Dan Campbell Suggests Coaches Avoid Aggression Due to Backlash

Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell made plenty of waves with his decisions to go for it on five different occasions against the Green Bay Packers. In the team’s 34-31 win, the Lions converted on four of those attempts.

Campbell has gotten extra attention for his aggressiveness given the situations in which the team went for it against Green Bay. Their one failed attempt came on a fourth-and-1 on their own 30-yard line.

Additionally, the Lions elected to go for it with the game tied and less than a minute left in the game. While they were within field goal range, Campbell opted to go for it as a first down would’ve allowed Detroit to run the rest of the clock down prior to a field goal from Jake Bates.

The Lions, who rank ninth in the league in fourth down attempts with 23, converted on a run by David Montgomery. They were able to bleed the remainder of the clock and cement the win with Jake Bates’ field goal at the final horn.

Speaking Tuesday during his weekly radio interview, Campbell acknowledged that not all coaches are as willing to be aggressive in those situations. He noted the backlash that comes with not converting, as fans can turn on their coaches if decisions like that turn costly.

Campbell faced this last season, when the Lions’ failed fourth downs in the NFC Championship game resulted in a doxxing of his residence and enraged fans visiting his home. He and his family relocated in a decision made public early in the 2024 season.

“I do not know. Okay, here’s the obvious. What happens if we don’t obtain that? That’s evident. “Well, we’re moving to the next house,” Campbell explained. “That is why. To each his own; there are several ideas that work in this league. And you can win a lot of games doing it your way, and I just like this approach. It doesn’t mean we’ll always be this way, but it was appropriate for the game.”

Now in his fourth-year as the Lions’ coach, Campbell has experience in a number of unique late-game situations. The choice he faced against Green Bay was similar to one the Lions dealt with last season in a game at the Los Angeles Chargers.

In that game, the Lions went for it on a fourth-and-2 from the Chargers’ 26 with the game tied. Similarly, they were in field goal range and the Chargers were out of timeouts. Jared Goff hit Sam LaPorta for a first down, then took three knees before Riley Patterson kicked the game-winning field goal as time expired.

Situations such as that, along with the many others that Campbell has encountered in his time as a coach, serve as one of the influences for shaping the decisions that the coach makes in these moments. In 2024, the Lions have converted 68.8 percent of their fourth-down attempts.

While Campbell has become one of the figures most synonymous with taking risks, he admitted that he won’t always opt to take a chance. Rather, his decisions are based on evaluating each situation. Against Green Bay, he felt that the aggressive decisions were what the team needed to win.

“I think everything that I’ve been through as a coach, a lot of those come in. Things that happened in New Orleans, certainly things that have happened here,” Campbell said. “And then you think about how the game has gone, where you’re at, where your guys are at. Where you feel like you’re best suited to finish the game out. Look, if you think you can win the game and you don’t have to worry about anything else after that moment, I’m gonna be drawn to that more times than not. It’s not always gonna play out like that, and it doesn’t mean I’m always gonna go for it in that situation. But we were under a yard, and I felt like that was the right thing to do in that moment.”