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Dan Campbell may have made the Detroit Lions‘ playoff win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a bit more difficult than necessary.
The Lions head coach admitted that he mismanaged the clock in the closing seconds of the 31-23 victory on January 21, giving the Buccaneers a sliver of a chance that Tampa head coach Todd Bowles chose not to seize.
Speaking to reporters this week, Campbell admitted that they did not handle the situation well but said the team was looking forward to their chance at making the Super Bowl.
Lions Left Time for Buccaneers
The Lions held the ball at the conclusion of the game leading by 8, though Tampa still had one timeout. When quarterback Jared Goff took a knee on third down with 0:35 remaining, Bowles could have used his time out and forced the Lions to attempt a 49-yard field goal.
A miss would have given the Buccaneers a chance to drive for the game-tying score, but Bowles chose to let the final seconds tick away.
Campbell told reporters this week that he should have instructed Goff to wait longer before taking the snap, but he believed Bowles was ready for the game to end.
“First of all, we didn’t handle that whole thing well on our end,” Campbell said, via SI.com. “We should’ve bled it more than we did. Look, I’ll be the first to admit that, and that’s on me. We knew they had a timeout left, and I could tell he wasn’t gonna call it. So, that’s just, that’s how it ended.”
Campbell’s guess was accurate. Bowles told reporters this week that he did not believe his team had a chance to come back in what little time would have remained, and was content with letting the game come to a conclusion without another snap.
“They already had a field goal and lined up, and it would have been about 12 seconds left on the clock in the ball game,” Bowles said. “We weren’t going to come back from that. No sense in prolonging the obvious.”
Historic Run for Lions
The win sent the Lions to the NFC Championship game for just the second time in franchise history, a matchup with the San Francisco 49ers with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Campbell said the run is the culmination of the work he’s been undertaking since 2021, bringing the franchise from a league-worst 3-13-1 record that season to their first division title in 30 years this season.
“I envisioned that we would have a chance to compete with the big boys, and that’s where we’re at,” Campbell said, via ESPN. “All you got to do is get in, and it’s about placing yourself in the very best position to where you can move. You get a home game and maybe you get a second home game, and now all of a sudden it gets a little easier.”
Goff added that the team has faith they can take down the powerhouse 49ers this week and earn the franchise’s first-ever trip to the Super Bowl.
“I don’t want to say this arrogantly, but we expected to win the [wild-card round] game, we expected to win this game and now we get to go to a game we expected to be in against a really good team at their place — and we’re going to come into it expecting to win,” Goff said. “It’ll be a tough game, but it’ll be fun.
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