Tag: dan campbell

Report: Ben Johnson, Lions offensive coordinator, to remain in Detroit

Ben Johnson, the innovative Detroit Lions offensive coordinator, will return to the team for the 2024 season, per an NFL Network report.

Johnson was thought to be a candidate for the head coaching openings for the Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks. He informed the teams that he’s staying with the Lions and wants another shot at bringing the Lombardi Trophy to Detroit, per the report on Tuesday.

The Lions lost 34-31 to the 49ers in Sunday’s NFC Championship game. 

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Johnson’s asking price “spooked some teams.” Johnson is 37 and will likely have more opportunities in the future.

Coach Dan Campbell was asked on Monday about his plans to replace Johnson if he should move on. 

“If it comes to that, that’s, obviously, very important. I mean, he was a critical piece for us. He’s a critical piece. And I’m not worrying about that just yet. I need to at least get two hours of sleep and then I’ll begin,’’ Campbell said.

Johnson has been with the Lions since he was hired as the offensive quality control coach in 2019. He was promoted to tight ends coach in 2020 and Campbell kept him on staff when he was hired in 2021. Johnson was promoted to pass game coordinator midway through the 2021 season and promoted to offensive coordinator prior to the 2022 season.

This season the LIons finished 12-5, won the NFC North and won two playoff games.

At the end of the regular season the Lions’ offense was ranked third in the NFL, averaging 394.8 yards per game with 58 touchdowns.

Many of the key offensive players including Jared Goff will return next season to a system, run by Johnson, that they are familiar with after playing in it for two seasons.

Lions, Dan Campbell reflect on loss and what they can see for next season

ALLEN PARK —  And then it was Monday. 

The Detroit Lions cleaned out their lockers, said their goodbyes and, along with coach Dan Campbell, reflected on the 34-31 loss to the 49ers in Sunday’s NFC Championship game.

“Our guys eyes are open. This should be the ultimate motivation to push forward and it will be for us, it will be,’’ Campbell said. “We’ll learn and move on.’’

Of course they are not happy with the defeat, after watching a 17-point lead evaporate in the second half.

“This is what you hear about all the time in catastrophes — it doesn’t take one or two, it takes 12 things to go wrong and we did all 12 of those wrong in all three phases,’’ Campbell said on Monday. “And ultimately, where we’ve been so good when one area is struggling a little bit and the other two pick them up. That was the game in the second half where in all three phases we were not good and we continued to make mistake after mistake after mistake in all three phases.’’

Campbell wasn’t as emotional as immediately after the game — and maybe it was because he was exhausted — but he did seem drained on Monday. The players were still digesting the horrific loss but were also happy to look ahead.

The future could be bright. One betting service has the Lions’ odds to win the Super Bowl in 2025 at 7/1 – the only two better teams are Kansas City 12/1 and San Francisco 49ers at 6/1. So there’s that.

All season long, Campbell said the team was built for whatever challenge they faced. “We’re built for this,’’ the coach repeated over and over. He was right until the second half on Sunday when they surrendered a 17-point lead.

‘I think the whole point was to create a core that had certain standards. Obviously they’ve got to be good players and we have that. But they’ve got to be a certain way, there’s got to be a certain mindset, a certain identity and we have that in our core,’’ Campbell said.

Between free agency and the draft, the roster will be tweaked for next season. 

“And we’ve got to add pieces that are like-minded — we have to add more talent, more competition that thinks the same way that group of guys in the locker does,’’ Campbell said. “And it’s non-negotiable if it’s not. There’s no level of talent that’s worth bringing something that doesn’t fit what we’re about. That’s very important.’’

The players are all good with that – they saw the results in going 12-5, winning the NFC North title and a pair of playoff wins.

“They want guys that represent what this city is about. The cliche thing — blue collar, hard-working, resilient. That’s not lip service, that’s what we are,’’ left tackle Taylor Decker said. “There’s something to be said for those intangibles … Hopefully this is the tip of the iceberg for us and we’ll have some high standards going forward in the next few years.’’

Campbell, a master communicator, should guide them in the right direction just like he has for three seasons. He knows he has a foundation set.

“There’s things we won’t have to start all the way from scratch, but there’s got to be that hunger, there’s got to be that work, there’s got to be that attention to detail, there’s got to be that urgency,’’ Campbell said. “And in that regard, you’re starting all over again and if you don’t and you think you’re just going to walk out there because you went to the NFC Championship game you’ve got another thing coming. That’s how you become average in a hurry. They’ll know that, they understand that, as we get to next year that will be the message.’’

Detroit Lions fall apart in second half, lose to 49ers in NFC Championship game

‘It’s like getting your heart ripped out’

A trip to the Super Bowl was there for the taking. The Lions jumped out aggressively on offense and defense in the first half at San Francisco on Sunday and took a 17-point lead into halftime.

All was good.

Then in the second half, everything fell apart.

“It’s like getting your heart ripped out, that’s hard,’’ an emotional coach Dan Campbell said afterward.

The San Francisco 49ers came back after a 24-7 halftime deficit and earned a trip to the Super Bowl with a 34-31 win. They will face the Kansas City Chiefs who beat the Baltimore Ravens in the earlier game.

Campbell said at halftime they weren’t doing backflips. They knew the 49ers would make a second-half run.

“We knew we were going to have to weather a storm in the second half.  so when they started to make a push we weren’t surprised,’’ Campbell said. “We just couldn’t counter back and we’ve always been able to counterback we just couldn’t do it in this one.’’

One eight-minute stretch in the third quarter was the killer. 

On a fourth-and-2 at the Niners’ 28, the Lions’ Jared Goff could not connect with Josh Reynolds so they turned the ball over on downs.

In the 49ers’ ensuing possession, Brock Purdy completed a 51-yard pass to Brandon Aiuyuk after it bounced off the helmet of Lions’ Kindle Vildor and into the hands of Aiyuk. San Francisco scored three plays later on the 6-yard touchdown pass to Aiyuk to close the gap, with Detroit then up 24-17.

Then when the Lions got the ball back Jahmyr Gibbs fumbled on first down and the Niners recovered at Detroit’s 24.Christian McCaffrey scored a touchdown four plays later to tie the game at 24-24.

Nothing worked for the Lions, allowing the Niners to score another touchdown and kick a field goal before Jameson Williams caught a touchdown pass with less than a minute left.

“We’ve been there before, so fourth quarter you feel like you’re going to get it back, we just couldn’t quite get over the hump,’’ Campbell said. “That hasn’t been us all year and it showed up today at the worst time.’’

Two key plays in the game were fourth downs that the Lions didn’t convert in the second half. On both they were in field goal range but Campbell chose to try for the first down instead,

“I just felt really good about us converting and getting our momentum and not letting them play long ball,’’ Campbell said. “They were bleeding the clock out and I wanted to get the upper hand back. It’s easy, hindsight, I get it, but I don’t regret those decisions. It’s hard, it didn’t come through. I understand the scrutiny I’ll get, that’s part of the gig, it just didn’t work out.’’

This was exactly how Campbell has coached all season and most of the time his gambles worked. It wasn’t a surprise he went for it on both. 

In the first half the Lions rushed for 148 yards. In fact Gibbs (42 yards), David Montgomery (60) and Jameson Williams (42) each had more rushing yards than Christian McCaffrey (29). But in the second half the Lions only managed 34 rushing yards and could not stop the 49ers – McCaffrey finished with 90 rushing and 42 receiving yards. 

Campbell couldn’t exactly put his finger on the difference. It’s a young team without much playoff experience, but he didn’t really use that as an excuse.

“One of the things we always tell everybody who’s never been here, particularly the young players, you don’t know which play is going to make the difference … You can only say so much you’ve got to live it, unfortunately you’ve got to get your heart ripped out which we did,’’ Campbell said.

“It’s a lesson learned. I told those guys this might be our only shot.. Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here,’’ the coach said. “I’m well aware it’s going to be twice as hard to get back to this point next year. … It’s going to be tough, you’re not hiding from anybody anymore everybody wants a piece of you which is fine. … We had an opportunity and we just didn’t close it out. It stings.’’

The Lions accomplished much this season. They won the NFC North with a 12-5 record and then won the franchise’s first playoff game in 32 years in the wildcard round over the Rams. They followed it up with a divisional win over the Bucs.