After Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins, the Lions are 1-6.
General Manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell received a vote of confidence from team owner Sheila Ford Hamp last week. And Detroit put together a solid first half against Miami, taking a 27-17 lead into the break.
But the Dolphins outscored the Lions 14-0 in the final 30 minutes, once again leaving Campbell to explain defeat in his postgame press conference.
“That was tough, to say the least,” Campbell said. “Hey, those guys came back and played well the second half and stayed to their game plan, what they did and we didn’t overcome it. We were pretty good in the first half, offensively, and in the second half we stalled out.”
The Lions have lost their last five games after defeating the Commanders in Week Two. While they’re No. 4 in offensive yards and No. 8 in points scored, they’re still last in yards allowed and points allowed.
“My thought is as frustrating as it is, I know how close we are because we are still talking about one play,” Campbell said. “And the hard thing is to just keep doing your job and staying in the thick of the storm, and the easy thing is to go down below and get under the blanket, eat all the food and whatever. Guys who are going on the deck and just continue to do their part because they know the sun’s coming, those are the guys we’re looking for. So that’s how I choose to think of this.
“The only way to clean up everything is to go back to work, that’s just — that’s all I know. So, we go back to work because if we don’t, we have no chance of being in any of these games. So let’s get back into it. We had a chance to win that game, and once we get that chance, let’s see if we can handle the pressure better and not shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Campbell also brought up one of his former coaches when talking about handling pressure.
“I think it’s all-encompassing,” Campbell said. “Bill Parcells just used to say, ‘The only way to win close games is win close games.’ So, like, we’ve got to find a way to win a close game when we’re actually playing in close games, and that’s how you build confidence to do it. And until then, you’ve got to do all the little things right. So, I think it’s all-encompassing.
“Hey, it’s frustrating, but I know everybody’s tired of hearing it’s close, but I do know we’re close, and you just don’t know when it’s going to turn. But if we don’t keep swinging away at it, it’ll only get worse.”
Close as it may be, as Chris Burke of TheAthletic.com put it Sunday afternoon, at some point, the Lions need to win a game. The results have to start appearing at some point. Otherwise, major change will become inevitable.
