The man who resurrected the Detroit Lions is getting killed after his team's NFC Championship meltdown. Let's remember why this team was even in this game.
Annie Duke taught me about resulting. Separating the quality of the decision from the outcome. I think Campbell made mostly good decisions but they didn’t work out. Still a good coach that, along with his GM, have changed Detroit’s culture. No shame in this season.
But the Niners look mortal two weeks in a row while Mahomes looks inevitable.
Campbell kicks a field goal at the end of the first half to make it a three-score game with the lead at 17 points. San Francisco kicks a field goal to open the third quarter to make it a two-score game, the lead now at 14. The Lions drive the ball to the Lions 30 and faced with a fourth and short, decide to go for it? So instead of regaining the three-score lead with a 47-yard field goal to rebuild a 17 point margin--which was good enough for Campbell at halftime--he’s now a quarter and a half away from the Super Bowl and decides that 17 points later in the game isn’t enough. Campbell takes the field goal off the table and gets no points--failing on fourth and short--and hands the ball, and momentum, right back to San Francisco. Sheer stupidity.
In the fourth quarter, San Francisco kicks a field goal to go up by 3, 27-24. Detroit launches a drive deep into San Francisco territory. Faced with a fourth-and-short, Campbell opts not to tie the game late in the fourth quarter and goes for it. Goff’s pass fails. The 49ers take over and drive for a score, increasing their margin to 10 points with three minutes or so left. Had Campbell’s team kicked a field goal, they would have been down one score with three timeouts instead of two scores (10 points).
Atlanta never recovered after blowing a 25-point lead to New England in the Super Bowl. Their seasons got progressively worse. Don’t be surprised if Detroit fades away after this brain-numbing debacle and Campbell is out of football two seasons down the road.
Good article. The lack of execution on them hurt a lot more than the play calls themselves. The plays were there to be had.
I would've gone for the FG to get to 27-10 because given the game's flow, three scores down at that point looked like a lot bigger hill to climb than two scores and would've put SF in complete pass mode. But it's no guarantee they don't complete a miracle 51-yard pass soon after anyway, or that Purdy wouldn't have escaped on even more Tarkenton-like runs. Just too many dropped passes and other miscues in the second half, blaming the play calls is just a simpleton hot take.
Anytime the moment becomes “big” in the playoffs, the team with the most experience performing under pressure typically wins. That is exactly what happened in the GB-SF game, as well as the DET-SF and KC-BAL games yesterday. At halftime with the Lions up 24-7, I polled a group of people I was watching the game with the following question:
Who believes the Lions are going to beat SF and play KC in the Super Bowl?
Out of a group of eight, six people thought the Lions would lose despite being up 17 at halftime. When I asked for the rationale of their prediction, the most common response was “Because it’s the Lions, that is what Detroit does.”
Annie Duke taught me about resulting. Separating the quality of the decision from the outcome. I think Campbell made mostly good decisions but they didn’t work out. Still a good coach that, along with his GM, have changed Detroit’s culture. No shame in this season.
But the Niners look mortal two weeks in a row while Mahomes looks inevitable.
Campbell kicks a field goal at the end of the first half to make it a three-score game with the lead at 17 points. San Francisco kicks a field goal to open the third quarter to make it a two-score game, the lead now at 14. The Lions drive the ball to the Lions 30 and faced with a fourth and short, decide to go for it? So instead of regaining the three-score lead with a 47-yard field goal to rebuild a 17 point margin--which was good enough for Campbell at halftime--he’s now a quarter and a half away from the Super Bowl and decides that 17 points later in the game isn’t enough. Campbell takes the field goal off the table and gets no points--failing on fourth and short--and hands the ball, and momentum, right back to San Francisco. Sheer stupidity.
In the fourth quarter, San Francisco kicks a field goal to go up by 3, 27-24. Detroit launches a drive deep into San Francisco territory. Faced with a fourth-and-short, Campbell opts not to tie the game late in the fourth quarter and goes for it. Goff’s pass fails. The 49ers take over and drive for a score, increasing their margin to 10 points with three minutes or so left. Had Campbell’s team kicked a field goal, they would have been down one score with three timeouts instead of two scores (10 points).
Atlanta never recovered after blowing a 25-point lead to New England in the Super Bowl. Their seasons got progressively worse. Don’t be surprised if Detroit fades away after this brain-numbing debacle and Campbell is out of football two seasons down the road.
He can blame himself. No one else.
Good article. The lack of execution on them hurt a lot more than the play calls themselves. The plays were there to be had.
I would've gone for the FG to get to 27-10 because given the game's flow, three scores down at that point looked like a lot bigger hill to climb than two scores and would've put SF in complete pass mode. But it's no guarantee they don't complete a miracle 51-yard pass soon after anyway, or that Purdy wouldn't have escaped on even more Tarkenton-like runs. Just too many dropped passes and other miscues in the second half, blaming the play calls is just a simpleton hot take.
Anytime the moment becomes “big” in the playoffs, the team with the most experience performing under pressure typically wins. That is exactly what happened in the GB-SF game, as well as the DET-SF and KC-BAL games yesterday. At halftime with the Lions up 24-7, I polled a group of people I was watching the game with the following question:
Who believes the Lions are going to beat SF and play KC in the Super Bowl?
Out of a group of eight, six people thought the Lions would lose despite being up 17 at halftime. When I asked for the rationale of their prediction, the most common response was “Because it’s the Lions, that is what Detroit does.”