DETROIT – Many Detroit Lions fans wondered why Dan Campbell didn’t use timeouts to get his team another possession before halftime in the Sunday Night Football loss to the Eagles.
The drive in question was a 10-play, 64-yard possession by the Eagles that ended with a touchdown to put them up 13-6 before the break.
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Philadelphia picked up a first down at the Lions’ 4-yard line with about 1:15 left until the break. They didn’t take the next snap until half that time had run down. Then they took a second-down snap from the 1-yard line with under 20 seconds left.
The Lions didn’t use any of their three timeouts, so Jared Goff just kneeled out the final 16 seconds.
Campbell, who is known as one of the most aggressive coaches in the league, surprised many when he didn’t fight for the extra possession.
Jim Costa asked Campbell why he didn’t use those timeouts during their weekly interview on 97.1 The Ticket’s “Costa & Jansen with Heather.”
“Yeah, I did, I thought about it,” Campbell said. “I did. I thought long and hard, and I just felt like, man, we’re getting the ball after halftime. Let’s just calm down, reset, reload at halftime, come out and we’ll do that, and it was really just that -- with where we were in the game and how it was going and I just wanted to reset, knowing we were getting the ball back. That’s all. But I did, I thought about it for a while but just didn’t do it.”