Dan Campbell spoke with a raspy voice and wiped tears from his eyes after the Lions' Super Bowl dream died Saturday night in Detroit.
"It’s not the time to talk about ‘What a great year,’ or how many wins (we had). Because at this moment, I don’t think any of us feel that way," Campbell said. "The whole point of doing what you do is to get to the show, man. It’s why you play this game, and we fell short."
"Short," he repeated for good measure.
The Lions had everything they wanted as they aimed for history: a first-round bye, a week of rest and home-field advantage as the No. 1 seed in the NFC. It didn't matter against Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, who stormed into Ford Field and left with a 45-31 win.
"It just hurts to lose, man," said Campbell. "I don’t care if you’re the 7 seed, 6 seed, 5 seed, 1 seed because I’ve lost as all of 'em, damn near, and it stings. It hurts."
Five turnovers, four by Jared Goff, were the death of the Lions. Two of them took potential points off the board on promising drives in the first half, and the big one was a pick-six that swung the game firmly in Washington's favor in the second quarter.
The most pivotal play on defense was Detroit's costliest error of the season. With the Commanders leading 31-28 and facing 4th and 2 from the Lions' five-yard line early in the fourth, Detroit was flagged for 12 men on the field to grant Washington an automatic first down. Two plays later, it was back to a 10-point game. The Lions wouldn't threaten again.
On the play in question, linebacker Trevor Nowaske ran onto the field without another linebacker coming off. Multiple coaches on Detroit's sideline were jumping up and down and screaming for their players' attention, but Campbell apparently wasn't aware of the head count.
"It’s my fault," he said. "It’s my fault."
Campbell struggled to speak when he started talking about his players. His voice cracked and he took long pauses between thoughts to fight back his emotions.
"It’s hard when you lose, and you lose these games, man -- it's the players. What they put into it. A lot of people don’t know what they go through. To get up, body’s beat to sh*t, mentally stay locked in and do those things -- long season.”
Goff, for his part, called Campbell "our rock" and said that he shouldn't take the blame for the loss, "but that's who he is."
"He believes in us, he loves us and he cares for us. He puts everything he has in it for us, and we’re extremely disappointed in ourselves as well," said Goff. "You do have to tip your cap in a lot of ways to what they did. It’s unfortunate to do that, it’s hard to do that considering how good we feel like our team is, but you do have to.
"It’s a humbling game, it’s a humbling sport, and we were on the top of the world after that Minnesota game. It’s hard standing here right now and trying to process it all.”
Of his turnovers, Goff said "the pick-6 is the one I’d really like back. That was just a poor decision by me."
"The other ones were just sometimes part of the game, but yeah, it’s on me. I have to take care of it better and certainly would have given ourselves a better chance to win had I done that," he said.
Instead, the Lions are headed home early.