Dan Campbell pointed the finger at himself after the Lions' 27-24 loss to the Vikings on Sunday. Detroit yielded the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and made a couple uncharacteristic errors on special teams in a lackluster effort against a division opponent.
"When you don’t play well in all three phases, that falls on the head coach," said Campbell. "That’s me. I did not have them ready coming out of a bye."
Campbell thought the Lions would play well after a bye that came at the right time. Instead, "it was probably one of the worst games we've played in a long time," he said. And while Campbell credited the Vikings for executing their game plan, "we did everything we needed to do to lose that game."
"We made every critical error you needed to at the right time to lose it," he said. "Perfect storm."
The Vikings looked like the more physical team for most of the game. They ran for 142 yards, including almost 10 per carry in the first half by Aaron Jones. Meanwhile, Detroit averaged just 3.3 yards per carry and allowed five sacks of Jared Goff, tied for the most in his Lions career.
With the Lions trailing 17-14 in the third quarter, David Montgomery coughed up a killer fumble in Detroit territory that the Vikings quickly turned into a touchdown for a two-score lead.
Special teams, typically a well-oiled unit under Dave Fipp, allowed a 61-yard kickoff return on Minnesota's first drive that set up a touchdown and had a field goal in the fourth quarter blocked and returned 41 yards to set up a field goal for the Vikings.
As a team, the Lions committed 10 penalties for 76 yards, season highs in both departments.
"Our discipline, the penalties caught up to us," said Campbell. "Man, we were out of sync. We never looked comfortable. We just didn’t make enough plays. We had multiple opportunities to set ourselves up to have a chance to win that game and we made none of them, really. So I gotta clean some stuff up, and we will, I will."
Goff deflected the blame onto the players. He felt like the Lions "were ready to go." They just never got going on offense after striking for a touchdown on their opening drive. Goff was under pressure for most of the day, and the Lions couldn't come up with the answers or the plays in the trenches to slow down Minnesota's aggressive defense.
"From my perspective, we didn’t play well as players. We didn’t in any phase, and they did," said Goff. "They played better than us today. It’s been a long time since we've had this feeling of playing poorly in all three phases. And you do that, you probably lose."
The race is officially on in the NFC North. While the two teams at the top lost on Sunday, with the Packers getting beat at home by the Panthers, the other two won, with the Bears taking down the Bengals in a frantic finish. Through eight games, the Packers, Lions and Bears all have five wins; the Vikings have four.
Next for the Lions: at Washington, at Philadelphia. Detroit hasn't lost back-to-back games in three years.
"We’ll respond, it’s what we do best," said Goff.
In the locker room after the loss on Sunday, Campbell told his players that "a little adversity at this point in the season isn’t always the worst thing for you," said Goff.
"I can say that if you use it correctly. Who knows, maybe we look back on this moment as a turning point for us," Goff said. "It’ll only be that if we make it that, though."