In each of the last two games, Dan Campbell's clock management at the end of the first half has come under question.
Two weeks ago against the Eagles, Campbell opted against using any of his timeouts as Philadelphia drove into the end zone late in the second quarter, leaving just 16 seconds on the clock when the Lions got the ball back. They took a knee and went into halftime trailing by seven in a seven-point loss.
This past week against the Giants, the Lions were trailing by six with 23 seconds remaining in the first half when Jared Goff hit Kalif Raymond down the middle for a 30-yard gain to the Giants' 23. Instead of using his final timeout to stop the clock at 16 or 17 seconds, Campbell had the offense run up to the line and spike the ball as the clock wound down to seven seconds.
The Lions only had time for a short pass to Gibbs before kicking a field goal to pull within three at the break.
Asked Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket about holding on to his final timeout, Campbell, who's also been calling plays the past three weeks, said, "Yeah, I should have used it there."
"But it was like, look, we got one more, so you can still take a shot in bounds, use the timeout and then if you like where you’re at, throw it in the end zone or kick the field goal," Campbell said. "But otherwise, yeah, you can (use it) ... and then you still got a clock-it situation, and then you’re still in the same boat to where you’re going to have one play to decide what you’re going to do. But if you just want to take three shots to the end zone, I’m with you, probably should have done it, probably could have done it."
Campbell also noted that one benefit to keeping the timeout is that while "you don’t want to play for disaster ... if something happens at least you still got it in your pocket."
In general, Campbell acknowledged that he's still working through the dual responsibility of calling plays on offense and managing variables like the clock and timeouts that fall on the head coach. He last called plays for the Lions in the second half of the 2021 season.
"I think some of it is, the more I’m back in it and doing both, the better I’ll get," he said. "Look, I’m always going to want to do things better than I did the week before. I think we’re all that way, right? You want your show to be better next week than it is this week, right? We’re all trying to get better."