In a four-point loss to the Bucs, an extra field goal might have made all the difference for the Lions. They threw it away at the end of the first half when an error on the sideline led to the kicking unit rushing onto the field as the offense was trying to spike the ball inside Tampa's 10-yard line with under 10 seconds to play.
The resulting too many men on the field penalty killed the rest of the clock and sent the Lions into the half trailing 13-6. And when they were driving to win the game in the fourth quarter and twice pushed it into Bucs territory, they couldn't find the touchdown they needed to make up the difference.
Afterward, an emotional Dan Campbell said that he let his players down.
"I asked for improvement from last week, and we did improve. And their coach cost them," Campbell said. "Their head coach cost them this one. Critical error to end the half and 100 percent on me."
Asked what went awry in the mechanics of the field goal operation, Campbell said, "Look, there’s nothing that is going to make any sense to anybody."
"There’s no way to justify this. It’s a massive error on my part, no one else’s. It was just between hurry-up field goal and clocking it, and it was 100 percent my fault, 100 percent. That’s why we have guys on the field who are trying to clock it. It’s one of those things we work over and over, and we’ve been good, we do everything, and then I mess it up," Campbell said.
Typically, said Campbell, the Lions don't call on their field goal unit with the clock running if they have less than 14 seconds to get off a kick. That's their cutoff. The clock was well inside of that when the unit ran onto the field. The offense spiked the ball with four seconds to go, but not before the penalty had been assessed.
The Lions' 20-16 loss meant that a huge performance by Aidan Hutchinson went wasted. Hutchinson had a career-high 4.5 sacks, but it wasn't enough on a day the offense only managed to score one touchdown. Hutchinson said that Campbell "was pretty emotional" in the locker room after the game.
"He takes accountability, which you love to see out of your head coach, but then again, you know there were a lot of plays left on the table -- defense, offense -- that we could’ve just won that game and that whole halftime thing would’ve been an afterthought," Hutchinson said. "That's the way these games go sometimes."
Veteran defensive tackle DJ Reader said it was refreshing to hear a head coach speak so candidly to his players.
"You come in here, he wears his heart on his sleeve and he tells us how it is, and you can respect that," Reader said. "I've been in this league a long time, I’ve heard so many speeches of, ‘Oh, we just gotta get better. We just gotta do this, we just gotta do that.’ And that flies over your head.
"So eventually, when you sit up there and you pour your heart out, everyone’s looking you in your eye, we understand, we get it, we all make mistakes. It’s not like we're beating him over the head for it. But you can tell he cares. And that’s huge. That’s why he leads and we follow."
Campbell was also questioned about his decision to punt from the Bucs' 41-yard line early in the fourth quarter, trailing by four, rather than attempting a 59-yard field goal with the big leg of Jake Bates. The ensuing punt did pin Tampa inside the 10 and the Bucs punted it back to the Lions four plays later.
In a case like that, Campbell said he would "rather use Fox."
"From the time we started in spring, let’s get in there and try to kick it inside the 10, pin them, play defense," he said. "I felt like we had enough time. We had probably a couple of possessions left before that, was how I felt.”
The players were far from perfect themselves on Sunday, especially on offense. For as many yards as they accrued, the Lions went 1-for-7 in the red zone and Jared Goff threw two picks. Campbell acknowledged that "there's plenty of things we have to clean up, but you've got to take ownership" as the head coach.
Goff appreciated Campbell shouldering the blame, but said there's plenty of it to go around.
"He’s at the top of the pyramid here and when the guy at the top takes accountability like he has throughout his career, even today, it makes it a little easier for everyone else to take accountability when they’re at fault. We had plenty of opportunities to overcome that and make the plays to win the game, and I know he’s going to be hard on himself," said Goff.
"As players, we have to be better, I have to be better," he added. "I have to pick him up, I have to pick up other guys, the other guys have to pick up me, that’s how we win. Unfortunately, we couldn’t overcome too many mistakes today.”
Still, Campbell is pointing the finger at himself.
"The players have got it hard enough as it is, going toe-to-toe with a good opponent," he said. "To have to overcome whatever that is, could be calls, could be coaching, could be whatever, it’s too hard. Bottom line."