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After the Detroit Lions lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship last season, Dan Campbell told his team something that hits even harder today than it did a year ago. He said, “…this may have been our only shot.”
Hearing that again is gut-wrenching as it feels like we just witnessed a wasted opportunity for the greatest team in Detroit Lions history.
We all know the Lions went undefeated against the NFC North (6-0) and on the road (8-0). This fueled the Lions to finish with a 15-2 record and it helped them claim their second consecutive division championship. Most importantly, they clinched their first ever number one seed for the playoffs.
That meant the NFC playoffs were coming through Detroit, if they kept winning. Unfortunately, the Lions played their worst game of the season and there’s nothing left to win. Dan Campbell said it best after the game when having to summarize the outcome, “we never complemented each other.”
He’s not kidding.
Every time the Lions regained the lead or put themselves in position to take it, something bad happened. For example, the Lions took a 14-10 lead with just about 8 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. One minute and 21 seconds later, that quickly changed when Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin took a designed screen pass 58 yards for a touchdown.
Going through notes and film from last night. This defensive alignment is just bad. It’s 3×2 with safety help coming late. You can’t put two defenders in a horrible spot like this and expect them to make a play that is already really tough. https://t.co/nYZVrFRvGG
— Russell Brown (@RussNFLDraft) January 19, 2025
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On this particular touchdown, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn put his defense in a position to fail. Looking back at that play, Glenn aligned the defense with one defender on a three-receiver bunch set. Despite safety help coming down late, he still called for a nickel blitz and this ultimately forced the Lions to be outnumbered (3 x 2) in space.
Another example comes from the offense. The Lions were up 7-3 late in the first quarter and were gashing the Washington Commanders on the ground. While facing a 3rd-and-1 from the Commanders’ 17-yard line, the Lions shifted into an empty formation with running back David Montgomery motioning out wide to the left.
It was a clear indication that a pass play was about to occur. As receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown stumbled downfield on his route, Goff never looked away from St. Brown. This led to Goff holding onto the ball for too long and fumbling it away to the Commanders. Five minutes later, the Commanders regained the lead.
Certainly, it was a head-scratching decision from offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Why not just run the ball in that situation? Especially when you know the strength of your own run game and that your offense is almost always in four-down territory.
Staying with head-scratching decisions and four-down territory, we switch back to the Detroit defense. Going into this game, we all knew the Commanders weren’t afraid to go for it on fourth down.
In this game, Washington finished 3-of-4 on 4th down and the only one they didn’t convert was on their opening drive. That was when backup quarterback Marcus Mariota got tackled for a loss. Despite making a stop like that early in the game, the Lions defense cost themselves the chance at another fourth-down stop later in the game.
Tom Brady was all over the Lions having 12 players on the field during the Commanders’ 4th-and-2 from the 5.
“Need a timeout! 12 on the field, timeout! Timeout! Timeout! Nope. Nope. Oh no! What are they doin’?!”
#NFL pic.twitter.com/Z6opHb7mQs
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 19, 2025
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This time it occurred in the 4th quarter. Despite having 10 seconds to adjust their personnel or call a timeout to get situated, the Lions kept 12 defenders on the field and watched the play clock hit zero. While it appeared that the Commanders would get called for a delay of game, there were too many men on the field and Washington was awarded a first down. Why there wasn’t a timeout called is beyond me but Dan Campbell took the blame after the game.
When asked about this coaching blunder, Campbell immediately said, “It’s my fault. It’s my fault.” No matter who is at fault, a good head coach will take blame for when things go wrong and give credit to his team and coaching staff for when things go right. That’s exactly what Campbell has done during his entire tenure in Detroit.
It’s unclear of what happens next in Campbell’s tenure or what the Lions do from here. We’ve never seen Campbell so deflated after a game and that includes the NFC Championship game from last year. Adding to that, it feels like a guarantee that one of his coordinators, if not both, are going to be head coaches next season.
Despite all the success from the offense or overcoming all the injuries on defense, it felt like the Lions were a team destined for the Super Bowl. Sadly, this season concludes like every other season by prompting us to question, what if?