The self-inflicted mistakes were incredibly frustrating. “You can’t give that team any opportunities, and I feel like we did just that,” said the coach. Buffalo’s 48 points and 559 yards don’t even capture the full picture, as Tyler Bass missed a 24-yard field goal that could have pushed the Bills past 50 points. This came after Buffalo’s 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams the previous Sunday.
“We knew they’d be fired up after that tough loss on the West Coast,” Campbell explained. “They had a sense of urgency, and we just didn’t match it. That’s on me. I didn’t prepare the team well enough for a game like that. We have plenty of players who can perform better, and it’s my responsibility to get them there.”
Despite the loss, Detroit’s offense didn’t seem too bad at first glance, with 521 total yards and 494 of them coming from Jared Goff. The Lions lost by only six points. Goff threw for 333 yards in the second half, but Detroit only managed seven yards rushing. By the early fourth quarter, they were down 38-21, and were still two scores behind until they scored their final touchdown with 16 seconds left.
“If we had started the game the way we finished it, maybe we could have kept it closer in the first three quarters,” Goff said. “It wouldn’t have felt like garbage time toward the end.”
“They hit us hard early, and it took too long for us to respond,” he added.
Looking ahead, Goff sees some potential in the loss. “We wanted to win every game, including the Super Bowl, but it didn’t happen,” he said. “Hopefully, we can learn from this and use those lessons to win the next three games.”
