DETROIT – Dan Campbell delivered a passionate speech to Detroit Lions fans who are worried about the team’s mounting injuries.
Campbell was asked about the mood in the locker room during his weekly interview with Jon Jansen and Jim Costa on 97.1 The Ticket. The Lions just watched their 11-game winning streak get snapped by the Buffalo Bills, and in the process, they lost Alim McNeill, Carlton Davis, and David Montgomery.
Here’s what Campbell told Costa and Jansen on Tuesday morning:
Let me say this first: Man, anytime you lose players, it’s hard. It’s the obvious that everybody sees is you lose the player and that production and what he’s done on the field. But it’s more than that to us. It’s more than that to his coaches and his teammates. They bring so much more to the table than just out there running around and trying to make plays. What they bring to the locker room, the laughs you have, the bonds you have with those guys.
So when you lose a guy like like Alim McNeill, who’s a big part of what we do, and David Montgomery, and Khalil Dorsey, and Carlton Davis, man, those hurt. Those hurt, man, and you hate losing guys like that.
But at the same time, we’ve got an opportunity, and I told those guys, and with anybody who’s been hurt -- (Aidan Hutchinson) to (John) Cominsky, to all of them. This can’t be in vain. These injuries that these guys -- which, all of our guys lay it on the line -- but we can’t let these injuries be in vain. All of those players helped us get to the point we’re at. These last four helped us get to 12 wins, and we owe it to them to finish this thing out, and that’s how I view it.
It means there’s another opportunity for other guys. You know what happens is you win 11 in a row, and you lose, and then the sky falls. I hate to say it, but we’re not going to be able to win 11 in a row again for the rest of this season -- we’re just not going to be able to do it.
What happens is you get used to eating filet -- and I’m talking, it was just fine and it gave you everything you needed. Sometimes you’ve got to get punched in the mouth and remember what it used to be like to really appreciate where you are, and we’ll do that.
We’ve got a bad taste in our mouth. We got kicked around the other day. We lost a few guys, and you know what? It’s exactly what we needed. This is exactly what we needed. So we’re going to bounce back. We’re going to respond. We’ve got guys who are about to have an unbelievable opportunity here, and we will play the game any way needed to win.
We’ve still got a good offense. We’ve got plenty of defensive players. I could go rattle them off right now. We’re going to put the best 11 on the field, we’re going to freaking cut it loose, we’re going to play with our special teams, and I don’t give a crap if we’ve got to win by one point for the rest of the year -- that’s what we’re going to do, and I’m going to be happy about it.
If we come out of the game with 50 yards of total offense and we win by one, you’re going to see smiles on my face, from ear to ear, I can promise you. So we’re going to find a way and we’re going to get it done.
Detroit Lions head Coach Dan Campbell on Costa and Jansen with Heather on 97.1 The Ticket
McNeill, Davis, Montgomery, and Khalil Dorsey join a long list of Lions players who were already on the shelf: Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport, Alex Anzalone, Derrick Barnes, Malcolm Rodriguez, and Jalen Reeves-Maybin, to name a few.
The loss also dropped Detroit into a three-way tie atop the NFC standings with the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings. All three teams are 12-2 with three weeks left.
The Lions will head to Chicago this weekend for a rematch with the Bears and then return to San Francisco -- the site of last season’s heartbreaking NFC Championship Game collapse.
If they can survive those road trips, the Lions will host the Vikings for a game that could determine the NFC North crown.
Detroit is guaranteed to be the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs with wins in those final three games, so all is not lost.
