Lions head coach Dan Campbell showed he’s not afraid to make the gutsy call, even when it’s an unpopular thought.
Late in the game with the Packers and Lions tied at 31, Campbell made the call to go for it on fourth-and-inches at the Green Bay 21 with 43 seconds left.
It was a tough, gutsy call for Campbell to make after it first looked like Jake Bates was going to come onto the field for a field goal attempt.
“[Dan Campbell is] dying to go for it. But obviously, he’s gotta kick this field goal to potentially win this game, at least go ahead here by three,” Kirk Herbstreit said on the Prime Video broadcast.
But Jared Goff remained on the field as the Lions attempted the fourth down conversion.
The decision paid off — albeit was a much bigger nailbiter than Campbell would have liked — as Goff got his feet tangled up as he handed the ball off to David Montgomery, who eventually took the ball over the line for 7 yards and a first down.
“I just got tripped up there a little bit,” Goff said. “It’s a bad feeling when you’re a quarterback.”
That ensured the Lions could try a field goal without giving the Packers the ball back, and Bates hit his third-game winning kick this season.
“I just felt like we needed to end it on offense,” said Campbell who went for it on fourth down five times and failed to convert just once. “I did not want to give the ball back and I believed we could convert. I trust the O-line. I trust David.”
Detroit managed to pull off the win with Bates kicking the game-winning field goal as time expired on the clock for a 34-31 victory.
“We discussed during the week that we were going to be pretty aggressive on that,” Goff said on the postgame show. “Dan let us know that early in the week that ‘Hey offense we’re kind of putting this on your shoulders. We’re gonna be pretty aggressive and if there’s a chance to go for it on fourth we’re gonna do it.”
The Lions converted four of their five fourth down opportunities against the Packers in a crucial NFC North showdown between two rival teams.
The Lions remained one of two one-loss teams in the NFL with Thursday’s win.
— with AP
