Dan Campbell, known for never blaming his staff or players, took full responsibility for a critical mistake in the second quarter that contributed to the Lions’ 20-16 defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I asked our team to improve from last week and we did,” Campbell said. “But then their coach makes a crucial mistake. That’s entirely on me, and I’ve told them so.”
With 18 seconds left in the first half and no timeouts remaining, Jared Goff completed an 8-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown at the middle of the field. St. Brown was tackled at the Tampa Bay 9-yard line, and the clock continued to run.
As Goff signaled for the offense to prepare for a spike, the Lions’ field-goal team hurried onto the field, only to stop, restart, and then return to the sidelines.
By then, Goff had spiked the ball with four seconds remaining, but a penalty flag was thrown for “12 men on the field at the snap” — actually, there were at least 20. With the clock running in the final two minutes, the Lions faced a 5-yard penalty and a 10-second runoff, ending the half.
Had the Lions managed a field goal, they would have been trailing by four points at halftime instead of seven. If the second half had unfolded similarly, they might have been down 20-19 in the final minute with a chance for a game-winning field goal.
Instead, needing a touchdown, they turned the ball over on downs with 53 seconds left. The defense held, but a final drive ended with Goff’s three incomplete passes from the Buccaneers’ 26-yard line.
On 4th-and-10 with six seconds left, Goff’s pass to Tom Kennedy fell short, ending Detroit’s hopes for a game-winning play with no time remaining.
“We had a plan for that play,” Goff said. “I just made a poor throw.”
While Goff didn’t believe the first-half play was the reason for the loss, he appreciated Campbell’s accountability.
“He’s at the top, and when he takes responsibility — as he has throughout his career — it encourages the rest of us to do the same,” Goff said. “But we had enough chances to win the game.”
Goff completed 34 of 55 passes for 307 yards with two interceptions. He averaged 9.0 yards per completion, in contrast to Baker Mayfield’s 15.4, with many of those completions short as the Lions went 1 for 7 in the red zone.
“I thought we moved the ball well, but they tightened up in the red zone,” Goff said. “If we had converted a couple of those, we likely would have won.”
