LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
September 29, 2023
On how the defensive line has allowed the defense to be effective: “Well, I think what we’ve done a good job of, (Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG’s done a good job of and the guys, certainly, we just put an emphasis back on the little things. Things that we’d done well through camp that we preached all through spring that really showed up at Kansas City and it’s back to just our fundamentals up front and playing with violence. You’ve got to win your one-on-ones. But also, the being disciplined. When you start talking about the rush game, there were so many instances last night of guys being unselfish doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing and when that happens, we all eat. Instead of us all suffering, we all eat, and they just play off each other. And when you’re able to do that, you take a ton of stress off the backend, which allows you to now, you can mix in coverages, do some different things because no matter what you’re in, you feel like your front can handle the run, but also play-pass, we’re able to shed some blocks and create pressure. So, look, they’re playing really good football right now. They’re very disciplined and they’re playing hard. We look physical. We look violent and that’s the type of defense we want.”
On if he has updates on the timeframe for Lions QB Hendon Hooker and LB Julian Okwara to come off of their respective Reserved lists: “Yeah, not at this time. Certainly, we keep our eyes on that and (Lions Executive Vice President & General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I talked just a little bit about it, but we’re not ready to commit as to what we want to do just yet on that. We’re kind of going to gauge this as we go through the week, think about what Carolina presents to us, but also just long-term. So, I don’t really have an answer for you yet on those two.”
On how he coaches a balance between confidence and overconfidence in young players: “Yeah, I think our focus still has got to be we’re not hunted. We’re still on the hunt and I said this back in training camp, but if you’re hunting us, you don’t have to look far. We’re going to be on your front porch when you open the door. So that’s very much the mindset. We still have a lot to prove. We want to win this division and we’ve done nothing yet. We’re on course, we like where we’re at, but man, we’re still hungry and I think we have to approach every game that way. No different than last night. There’s got to be a hunger. There’s got to be a – we’ve got to go earn everything we get, and we all know not every game is going to end up that way. Most of these games are going to come down to the very last play and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, what the circumstance is, you’ve got to find a way to win and it takes everything you’ve got because otherwise, that’s how you lose games in this League.”
On injury updates from yesterday’s game on Lions T Taylor Decker and Lions DB Brian Branch: “No, nothing new on those. I’ll know more by this afternoon. But I feel like we got out of the game pretty good with Decker. It doesn’t appear to be anything too serious with Branch, but there again, don’t know exactly how he’s going to feel until we get going when we get back this week, so I don’t really have anything. I’ll tell you what, Decker did a heck of a job by the way. He was not 100 percent and man, he helped us win that game. Talk about being unselfish and just giving us what he’s got, and he battled over there, man. We appreciate the hell out of him.”
On how ideal a 3-1 start is for the young players and how he wants to see the team improve: “Well, back in the old days, you used to – you talked about it in quarters, and you wanted to be 3-1 in a quarter and now, we can’t do that. I’m not great at math, but it’s hard to quarter things now with 17 weeks. But the point is, it’s good to be 3-1. This is about right where you want to be. I like where we’re at, at this point and I think our sole focus has to be on improvement. We still have a lot of things we can clean up and if our focus is on staying hungry and just how do we get a little bit better every week, then you’re playing your best football when December hits. And I think that’s still the plan. It’s always the plan.”
On what he has seen in Lions OL Graham Glasgow throughout his last two starts: “Yeah, Graham is – Graham, one of the things about having him here is certainly his flexibility to be able to play center and guard, but he is exactly what you want for a guy who’s got some skins on the wall. He’s reliable, he’s smart and he’s been a durable player. So, like you don’t have to worry about him handling his job and we put a lot on him between both of those positions and he’s been exactly what you want for a guy that’s played a long time. He’s just – he’s reliable, man, and he’s going to get it done over there and he plays well with (Lions T Penei) Sewell. Plays well with (Lions C) Frank (Ragnow) over there at that right guard spot, so he’s been good for us.”
On if Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn has made more aggressive adjustments to his play-calling these past two games: “No, look, I think when you really look at it, here we are after the quarter. We played pretty good defense against Kansas City. We played damn good defense against Atlanta and then last night. Seattle was just a little bit of a lull and I think that one looks worse than it is because of the fact that we damn near spotted them 14 points on offense. So, I don’t think it feels quite as bad if we don’t do that on the offensive side, but with that being said, we came out of that Seattle game and just said, ‘Man, we’ve got to get back to what we’re about,’ and that’s our identity and what we said when we started spring, camp, the way we started Kansas City, that first game of the season, so it was just putting an emphasis back on what we do, what we do well, showing that when everybody stays unselfish and just does their job, the sky’s the limit for us, defensively. We played pretty good, and so I would tell you, ‘Stay the course.’ Nobody panicked or started doing all these crazy things. We are challenging more on the perimeter, which has been good, and you can do that when your front’s able to get to the quarterback and pressure him and close the pocket. And the two go hand-in-hand, rush and coverage.”
On the adjustments Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs and the offense need to make to unlock his full receiving potential: “Yeah, look, I just go back to this again is man, every player grows at a different rate in this League and Gibbs is only going to get better and better and better with time on task and look, he’s making the right decisions. And there were a couple of things that happened with that turf out there that slowed him down a bit and then you’d like to believe with him in space, he’s going to create something there and didn’t quite get it going, but he will. We’re not panicking here. We’re going to continue to do some things to try to get him the football here, but certainly having (Lions RB David Montgomery) D-Mo allows us the ability to use both of them and use him a certain way, so we’re going to keep looking for targets, but look, we’re not going to try to force feed him, We’ve got enough people that we can feed the ball and help us move and stay efficient. So, this kid’s going to be just fine. He’s smart, he works at it, and he does have versatility, so we’ll just keep going here.”
On at what point he will start dreaming about what this team is capable of: “Yeah, I’m not going there. I mean look, we’ve got our standards and we have our own goals, I mentioned that last night and it started that way and that’s always going to be the focus. You’ve got to look at each game individually and I know when we get back from this, it’s Carolina and they got after us pretty good last year and they’ve got a dang-good defensive front and they’ve got enough weapons over there to where they can create issues and so that’s got to be our sole focus. Those guys coming into town and how do we find a way to win number four and as long as we do that and not put the cart ahead of the horse, I think we’re going to be alright. And we just keep preaching what our identity is about and we work that way and there again, we just continue to improve.”
On the importance of players believing in the team: “Belief is everything and I don’t care how talented you are, you don’t believe you can win games, or you don’t believe coaches can put you in a position to win games, or you don’t believe the guy next to you is going to do his job, it doesn’t matter. You’ll struggle to win, and you’ll always have doubt. This team believes, this staff believes, and we know we can go into any and every game and we’re going to have a chance to win it and as long as we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot. Now let me tell you something else we’re doing well right now is we’re making some errors, but we’re able to overcome those right now and that’s a sign of a good team. You win back-to-back wins, you can overcome some of your own errors, you can win on the road, those are signs of a good team, so we’ve just got to stay the course. We can’t get full of ourselves and feel good. We’ve got to stay on the hunt and lastly let me say this, I was proud of the coordinators. I thought they did a heck of a job. (Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG kept it lean and mean over there so we could play fast, line up and here we go, and our defense did that, and I thought (Lions Offense Coordinator) Ben (Johnson) put together an outstanding gameplan on short week. I thought he called a hell of a game and man, there’s just a – there were a couple of plays in there just like (Lions WR Amon- Ra) Saint’s man, just little specialty things that you’re not able to go full speed on against a look that we put in. You trust the quarterback, trust the receiver, Saint. And you’ve got the look and man, they just performed it perfectly. So, great job by them. Great job by (Lions Special Teams Coordinator Dave) Fipp and that’s good stuff.” |
