ALLEN PARK — Dan Campbell’s message, coming off just the Lions’ second loss of the season, was simple, direct and very Campbell-esque.
“Look, nobody writes our story, we’re the only ones who write our own story. We have the pen, there’s a lot of football left and I think we’re looking forward to this,’’ Campbell said on Wednesday. “So you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go back to basics.’’
The Lions (12-2) started preparing for Sunday’s matchup at the Chicago Bears (4-10), following Sunday’s 48-42 loss to the Bills. During the loss, defensive lineman Alim McNeill and safety Carlton Davis III were injured and lost for the season. No other NFL team has sustained so many losses on defense.
Still no one can convince Campbell that the sky is falling.
“I don’t believe it. We’ve got plenty here. I’ll tell you what, when we come out of a game and everything that we said we had to do, including our identity, we do that for 60 minutes and we lose a game, I’ll stand up here and tell you, ‘You know what, we just don’t have enough.’ Until that happens, you’re not going to hear me anything about what we have or don’t have, can we do this. We’ve got plenty here on the whole roster – we’ve got plenty on defense.’’
His belief in his squad is unwavering and genuine. And the fact he believes in them gives them more confidence.
“It’s funny, it’s relative because adversity two years ago was different than adversity right now. Watching him stand in the storm at 1-6, and 3-13 (in 2021) whatever, that’s for me what makes his words mean so much more now when we’re 12-2, facing our first loss in the last 12 weeks,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said.
“If that’s our adversity right now, we’ll be just fine, we’ll handle it, we’ll move on. I think when he stands in front of the room people listen and the way we handle adversity as a team has been pretty good,’’ Goff added.
It is not just the mindset that is key to getting back on track.
“What’s interesting, there are two things that unfold. One is the loss, right? When you haven’t lost since September. So there’s the loss element and then there’s the injury element. Everything gets compacted, you really need to address both and that’s what we did,’’ Campbell said.
First they have to go back to work and reposition themselves to play Sunday and learn from what happened against the Bills.
“And the other is to not lose confidence in the fact that we still have really good players here on defense and we have good coaches,’’ Campbell said. “We can play any way we need to play from that standpoint, as well as offense and special teams and still win games.’’
“It’s my job to alleviate stress in some areas and just balance the buoy, if you will, and we’ll do that,’’ the coach added.
This bunch is in an unusual position after winning 11 straight games. They’re still atop the NFC North where they are the only team without a division loss. Chicago is 0-4, Green Bay is 1-3 and Minnesota is 3-1.
Yes, it was a bad loss but the season is far from over. They’ve qualified for the playoffs but would love that No. 1 seed.
“That’s why our guys are so good, we’ve got a good group of guys, they don’t like losing,’’ Campbell said. “They don’t lose confidence, they get more aggravated like I do. We want to fix it, we don’t want to lose any more. That’s the plan.’’
INJURY UPDATE: Running back David Montgomery was getting a third opinion on his injured knee. Campbell said they are in a waiting mode with him so have not placed him on injured reserve. The coach sees it as a good sign. Initially, it was thought Montgomery might be out for the season. … Safety Ifeatu Melifonwu was back at practice, opening his window to get back in action after being on injured reserve since he injured his hand in Week 3. … Six players didn’t practice to get some rest on Wednesday. The injured sitting out were DB Brian Branch (calf), G Graham Glasgow (knee) and Montgomery.
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