ defense embraced it as a term that showed they were greater as a unit than any of them would have been individually.
Heinz was a starting defensive tackle on both the 1972 Dolphins team that remains the only undefeated, untied team in NFL history, and the 1973 Dolphins, who repeated as Super Bowl champions. He missed the entire 1975 season with an injury, but returned in 1976 and 1977. He finished his NFL career with one season in Washington in 1978.
It’s celebration time for the 1972 Dolphins.
After the Vikings’ loss to the Lions on Sunday, there are no remaining undefeated teams in the NFL. That means the 1972 Dolphins will remain, for at least another year, the only perfect, undefeated, untied team in NFL history.
Larry Csonka, the 79-year-old fullback who was the 1972 Dolphins’ leading rusher, posted a picture of himself having a celebratory cigar and a drink on social media.
“CONGRATS to the #DetroitLions on the Win and a game well played today,” Csonka wrote. “CHEERS to all my ‘72 undefeated teammates and #MiamiDolphin fans on our now 54 year record! Cheers!”
The 1972 Dolphins finished the regular season 14-0 and then won two playoff games and Super Bowl VII to finish a perfect 17-0. Players on that team have continued to celebrate their status as the only perfect team in the NFL’s 107-year history.
Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon II should have learned his lesson when he was yanked from a preseason game for flipping the ball at a defender.
He didn’t. And so, on Sunday, he got an earful from quarterback Malik Willis after Gordon was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Patriots.
After the game, Willis explained his blunt message for Gordon.
“I mean, Ollie is a competitor and he cares about the game a lot and I was just letting him know that in that situation, that he’s dead-ass wrong,” Willis told reporters. “I mean, that’s the honest truth. And it would be wrong if I didn’t tell him the truth. If I was like, ‘It’s okay, you were just trying to compete.’ Like, no, we went from third-and-four to like third-and-15 or 20, and we did not convert. . . . That’s something that we can control and that is wrong. I finished it by telling him I’m on his side, I’m with him and we’re teammates and we’re in this together, and he’s going to go out and help us win this game and we’re going to fight the next play and he’s going to go back out there. But at the same time, I got to tell you that you’re dead wrong when you’re dead wrong.”
Coach Jeff Hafley approved Willis’s message.
“Well, I think it’s good leadership,” Halfley told reporters. “I hope you guys have seen in a short period of time with us right now is I think telling people the truth and being able to have honest conversations is really important. And for a player to tell a guy how he feels in the moment, and for the player to respond ina non-antagonistic way, I think is a really good sign. It shows good leadership. Good leadershp is telling people the truth, and I respect and appreciate Malik doing that.”
It neeeded to be said. And it needs to not happen. Fifteen yards can, at the wrong time, be the difference between winning and losing.
In this case, the Dolphins led, 13-10, at the time third-and-five became third-and-20. Miami didn’t convert, and the Patriots took the lead for good on their next drive.
