LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2024
(Opening Statement) “Listen, really proud of the guys. Talked about when you have a group
of guys that, we’ve got football players, talented football players, and they’re made of the
right stuff, and then they come together, there’s a collective willpower that I think they can
use together and I really felt like we pulled on each other today, and really played some of
our best ball up to date. That was – satisfying always to get a win in this League, cause
they’re hard to come by but, when you feel like you play up to your potential in all areas, it’s
a really good feeling. So, it was an outstanding effort by a ton of people, a ton of players,
coaches did a great job of having them ready. It was. We were proud of that win last week
that was hard-fought, but we also wanted to get that bad taste out of our mouth, and we
did that today. So, it’s outstanding.”
(On Lions QB Jared Goff’s performance today after throwing five interceptions in last
week’s game) “Yeah, I mean he’s, once again, he continues to play at a high level. I
mentioned this just a minute ago. There’s a ton of things I appreciate about him, but one of
them is that, whatever it was or wasn’t last week – and I said this, he didn’t play a bad
game. Those circumstances and what went down were just, I mean, it was bizarre. But I
know for him it’s like, ‘Look whatever it is or isn’t, I’m going to play better.’ And he was
locked in like he’s been, and you just had that feeling, man. Offense, collectively, I just felt
like we were going to be in a good place, and credit to the coaches, but those guys, they
took ownership in it, and they wanted to finish better, collectively, and finish down the
field, and make plays, and be productive, be efficient, and we did that. But (Lions QB Jared)
Goff, I thought Goff was outstanding, once again. And so no, I’m not surprised. That’s the
type of player we have, and that’s the type of football he’s been playing, for a while now.
So, he’s a stud.”
(On if the team played angry today) “Oh, I think we really – there was so much of the focus
was about we wanted to make sure we established an aggressive style. Our aggressive
style of football, and we really wanted to finish, and so much of it was about – it was really
the focus, above anything else, was about our effort, just finishing. I want you to be able to
turn the tape on, and your teammate to watch the play that you’re doing, and say, ‘Man,
that guy is finishing for me. Now, I trust that guy,’ and that was kind of the message is,
‘Man, finish for the guy next to you, and give everything you’ve got.’ If we can all look at
each other tomorrow, in the eyes, and say, ‘I gave you what I had,’ that’s always going to be
a good thing, and they did that.”
(On how he decides when to take key players out of the game when they are winning by a
wide margin) “There’s nothing easy about it. This is a weird – this is another one of those
bizarre things that you’re running into. Normally this doesn’t happen. It’s just like the third
time this has come up this season, which, it’s a good problem to have. There’s a number of
things, and I think you want to know that you finish on a good note, you found a rhythm, you
keep the rhythm, ‘OK, now the time says, let’s get them out.’ What’s hard is, you’re playing
pretty good, and then you take this dip, and then it starts to taste bad, ‘OK, now we pull
them out because we don’t want to get anybody hurt, and then does that bleed into the
next week and you’re playing?’ So, some of those come in, and I think you’ve just got to feel
it out. That last one, I told those guys, after the last touchdown we had, I don’t know what it
was, 13 minutes left, ‘Let’s get them out.’ We played pretty good, we finished on a high
note. Touchdown, defensively we got a stop, and we started pulling guys. You’ve got to
make the most of it. There again, I mean, even at the end, OK, you pull (Lions WR Amon-Ra)
St. Brown out, we started to lose – (Lions CB Amik Robertson) A-Rob gets hurt, but he’s
back, we didn’t want to use (Lions TE) Brock (Wright), well we had to use Brock again. And
so, you start playing this, this is, you just you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to finish the
game out, and you can only worry so much about it, and even there, it’s like, you’d love to
get (Lions T Penei) Sewell out, but we only have three linemen at the game, and reserves,
and you take out your oldest guys, your most veteran guys, or the guys who maybe are
dinged up a little bit. You do the best you can with it.”
(On if the offense is back to their dominant ways) “Yeah, I would say that. Look, everybody
on offense is going to get a game ball for that. I mean, that, that was – you get over 600
yards of offense, and you’re whatever that was – five-of-five in the redzone, third down was
outstanding, I don’t know how many explosives we had, but we had a ton, and then the first
downs, 30-something first downs. I mean, that’s just, that’s a collective effort, that takes a
lot of guys to be able to do that. But, we have, we’ve got power up front, with our O-line,
and we’ve got some serious juice in the backfield, in the perimeter, and we’ve got the right
balance of electricity, and just whatever you want to call it. Sledgehammer, I don’t know.”
(On the performance of the defense) “Yeah, 170 yards too only given up. Got our takeaway,
we were talking about getting our takeaway – (Lions S) Kerby (Joseph) got us one, which is
great. That kind of finished it out for us. Stopped the run. I’m telling you, this was a
collective effort, everybody did their job. When you’re able to get a stop on defense, score
seven, get another stop, score seven, you put a tremendous amount of pressure on the
opponent, and you put them in a place they don’t want to be in. That’s hard. It’s hard. Let
me say this too, let me go back to that, because here’s what I want. I do not want to let the
fear of injury take away from our identity. That’ll always be most important to me. More so,
the minute you start worrying about injuries, that’s when bad things happen, so that’s kind
of – I’ll finish with that. It was on my mind.”
(On if he thinks this offense is as good as some of the best offenses in NFL history) “I think
we have that ability, I really do. I think we have that ability. We have, to me, we have
everything that we need to be potent, and like I say, I feel like we’re well-rounded. When
you’re able to run the ball with the big boys up front, you’ve got a hammer like (Lions RB)
David (Montgomery), and you’ve got electric, this electricity with (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs,
and you’ve got (Lions WR Jameson Williams) Jamo on the perimeter, and then you’ve got
our rock (Lions WR Amon-Ra) St. Brown who just continues to make plays – you put him
anywhere you want to put him, and you need it, he’s got it. And then running the whole
show is (Lions QB Jared) Goff. I think, I think we’re – yeah, I mean, I think we can be
dangerous. We have that ability because, really, we can play the game anyway we need to,
as long as we’re on our stuff, we’re on our game, and we’re locked in, and we’re finishing.
We can do that.”
(On if there is a best strategy for offensive production when the team has been off the
mark) “No. I mean, look, I think sometimes it can come up to matchups. You do the best
you can with the matchups you have, right? But, you get in a bad spot with somebody on
third down and all of the sudden they get pressure on the quarterback or, ‘We thought this
guy could beat press,’ he got hemmed up, it’s an incompletion, or Goff just, maybe,
happened to miss it which doesn’t happen much, and then, OK, you had to punt it, and
then what happened, ‘Well did we give up a touchdown on defense?’ You get in one of
those, all of the sudden you’re down. Things happen in this League, they do. Or what
happened last week with, we get a ball batted, it’s an interception, so those things are
always going to be there. It’s about overcoming them, but when we do things right, and
everybody’s doing their job, and doing it at the highest level they can do it, and I’m talking
about coaches and players, I think we’re difficult to stop, collectively, offense, defense,
special teams. I think we’re a tough team.”
(On if this is the best team performance since he has been with the Lions) “Yeah, probably
so. For this year, for sure. It’s tough to say. We played pretty good two years ago against
Jacksonville here. I don’t know what that was, but yeah. I mean, probably top to bottom,
this is probably the best game. Offense, defense, special teams, everything, it was pretty
good. We did what we needed to do on both sides of the ball.”
(On an injury update for Lions LB Alex Anzalone) “No. He’s not. Looks like he broke the
forearm, so he’s going to be out six to eight weeks.”
LIONS QUARTERBACK JARED GOFF
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2024
(On the capability of this offense becoming one of the best in NFL history) “Yeah, we’ve got
that capability, certainly. We’ve got to do it for another – I don’t know how many games are
left in the year now – eight, nine, regular season. Yeah, we got some work to do still, but
we’ve certainly got that capability. I think that’s kind of been something we talked about in
the offseason is history and how great we can be. We know the group we have, we know
what our capabilities are, and today was a good example of that.”
(On if he has ever been a part of a team having seven straight touchdown drives) “I’ve been
on the other side of that. But, no, I don’t know if I’ve done that on offense – seven straight,
no.”
(On the feeling of everything working out offensively) “Yeah, it’s fun. We were moving the
ball pretty good. I thought our run game was really good, our pass game obviously was
pretty good too – everything’s working. It felt as if (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben
(Johnson) could kind of call anything, and we were going to make it work. Our guys showed
up today.”
(On if he feels like an orchestra conductor for the offense) “Yeah, I think that’s the
challenge every week is really trying to get everyone involved and make sure that we’re
spreading the ball around. I’m not really conscious of it during the game, but throughout
the week at practice you’re thinking about it, then once the game starts – I’ve said it before,
I’m kind of just playing point guard. Trying to find the open guy, get it to him. I mean, shoot,
we threw a check down to (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs that goes for 53. It’s a luxury to have
those two guys in the backfield that when one, two, and three down the field are covered,
you go down to them, and it’s usually good things are happening.”
(On his mindset bouncing back after last week) “Yeah, last week was tough, but I was
confident in the way that I played, and what I knew had happened, and what went wrong,
and what to fix, and all the things. So, I wasn’t dwelling on that. I knew I had to come out
today and pick up where I left off and then just keep on going, and those guys rally behind
me and distribute it to them as well as I could.”
(On what he thinks about the decision as to when to take out starting players) “Yeah, I
don’t think about it, nor do I really think there is a right or wrong answer to that. It’s quite
the luxury to have in the NFL – to be able to take out players ever. So, if we’re able to do
that great, if we don’t, great, we don’t care.”
(On if he wanted to go back into the game when he was taken out) “No, I was good. I’ll play
if he wants me to, if we’re up by 45 – or whatever we were – I’m good to take a rest and let
(Lions QB) Hendon (Hooker) go.”
(On the performance of Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown today) “He’s just that guy, man. I
think we did see some possibilities to kind of recalibrate ourselves this week and get back
on the same page, where we want to be, and he’s certainly a big part of that. Felt like
towards the end there, we could kind of call anything and he was going to get himself open,
and he came in this week ready to go and showed up.”
(On if he could feel a dominant game like this was coming) “Yeah, we wanted to. You never
know – that was our intent this week – was to, like I said recalibrate and get back to who we
know we can be. I think even going back all the way to Tennessee, we really didn’t have any
opportunities – I know we won by a lot of points but there wasn’t opportunities for longer
drives there. Then, you go to Green Bay and the weather kind of stymies you in some ways,
and then obviously last week what happened. So, we kind of were like alright we need to
get back to what we do – long drives, long, big explosive plays – it was certainly the intent
this week.”
(On if he is feeling the movement and pressure when he is in the pocket) “Yeah, I think so
and our guys were doing such a great job protecting that. There isn’t often times where I do
need to move. So, when it happens, it’s very rare and those feelings are very different when
it’s a clean pocket and when there’s some pressure, I can tell the difference at this point
with the type of O-line we have.”
(On the offense needing to be ruthless) “Yeah, I think so. The reality was that they’re a team
who has less wins than us and we could have played down to our competition in some
ways, and – not to disrespect them, they’re a hell of a squad – but, we wanted to play to our
standard – nameless, faceless opponent. That’s not just them, that’s every week. I think we
wanted to come out and stay on the gas the whole game, no matter what happened. If it
had been a closer game, we still would have stayed on the gas. We talked about it all week
– holding our standard, what is our standard, and exceeding it, and trying to push
ourselves. So, regardless of our opponent, we did want to do that this week.”
(On Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs being Sonic and Lions RB David Montgomery being Knuckles
and what that makes him) “Oh, boy. I don’t know enough about the Sonic world to know
who the third character would be. I’ll let you decide Brad – you can come up with
somebody.”
(On what he attributes to the team always being ready) “Yeah, I think just like the internal
messaging like I was just talking about. Being intentional about knowing like, ‘Alright guys,
our team is really good and we got a chance to go win this game, but not if we don’t hold
our standard.’ It’s human nature sometimes to do that – to play down a little bit, and we got
to be intentional about it. Our team’s dang good and no matter who we play, we got to raise
our level, raise our standard, and I think we talked about too, like at this point of the
season, you see teams – you’re kind of in that middle zone right before that playoff push
comes. It’s like, ‘Who do we want to say we are during the hard time?’ This is kind of the
dog days, those weeks before those last four or five games – post-Thanksgiving. Who do we
say we are? Are we that team we think we are, and let’s go prove it.”
(On the comfort of the hook-and-ladder play) “Yeah, we ran it a few times in practice and it
looked good, and once it looks good, (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben (Johnson) is
comfortable with it, we’re all comfortable with it – yeah, it becomes pretty effortless at that
point to make it work. But, there’s more to be had on that one, unfortunately, but yeah we
executed it pretty well.”
(On having so many options for offensive plays) “Sure, yeah, I think the best – exactly what
you’re saying, if I get to the third or fourth in the progression, it’s a good player. That’s not
the case everywhere, and I don’t take that for granted. It is something that we have the
luxury to do with the skilled players we have and the O-line being able to protect long
enough for me to get to the third and fourth progression. It’s often a good player that can do
something with the ball.”
(On if he saw Jaguars DE Arik Armstead coming on his touchdown pass to Lions TE Brock
Wright) “No, was he close? I felt him.”
