DETROIT – Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell took a lot of criticism from fans when he tried a fake punt against the Eagles’ defensive starters in the loss on Sunday Night Football.
The Lions went 0-for-5 on fourth down in the 16-9 loss, spoiling an excellent defensive effort against the defending Super Bowl champs.
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One of those fourth-down attempts came with 11:22 left in the second quarter. The Lions were down 3-0 and facing a fourth-and-2 at their own 43-yard line.
The Lions lined up in punt formation, but the snap went to Grant Stuard instead, and he got stuffed for no gain.
The Sunday Night Football broadcast team noted that Philadelphia was ready for the fake, keeping many of their defensive starters on the field instead of their special teams unit.
Campbell was asked about the fake punt during his weekly interview on Tuesday morning with Jon Jansen and Jim Costa on 97.1 The Ticket’s “Costa & Jansen with Heather.”
“Yeah, that didn’t go over too well, did it?” Campbell said when Jansen brought it up.
“Should it have been aborted when Philadelphia left their first defense on the field?” Jansen asked.
Campbell’s answer might surprise fans. He said that’s actually what the Lions were hoping for.
“No, we wanted that,” Campbell said. “We felt like there was enough consistent looks to where we were going to be able to get that. We knew it would a little bit of a bloodbath, but yet we felt good about the looks going into that week, and look, two things: They did a good job. They were ready, and we were not as good as we can be blocking that up front, either.”
It didn’t end up hurting the Lions on the scoreboard, as the defense forced an immediate three-and-out. The Eagles didn’t take advantage of the field position, either, as a face mask penalty on their punt gave the Lions the ball at the 35.