Facing fourth-and-one from their own 23-yard line with under five minutes left in a tie game, Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions did what they do best. They stayed aggressive.
Unfortunately, star running back Jahmyr Gibbs was bottled up in the backfield, and the Lions turned the ball over on downs, giving their NFC North rival Green Bay Packers a golden opportunity to take the lead from within field goal range. To the Lions’ credit, the defense forced a field goal attempt on a short field, and Detroit’s special teams were able to block a 35-yard try from Packers kicker Trey Smack. The Lions then marched down the field and kicked a game-winning field goal to escape with a 20-17 win.
Campbell’s decision was controversial, however. Not often do you see teams go for it deep in their own half of the field during a tie game late in the fourth quarter. Most teams would punt.
Campbell defended his call after the game, saying, “I thought we would get it, No. 1. No. 2, I knew we would get the ball back if it didn’t work out.”
As it turned out, Campbell found a defender in the media in a former member of the NFL head-coaching fraternity. After NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast, former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach and current studio analyst Mike Tomlin explained why he thought Campbell’s decision was sound.
Mike Tomlin explains why he supports Dan Campbell’s fourth-down decision from Sunday’s Packers-Lions game.
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“It centers around elite quarterback play,” Tomlin said of the decision. “When you got elite quarterback play, particularly when you’re playing elite quarterback play, you want to make sure your guy at least has a chance to have the ball at the end of the game. And that’s what the decision appeared to be about for me. If he punts that ball, the way Jordan Love and company have been operating, it’s not possible; it’s probable that they’re going to matriculate the ball down the field and win the game. So what he did by going for it, he’s either going to be successful and keep the ball for his quarterback, or he was at least going to give his quarterback an opportunity to answer. I was always ready to make that decision when I had Big Ben, for example, and I was facing another elite quarterback.”
The analytics would likely support Campbell’s decision. The worst-case scenario is that you don’t convert, the Packers score a touchdown, and now you have a bit of time left on the clock to try and tie the game. Punting, however, would’ve let the Packers kill more clock and potentially attempt a game-winning field goal as time expired.
It’s the type of coaching decision that separates Campbell from the Aaron Glenns of the world, who can’t seem to grasp basic clock-management situations.
“That was as good as it gets at clock management,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said after the game.
Mike Tomlin seems to agree.
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