Examining the key decisions made by Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell against Seattle Seahawks.
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00:00 Some coaching decisions have now been talked about from head coach Dan Campbell
00:04 in the Lions latest loss to the Seahawks. Here today to explore Dan Campbell's aggressiveness
00:08 is All Lions senior writer Vito Chirco. Vito, I'm curious what's been going on
00:13 with Dan Campbell's inconsistency regarding his aggressive play calling?
00:17 Well it's funny, he loves being Mr. Aggression, right? I mean putting his foot on the gas pedal
00:22 left and right. Yet at the very end of the game, then the play clock, he allowed it to
00:27 run out really on the Lions offensively and didn't do anything. Didn't pick up the speed,
00:31 didn't pick up the intensity, didn't really push the envelope there at the very end of the game
00:35 when they had a chance to maybe win that ball game. Instead obviously it went into overtime
00:40 and guess who got the ball first? The Seahawks. They scored the touchdown and won the contest.
00:44 Whether or not you like that, the overtime rules, that's a different story. Fact is,
00:48 Dan Campbell wasn't aggressive towards the end of that contest after being aggressive all
00:52 throughout the game in regulation, including late in the third quarter on fourth and two on
00:57 Detroit's own 45-yard line. He went for it at that point in time, once again in his own territory,
01:03 when David Montgomery had just gone out with an injury too. And that was a big factor in my
01:08 opinion at that point in the game, John. Montgomery had just left the contest and you still decide to
01:14 go for it there on fourth and two. You throw it to Josh Reynolds. I didn't like the play call.
01:19 Nobody and their mother at Fort Field loved that play call either. Everybody criticized it right
01:23 after it occurred because it wasn't a good call at all. And once again, Montgomery is out, you still
01:29 go for it. I didn't like that from Dan Campbell there. I was doubting it back then. And then also
01:34 you have to take into account that at that point in time, you're up 21 to 17. You're playing with
01:40 the league. Your defense hasn't been great. Anyways, Wright has been allowing all this time
01:45 in the world for Geno Smith in the pocket to make play after play with his arm, his legs. So you
01:51 allow all that to happen, yet you still put your defense in that situation. A very tough, tough
01:57 situation to put your defense in, especially when once again, they have been struggling all game
02:02 long up to that point in the third quarter. So for me, that was highly, highly questionable,
02:08 a call that Dan Campbell should not have made. And then once again, you nailed it on the head,
02:12 John, when you presented this topic. It's been inconsistent or was at least for sure in week two
02:16 from Dan Campbell with this play calling, with his foot on the gas pedal for the first three quarters.
02:21 Then at the end of regulation, he took his foot off the gas pedal, allowed it to go into overtime.
02:26 And then the uncontrollable happens where the Seahawks win the coin toss, get the ball,
02:31 go down the field and score to win the game. And once again, you don't have to like that
02:34 overtime rule, but that's the overtime rule. So if you allow the Seahawks to get the ball,
02:38 they score first. Well, they win the game as they did. So that's where you can blame Dan Campbell,
02:44 those two instances right there. And the biggest one to me, once again, is at fourth and two
02:49 in the third quarter when it just didn't make sense for Dan Campbell to go for it.
02:54 Yeah, Vito, a famous coach Herman Edwards once said you play to win the game and Dan Campbell's
03:01 decision-making and aggressiveness is something to monitor moving forward here in the 2023 season.