LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
September 8, 2025
Opening Statement: “So really, it’s kind of what we talked about last night. We just weren’t good enough, third down, really on either side of the ball and we kind of dug ourselves in a hole early in that game that we couldn’t quite get out of. We had some miscommunications, some MAs, that really cost us at the worst times, couple of penalties that bit us. It just wasn’t clean. We didn’t play well. But as I mentioned, it’s all stuff we can clean up. We’ve got to score seven when we get in the red zone, that’s going to be big for us. We’ve got to be able to run the ball. We’ve got a lot of things where just fundamentally we were off. We’ve got to get our fundamentals back. We’ve got to go back to work because it really is that simple. Nothing’s easy about it, but it’s that simple to diagnose. And so, the only way you do it, you’ve just got to go back to work and work those things. Defensively, I thought we settled down in the second half. We gave up some explosives early and there again a couple of those are communication errors, things that we had worked all week. So, we’ve got to get back to the basics there. Special teams, we’ve got to be better. Wasn’t good enough. We had two or three players who played really well, but not enough. So, that was really the story, we just didn’t have enough good performances and really we didn’t coach well enough. That obviously starts with me. We had a lot of MAs and so that tells me that we had too much on their plate, which that’s my fault. So, that was really the story.”
On if youth played a part in the poor performance yesterday: “Well, youth will play a part in it. We had some young guys that struggled yesterday. And you don’t think it’ll be – I certainly didn’t go in and think it would be the best performance they would have all year, but it wasn’t good enough. The good news is there’s nowhere to go but up and up we will go and they’ll only get better with banked reps.”
On what he thought of Lions Offensive Coordinator John Morton’s play-calling and play design and if he thinks the team can get to the point of having more excitement in their offensive play: “Yeah, well I would tell you this, first of all, I thought he did good. And yeah, there are a couple of things that he wants back, yeah certainly. But we’ve got to master bread and butter before you get to all the other stuff because otherwise you can’t – the other stuff won’t matter if we can’t find a way to run the football more than 2.1 per carry. That’s where everything starts for us. If we can’t then you’re out of play-action, you’re out of everything. Guys pin their ears back and it makes it harder on some of those guys up front. So, that’s where it all begins really.”
On the balance of trying to throw deep balls when a defense attempts to take that option away: “Yeah, good question. And I would say – and I mentioned this last night – we preached to (Lions QB Jared) Goff, ‘If it’s not there, chuck it down. Chuck it down.’ And even if you’re wanting to take one of those – because we had them called, we had a couple of times now where these things are dialed up. You’ve got to have time to get it out there. And I thought he did a good job of knowing, ‘I’ve got to get rid of this now,’ and taking what was there. And so, look, it becomes a boring game and you do have to be patient. But, when you do that, you can’t miss on third downs, you can’t turn the ball over, defense has got to get you some stops and has to get some takeaways, special teams has to do their job, we’ve got to be able to play field position and we didn’t do really any of those at the end of the day.”
On if there was a common theme of miscommunication when the offensive line missed the run block: “I mean, I don’t know if common theme is the right word. We just a couple of times, it’s like one guy doesn’t hear the kill or the check but everybody else gets it so really there’s no excuse for that. I think it starts there, but then when you say, ‘OK man, we’ve got to make sure that we are as loud as possible passing it down and everybody’s got to get it. We’ve got to make sure everybody gets it, so everybody’s screaming at the top of your lungs.’ That’s how you help that.”
On an injury update for Lions CB Terrion Arnold: “Yeah, I don’t feel like this is serious. Now, doesn’t mean that – I can’t say for certain he’ll be ready to go, but I don’t think it’s a serious injury.”
On if he felt that the route concepts from the receivers were too simplistic: “No, no, no, I didn’t feel simplistic. I think a lot of what we wanted to do was vertical. That was kind of the whole point. Vertical routes, you get a chance to take a shot and if not, you dump it down to your back. And so we really did what we wanted to do, we just weren’t able to score touchdowns in the red zone.”
On when he will start thinking about involving Lions WR Isaac TeSlaa more in the WR3 role: “Yeah, well, I think we really wanted to try to get him involved last week but then he got sick and wasn’t – he missed a lot of practice. So then we didn’t feel comfortable trying to load him up with stuff and so it was going to be very limited. But certainly, we’d like to use him more. I mean there’s something there, so. Looks like he’s back and feels pretty good and it was good to see him make a play. I mean he was only in three plays on offense but he did a good job on those three, made that big catch. We’re going to start trying to get him some reps.”
On how quickly he thinks the team can master the bread-and-butter fundamentals so that the offense can start clicking: “Well, I don’t know, to be honest with you. Because I think things take time and you don’t know. Is that going to come in a day? Is it going to come in two days, a week, one game, two games? All I know is it’ll come and it just takes a minute to real bullets, full speed, real opponents, working together and then you find your groove, you find your rhythm. So, all I’m concerned about, honestly, is I just want to get better from last week. I want to get significantly better from last week. I want to cut our MAs in half, I want to be much more efficient and productive and find a way to get some takeaways, protect the football and then we’ll go from there and get better the next week. That’s really what I’m looking for.”
On who he thinks has the tactical advantage between himself and Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson since the two know each other well: “Oh, I don’t – I mean, I think we’re on equal playing ground really. I think it’s the same thing. He knows what we’re about, we know what he’s about and because of that you’re going to play that game a little bit. But the game doesn’t matter if you don’t master the basics inside the game and so that’s what we have to get back to. We’ve got to worry about ourselves right now and just hone in on the little things.”
On if it is harder to root for Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson’s success because he coaches a divisional opponent: “No, listen, Ben’s my friend. He’s always going to be my friend. But nothing about that’s going to change. We’re going in, getting ready to play Chicago, we’re going to win this game, we have to. We’ve got to find a way to clean things up and do what we’ve got to do and they’re going to try to do the same thing. It’s like every week.”
On if the identity of the team is less clear with change on the offensive line and if he is aiming for the same core principles that have defined what he looks for in an offense: “Yeah, well you’re – I know I’ve said this before, you kind of leaned into that, is you really don’t know what you are until Week 5. Week 4, Week 5, maybe Week 6, somewhere in there as to what you really can hang your hat on. Now as far as our core principles and what I believe in, no. We’ll continue to drive that home and get better in that area or we’ll do what we have to do to tweak a few things.”
On what he diagnosed in the pass rush as areas where the team had success and areas where the team failed: “They did a good job. They short set, (Packers QB Jordan Love) he does a good job of bouncing in there, he’s got pocket mobility. The backs were stepping up pretty good – (Packers RB Josh) Jacobs did a really good job of shutting down some of the twist game, the stunts, the picks, all those that we’ll do some of. And then inevitably when we got out of that a little bit, we’ve got some guys that have to win a one-on-one, they’ve got to step up and make their plays when they’re there. And we’ll just, like I say, we’ll keep repping it, we’ll keep working it. We’ll keep tweaking with guys too and trying to find guys that we can put in a one-on-one and let them have a chance to win.”
On if he thought the blitz packages were effective or if the Packers offense negated that: “Well, I mean all-in-all, we got hit on a few plays. But there again, we got five explosives which is too much. But those happened in the first half, minus the run in the second where they broke out there on the sideline. And so, once we calmed down and got things straight on the backend, we were pretty good. It bought us just enough time to at least pressure them. We got some hits in the second half. So there again, it’s just working through some of this stuff, it really is. And I know it’s frustrating and look, nobody likes to lose. Nobody hates it worse than our players and the coaches. But it’s all about getting better and we will. We’re going to get better and keep working through this.”
On if Lions T Jamarco Jones will return to play later in the season: “No.”
