LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
November 3, 2025
Opening Statement: “Really just the story of the game, 142 rush yards to our 65. Now one of them was on a swing screen that was a lateral, but that still counts. That’s yards. Four-point-nine to our three-point-three. Seven penalties, 56 yards to our 10 for 76. A couple of those were crucial penalties, extended drives for them. Cost us, backed us out of the red zone to where we had to settle for a field goal, or punt, or field goal and then it gets blocked. We had the fumble, and that was in plus territory for them. We talked about the field goal that got blocked and ran all the way back, the kickoff return that ends up in plus territory. Defensively, sudden change where we’ve been really good, we gave up two touchdowns. We held on the last one, which was good, but they got put in a hard spot, and we did that to ourselves, and they capitalized. And then obviously red zone, they were three-of-five, we were one-of-three. They had about 10 explosives with those couple of penalties, we only had six. Those were really kind of the story of that game. Third down was pretty even for both teams, not good enough. We talked about it. We’ve got to be much better. We were good on fourth, which really, we ended up converting some of those third down rolled into conversions. But however you cut it, it’s not good enough on third down. It doesn’t matter. We had a number of our guys that we really depend on that we expect to play better, I expect to play better football. And us as coaches, starting with me, I have to coach it better. I have to get them ready. I did feel like we were pretty prepped, felt like we were good going in last week. I thought the practices were sharp, they were intense, but we just didn’t play well enough. And so really, I know this sounds crazy, but the sky’s not falling, we just didn’t play very good. We just didn’t play very good. So much of it is the fundamentals and the discipline, which has not been an issue. And it did, it showed up in that game, and they capitalized. They did a good job, and they took advantage of our mistakes, and they got a dub because of it.”
On his message to the team about responding to adversity: “Well I say this all the time. You don’t know – every team’s going to get hit with adversity at some point in the season. You don’t know when it’s going to happen, you don’t know how long it’s going to be for. Some maybe a week, maybe a game, some two weeks, maybe three, maybe a month, I don’t know. And it’s really about how you handle it. It’s always been about how you handle it. When things aren’t going your way or it feels a little rocky, man, just focus on what we need to correct and what cost us the game, and just keep your focus there. Not like, ‘Oh man, what are we going to do? It’s all utter panic and they’re going to start running twist games and gunning, we can’t pick this up and what about third down?’ There’s a reason why everything happened the way it happened. It’s all encompassing. It really took all of us. Man, it’s about calm down. Let’s make the corrections, let’s go back to work this week, and let’s get better. And let’s play better football next week. That’s all we’ve got to do, and let’s find a way to get a win. So, I just think that’s important. And as bad as it tastes right now, I’m a big believer in, you look back at some point and say, ‘Man, that may have been the best thing that happened to us.’ Because we had to overcome this, we had to do this, this forced this changed, this made us look at this a little differently, this got the urgency up for the way I go about my business. And sometimes that’s the way it works, most of the time. I believe that. This is just a little storm we’re in, and we’ve got to weather it. No matter how long it takes, we’ll get out of this. We’ll be good.”
On why there was not a better effort to relieve Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs from the blitz mismatch created by the Vikings defense: “A couple answers, you get (Lions RB) David (Montgomery) in. That’s one. You could free release, but then they’ll get him and then they bring the other guy. So, some of it is, OK, you can use some seven-man protections. There are some things that you can do. And look, I’m not going to disagree with you. There are things that we can do better and that we can get to. We don’t want to have Gibby do a full game of it. Now he’s better than that, too. I’ve seen him, we all know him, he can protect. He had a little bit of an off day in some of that, too. But no, we don’t want him to have to go hammerhead for 12 plays. That’s not – I don’t want either of those backs having to do that. But that was the plan to keep him in, that was kudos to them to keep him in, not let him release on some of that stuff. We turned the protection a couple of times, but they forced our hand. You either go there, or you’re going to put him on a big. Yeah, we’ve got to adjust a little quicker.”
On the communication issues in each of their losses this season and what he believes needs to be corrected: “I think we just need to do a better job of really making our point about the communication of how it’s going to go down. Out on the practice field, let’s make sure that we’re all on the same page as coaches, and in turn the players are, and then they’ve got to hold each other accountable too. I know it’s like, ‘Well, what?’ It’s really that simple, it really is. It does take all of us. We all have to be on the same page. And really, we’ve been pretty good, but it did. It caught us a couple of times yesterday.”
On if he would have liked to get Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs and Lions WR Jameson Williams in space more yesterday: “Yeah, we would’ve. Anytime you can get Gibbs in space, that’s pretty good for us. And we had a couple of things, and the timing of it wasn’t good enough. The timing of it wasn’t good enough. We had a couple of screens for Gibbs where it was like the worst-case scenario happens. We have one, (Lions WR Kalif Raymond) Leaf is motioning in, ends up hitting the end, he’s laying on the ground, makes the play. That’s not how that’s designed. So, these things happen. It was not our day, which is of our own doing. And we’ve got to better. The more times you can get Jamo and Gibbs in space, it’s good for our offense.”
On if there is a common thread between the communication issues on offense: “Sometimes it’s you get in a rough spot, and normally we get ourselves out of it. You hit a rough patch in a game, no different than a season, right? And you’ve just got to get out of it. It swelled up a little bit on us. It kind of – one thing compounded into the next error. And then you start looking for things that aren’t there, and so it was just kind of, man, went from one thing to another and it just started to build. We never really got in a true rhythm, and then when we did, we’d have a penalty that really hurt us and took us out of manageable downs. So, like I say, credit to those guys. They earned that win. I mean, we didn’t even get close to earning that win. But at the end of the day, we had a chance to win that game. And really, those critical errors I talked about, take one of those away. You may not feel great, but you’re walking away with a win. Any one of those whether it was the special teams errors, whether it was defense and the sudden change, whether it was offense on a penalty going into the red zone. It’s literally one play. Man, we just clean it up.”
On if the result of yesterday’s game and injuries changed his mind about the upcoming trade deadline: “I mean look, we’re still gathering information on some of our guys, other than (Lions OL Christian) Mahogany. He is definitely going to be out for a while, for a long time. And look, (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I and the coaches just got done with the game, looked at the game, talked about it, graded the players. And so, we haven’t even discussed this coming out of that game into today. So, I don’t really have anything to say on it.”
On getting five prominent defensive players back soon and if that is his ‘trade deadline’: “Well I mentioned this before, we’re going to start getting some good players back. Some really good impact players. And you just named (Lions EDGE Marcus) Davenport. We’re talking about (Lions CB D.J.) Reed, we’re talking about (Lions EDGE Josh) Paschal, we’re talking about (Lions LB Malcolm) Rodriguez, (Lions CB Khalil) Dorsey on special teams. So, we’ve got some guys that are going to start coming back and that does give you a boost. That helps you. Not only makes your team better, makes your roster better.”
On if there is a chance for Lions G Kayode Awosika to fill Lions OL Christian Mahogony’s role: “Well look, Yode went in. I see Yode competing at one of those spots. Obviously where Mahogany’s at, left guard. I mentioned this before, we’ve got (Lions OL) Kingsley (Eguakun) on the vet squad, we’ve got (Lions OL Michael) Niese on the vet squad. Certainly (Lions OL Trystan) Colon has been traveling to the game, he’s played center guard. So listen, we’re looking at everything. We are. Like I said, we’ll see where we’re at. But I don’t feel like this is – I can’t say one way or another whether we’re going to make a move, I’ve got to go talk to (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes). As of right now, I don’t know of anything.”
On injury updates for Lions T Taylor Decker and Lions T Penei Sewell: “Nothing new, other than nothing sounds long term which is good. That’s good news. I think it’s more about are they going to be able to practice this week and are they going to be able to play this week? But nothing beyond that I don’t feel like as of right now.”
On if he sees Lions T Taylor Decker and Lions T Penei Sewell being limited in practice this week: “Yeah, I would say so. I don’t think either one of them will be able to practice Wednesday. Now I hope they will, but there again, we just got out of the game. They’re pretty sore, everybody that’s played in there.”
On Lions OL Tate Ratledge: “Yeah, I think Tate will be OK. Yeah.”
On if he thinks Lions OL Christian Mahagony will be back at some point this season: “I do, I do. For what the injury is – it’s a broken bone. So that’s – relative to injuries, that’s a good thing. It’ll heal up, it’ll be stronger than it was before.”
