Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece by MLive.com reporter Kyle Meinke.
DETROIT — The honeymoon is officially over.
Dan Campbell has drawn a lot of deserved praise for his leadership through the early days of the Detroit Lions’ latest rebuild, even as the losses have piled up. Even Matt Patricia had won four games by now in his first season, although he had also lost the locker room. And once you lose that in the NFL, you don’t usually get it back. Patricia never did, and he was fired after another embarrassment last Thanksgiving.
A year later, Campbell is still looking for his first win at all after a 16-14 loss on Turkey Day against the Chicago Bears. The Lions are now 0-10-1 under the new head coach, which is really bad. In fact, it’s near-historically bad. Only Marty Mornhinweg has gone longer without a win in club history (12 games), and Campbell can match him next week against Minnesota.
Anytime you’re being mentioned in the same breath as Marty Mornhinweg, you know you’re having a bad time.
Yet Campbell has continued to maintain his grip on the locker room, still has the guys playing hard, and that does count for something. Teams this bad are usually a dumpster fire of toxicity, and for all their issues, the Lions aren’t that. Campbell deserves credit for it. His leadership qualities stand out, which again, puts him way ahead of the last guy despite the record.
But at some point, just simply avoiding dumpster-fire toxicity isn’t enough.
And after a mistake-ridden game that ended in coaching-induced chaos, that time has arrived.
Might as well start with the double timeout, which in the long tradition of the Lions finding inventive ways to lose, is a new one even for them. They were holding a 14-13 lead late in the game, but Chicago was driving. Before a third-and-9 deep in their own territory, the Lions called timeout to stop the clock and get organized.
They ran back onto the field intending to run a Cover-0 defense, but had talked about audibling into Cover-2 if Chicago came out in max protection. Then Chicago came out in max protection, so middle linebacker Alex Anzalone checked into the Cover-2. Sounds pretty simple, right?
Not so much, I guess, since half the secondary didn’t get the check and lined up wrong.
“I was trying to relay the call,” Anzalone said. “After that, I’m not really sure what happened.”
What happened is the Lions called another timeout, which, uh, you can’t do. They were flagged 5 yards for it, the Bears converted the ensuing third-and-4, then milked the rest of the clock before chipping in a gimme field goal at the buzzer for the win.
“We had half in one call and half in another,” Campbell said. “So the first thing in my head is, ‘Well, we’ve got a blown coverage and they’re about to score a touchdown. So I (call the second timeout), which you can’t do, and now it’s a penalty. But I know that if he threw it out in a flat it was about to be a touchdown. Can’t do it.”
Actually, you can. Allowing a touchdown would have given up the lead, but at least the offense would have had a chance to counter. The only thing you couldn’t do in that situation was allow a first down, which of course is exactly what happened.
After the penalty turned a third-and-9 into a third-and-4, the Lions were nearly flagged again for having too many men on the field, which seems almost impossible coming out of two timeouts, but then again, these are the Detroit Lions and when it comes to losing in the weirdest possible ways, nothing — and I do mean nothing — is impossible.
Like, say, playing off coverage on third-and-4 deep in your own territory in a one-point game.
Will Harris, playing in the slot because of the injury to A.J. Parker, lined up for that play about 7-8 yards off receiver Damiere Byrd. Why he lined up so deep when the only thing he couldn’t do was allow 4 yards is a mystery. Then as Byrd ran past the sticks, Harris continued to backpedal about 4 yards off, as if he were more concerned about protecting the goal line than trying to get an actual, you know, stop. Again, total mystery what he was doing.
Byrd was wide open as he ran past the sticks, caught the ball without resistance, and the Bears drained what remained of the clock while Jared Goff ran for the showers without ever touching the football in the final 8:30 of the game.
For those scoring at home: The Lions took one timeout to talk about what they wanted to do on defense, then were so disorganized that they were forced to call another timeout — which you can’t do — and then still played a coverage so intentionally soft that Chicago picked up the game-deciding third-and-4.
I don’t know if that’s on Will Harris or the defensive playcall, but either way, that’s disgraceful situational awareness, which ultimately comes back to the coaching. And that falls on Dan Campbell, whose record in these end-game situations — from decisions to go for it on fourth down, to ill-timed penalties and blown coverages — has been spotty throughout the season.
On Thanksgiving, he blew it worse than ever.
“I thought they played hard,” Campbell said, “but the mistakes killed us, particularly offensively.”
Oh, the mistakes. There were just so many of them, even before the ones that ultimately cost them the game. That includes a batch of three straight penalties against T.J. Hockenson (false start), Evan Brown (holding) and Jamaal Williams (false start) while trying to run a single play in the second quarter, which led to some understandable boos.
No one has a good playcall for third-and-forever, although at least heaving the ball downfield gives you a chance of something good happening. Instead, the Lions surrendered the possession with another draw play. It gained exactly 1 yard and led to even more ravenous boos. Again, totally understandable, because at this point they’re not even trying.
They were holding a 7-3 lead at the time. Two plays later, they were down 10-7.
Just so very bad.
Then in the second half, they did it again.
Evan Brown was flagged for a false start, then Tommy Kraemer and Taylor Decker were both flagged for holding on consecutive plays, all of which turned a second-and-7 at their 47-yard line into a second-and-32 at their own 22. Again, no team has a good play for 32-yards-to-go situations, so expecting the Lions — saddled with the worst downfield passing game in the league — to convert would be foolish. Then again, at least trying might be nice. Maybe someone makes a catch. Maybe the Bears pick up a flag. Who knows. Something good might happen.
Unless, of course, you call another pass at the line of scrimmage. Which is exactly what Campbell did. It gained 7 yards, to another torrent of justified boos from folks who are just so damn tired of watching the Lions light themselves on fire.
Fox came on for another punt with 8:30 left — and thanks to the coaching fiasco at the end of the game, they never touched the ball again.
“You have to learn how not to lose, and it’s something that we’ve had a hard time doing obviously, especially in these close games,” Goff said. “How do you take care of the football late in the game? How do you make stops on defense? How do you move the ball efficiently later in the game and not hurt yourself? For me, how do I stay in the pocket and not let those guys get moved off my spot and allow a holding call there in some instances?
“It’s little things like that that the good teams do, and do consistently. And something we’re working toward, something we’re on our way to I believe.”
On that last point, all evidence points to the contrary.
Listen, everyone knows the Lions are outmanned in most ways during these early days of the rebuild, and no one expected them to be good this season. They were literally favored to lose every game. To that end, going winless through Thanksgiving was an expected outcome. And Campbell has been so good on so many other fronts that he still was enjoying something of a honeymoon.
Yet how they’ve gotten here, overwhelmed by an avalanche of their own mistakes, including by the coaching staff in critical situations, is sparking new questions about Campbell’s aptitude for the job. Because the coaching mistakes and just total lack of awareness cost the Lions another shot at a win. And at this point, you really do have to wonder whether they will get one at all.
First-year head coaches make mistakes, and Campbell still has time to learn from him. But for now, the honeymoon is officially over.
