DETROIT (AP) — Dan Campbell has never been the kind of coach who points fingers at his staff or players.
On Sunday, he took full responsibility for a second-quarter disaster that cost the Lions in a 20-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I asked our team to improve from last week and we did improve,” Campbell said. “And then their coach costs them with a critical error. That’s 100 percent on me, and I told them that.”
With 18 seconds left in the first half and the Lions out of timeouts, Jared Goff completed an 8-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown in the middle of the field. St. Brown was tackled at the Tampa Bay 9 and the clock kept running.
As Goff signaled for the offense to get lined up for a spike, Detroit’s field-goal unit raced onto the field, only to stop, start again and then race back to the sidelines.
By that point, Goff had taken the snap and spiked the ball with four seconds left, but flags immediately flew for what referee Clay Martin kindly called “12 men on the field at the snap” — it had been at least 20. Since the clock was running in the last two minutes of the half, the Lions were assessed a 5-yard penalty and a 10-second runoff, ending the second quarter.
If the Lions had kicked a field goal, they would have been down by four points at halftime instead of seven. If the second half had played out the same way, they might have been down 20-19 in the last minute with a chance to kick a winning field goal.
Instead, needing a touchdown, they turned the ball over on downs with 53 seconds left. The defense held, but a second drive ended when Goff threw three straight incomplete passes from the Buccaneers 26.
On fourth-and-10 with six seconds left, Goff bounced a short pass to Tom Kennedy, ending Detroit’s hopes of a hook-and-lateral play with time expiring.
“We had something set up for that play,” Goff said. “I just made a crap throw.”
Goff didn’t think the play at the end of the first half caused the loss, but he appreciated Campbell’s gesture.
“He’s at the top of the pyramid here, and when the guy at the top takes accountability — like he’s done throughout his career — it makes it easier for everyone else to do it,” Goff said. “But we had plenty of opportunities to overcome that and win the game.
“We know he’s going to be hard on himself, but we, as players. have to be better.”
Goff was 34 for 55 for 307 yards with two interceptions. He only averaged 9.0 yards per completion, as opposed to Baker Mayfield’s 15.4, and many of those short completions came as the Lions went 1 for 7 in the red zone.
“I thought we were moving the ball really well, but they got really stingy in the red zone,” Goff said. “If we get a couple touchdowns down there, we probably win the game.”
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