Dan Campbell is under heavy fire from critics after his trademark aggressive decision making backfired during Sunday’s NFC title game, but Tiki said Campbell is simply a product of a changing NFL and sports landscape.
“Take the points when you can get the points,” Tiki said of the old school football mindset. “Dan turned into a math guy. The analytics tell you to go for it in those situations, and it cost them…It’s easy to criticize him, but math has taken over our sport. Not just football, but all of them.
“I think someone is telling him to do it. They all have these guys.
they all have someone sitting up there with a protractor and a calculator telling them, ‘the percentage says this.’ That’s what this league has turned into.”
So Tiki, noting several other mistakes that were made by the players on the field in what was an excruciating loss for Detroit, says Campbell shouldn’t be getting as much blame as he seems to be.
“Here’s why I forgive him though,” Tiki said. “He’s been doing this all year long. You can’t just all of a sudden say, ‘It worked in the divisional round, it worked in the Wild Card round…they did it all season long.’ It’s just philosophy. It’s what he believes in.”