Dan Campbell took a lot of heat for his fourth-down decisions in the Lions' loss to the 49ers in the NFC title game. He doesn't regret them.
A month removed from Detroit's second-half collapse, he does wish he could have one call back: the decision to run the ball on 3rd and goal from the 1-yard line on the Lions' final drive, which cost them a timeout that could have changed the ending of the game.
"The only thing that if I could go back, that I felt greedy on, was at the very end of the game. Instead of just deciding what we’re going to do on fourth down to hold the timeout, do it on third down. I should have waited until fourth (to run it). I did, I got a little bit — I thought we were going to just pop the run. But hindsight, the smarter thing is, you throw it. And at least you know the clock stops or you score, and you hold the timeout for one more chance for another opportunity," Campbell said Tuesday at the NFL combine.
When the 49ers stuffed David Montgomery, Campbell had to burn the Lions' first timeout with a minute remaining. They scored on the next play on a pass from Jared Goff to Jameson Williams to cut the 49ers' lead to 34-31, but they had no chance of getting the ball back once San Francisco recovered the onside kick. With a third timeout, they could have forced a punt and given themselves a chance at a game-tying drive.
"For me, I’m always going to look back and reflect on every game that happens, particularly the losses, those always hurt worse," said Campbell. "And my job is, if I can alleviate pressure, where do I do that, where do I give our team the best chance to win?"
He did that for most of the first half when the Lions built a 24-7 lead. But he let his team down in the second, and the players let themselves down with several uncharacteristic mistakes. The cost to Detroit was a trip to the Super Bowl, and a loss that will linger for the next several months.