It’s now been a couple days since the Lions blew a 24-14 lead with the ball in the 4th quarter and driving. While my disappointment has since subsided, I know what all Lions fans are thinking “here we go again”. So with that in mind, let’s conduct a post mortem rundown of what exactly happened on September 25th, 2022.
The Detroit Lions were in one of the best situations they’d been in heading into the fourth quarter. In a division game, driving down the field owning the run game with one of the best offensive lines in the NFL to help put the game to bed.
Unfortunately, that’s when the Lions of old decided to show up. It’s exactly what they’ve been falling victim to ever since the Matthew Stafford era began: “it can never be simple,” and “another blown lead,” This might be the hardest loss in the Dan Campbell era, and the second blown lead to Minnesota in as many games. Last year they kicked a field goal to win the game, and now a touchdown with 40 seconds left rendered Lions fans speechless.
In my game preview I wrote the morning of, the game was going according to script through 3 quarters of play. My line about “On the road against a division rival that has already beaten the Packers, there’s no room for slip ups.If there’s an opportunity to take the game away they need to take it. Those close losses add up and no matter how hard you compete, finishing the job is an absolute must,” rings especially true in the wake of the loss.
Dan Campbell, with one of the strongest offensive lines in the NFL, decided to take a deep shot to Josh Reynolds on a 3rd and 1. Not only was the deep ball not working all game, but the decision to challenge arguably their best player on defense for the day, who is a twelve year veteran corner in Patrick Peterson, guarding your fourth best weapon on offense was questionable to say the least. Those types of decisions don’t tend to win many football games in the long run.
Next up was going for it on fourth down and failing to covert. Detroit had success going for it throughout the game, but there are limits to how often one needs to roll the dice when you’re ahead. Knowing when to gamble and when you should try to pin the offense deep and make them earn it is something Campbell will need to work on as head coach. That decision gave the opportunity for the Vikings to score quickly and get some momentum back on their side.
Finally, the 54 yard field goal on 4th down was absolutely atrocious. Campbell was going for it on 4th down a ton because earlier in the game, kicker Austin Seibert missed a 48 yard field goal. Campbell clearly didn’t trust him and rightfully so as it was later revealed Seibert sustained a groin injury and has subsequently missed Wednesday and Thursdays practice this week.
However, inexplicably, in this situation he decided to trust Seibert with a 54 yard field goal, with just under two minutes to play. Why he would trust a compromised kicker with a 54 yarder, but doubt him on shorter yardage is another head scratcher in the wake of the defeat. He was set up to fail before the attempt even occurred. And of course Minnesota drove down the field and won the game, just like we’ve seen before.
Sometimes thinking outside the box is a good thing, but doing it more often than required often has dire consequences at the NFL level. It killed the momentum and the Vikings ultimately emerged victorious.
Fans love Campbell, and hopefully this is a learning experience, but this loss was largely on the coaching staff. Next week the Lions take on the Seattle Seahawks at home in what will hopefully amount to a bounce back game.
-Robert Martin
Twitter: @Defense_Rob
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.