It’s clear now” Lion Campbell has drawn a broad line” aims squad strength” and his new assignment in busy bye week…
Head coach Dan Campbell agreed that it was difficult to evaluate a small sample of games as the Detroit Lions headed into their Week 5 bye, but he supported the idea of a team-wide self-scout.
On Monday, the Lions returned to practice with some encouraging news regarding injuries that Campbell had shared. Naturally, though, Campbell took questions regarding the NFC North’s strength through five weeks, the impending Week 6 matchup with the Dallas Cowboys, and other related topics.
Dan Campbell acknowledges area he wants to improve in coming off bye
Campbell was specifically asked what the self-scout from the bye week revealed in terms of areas that need improvement.
“Yeah, I’m not gonna get into all that, I knew you were gonna ask that. We went through it with all the coaches,” Campbell said. “I would tell you one. Communication on my part. Overall communication, particularly with the staff, is where I can be much better.”
Regarding the need for him to improve how he communicates with his staff, it’s easy to assume Campbell was partly referring to the situation near the end of the first half in Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
A too-many men on the field penalty, when the field goal unit started to run onto the field, caused a 10-second run-off and cost the Lions a chance at three points that proved to be important in a four-point loss. Campbell fully owned the mistake coming out of the locker room at halftime, and after the game.
“Their head coach cost them. Critical error at the end of the half 100 percent on me. . . . There was no way to justify this. It’s a massive error on my part and no one else’s. It was just between hurry-up field goal and clocking it and it was 100 percent my fault.”
Special teams coach Dave Fipp was sure to accept his share of the responsibility for that mistake against Tampa Bay, but Campbell knows the buck stops with him and no one else should be blamed.
Campbell surely won’t use any excuses, but an NFL sideline is a hectic place during a game and communication can become difficult. Still, what seemed like a one-off mistake (albeit in an important spot) had Campbell taking some of the bye week to look at how he can do better as a communicator.
