Dan Campbell said it was 100% his fault for the Detroit Lions’ snafu at the end of the first half vs. the Buccaneers.
Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said an error that cost the team three points at the end of the first half was completely his fault.
“(I) totally screwed my team,” Campbell told the FOX broadcast at halftime. “That is mine, we’re going for the clock, clock it, it’s not a Hurricane (call). I made a decision I shouldn’t have made, and our team’s gonna have to overcome it. That’s the bottom line.”
Note: “Hurricane” is referring to rushing the field goal unit on the field for a last-second attempt while the clock was running.
The Lions had the ball deep in Tampa Bay Buccaneers territory, but were out of timeouts late in the half. Quarterback Jared Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown down to the Buccaneers 8 yard line with about 11 seconds left and the clock running. At that point, the Lions began to rush their field goal team out on the field, while the offense scrambled to line up for a spike.
In the end, the Lions spiked the ball with four seconds left, but with at least half the field goal team still on the field. A too-many-men penalty was called, and with a 10-second-runoff part of the infraction, the half was over.
That play was emblematic of Detroit’s red zone struggles on Sunday. The Lions managed to find the end zone just once in seven red zone trips, and only scored any points on four of those trips.
With the final score 20-16, those three points at the end of the half sure would have made a difference. Detroit had several late drives that got into field goal position, but having the need to score a touchdown, they didn’t end up converting.
