Lions coach Dan Campbell was fired up after he gambled and received on an important fourth down play in a 34-31 win over the Packers on Thursday.
After Detroit secured a playoff spot with its eleventh straight win, Campbell gave a triumphant speech within the locker room and praised his workforce for enjoying with resilience amid a plethora of accidents.
“I told you you’d never forget this f–king game,” Campbell stated after he paced the locker room whereas his workforce cheered. “We don’t have to talk about how tough we are. We don’t have to talk about how resilient we are. We f–king live it man. We’ve been living it!”
Campbell went on to reward the Lions offense for stepping up, and shouted out offensive sort out Dan Skipper, who appeared be throwing up within the nook.
“There you go Skip! Keep throwing up, keep doing whatever you’re doing over there!” Campbell stated, which drew laughs from gamers. “That’s a method to freakin’ lay it on the road.
“I’m so freaking proud of you, that’s the way to show up. You talk about pressure? We live in pressure. That’s where we freaking thrive. You did it again. It doesn’t matter who’s playing for us, it doesn’t matter what’s going on, you always find a way to win. This has been in the making, man. This has been in the making. We were all supposed to be here together, man. We’re destined for this. Just stay the course.”
The Lions entered Thursday’s recreation with 13 defensive gamers on injured reserve.
Campbell cashed in on quite a lot of gutsy fourth-down calls within the divisional matchup, together with two touchdowns.
However the riskiest one got here with 40 seconds left within the recreation, Campbell determined to go for it on fourth-and-one — slightly than kick a 39-yard subject aim.
The Lions obtained the primary down — regardless of Jared Goff tripping as he handed the ball off to David Montgomery — and received the sport on a 35-yard Jake Bates subject aim as time expired.
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“I just felt like we needed to end it on offense, and I did not want to give that ball back, and I believed we could get that,” Campbell stated in his publish recreation press convention. “I believed we could convert, and I trust that o-line, I trust David (Montgomery), and they came through for us. It’s a hell of a call by (offensive coordinator) Ben (Johnson). I knew how I wanted to play this game, the team knew it, and everything in me told me, ‘Let’s finish this,’ and so we did.”
Lions quarterback Jared Goff stated the workforce trusts Campbell, who’s obtained the “stones” to make dangerous selections.
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The Lions (12-1) face the Payments in Detroit on Dec. 15.
A loss to Buffalo wouldn’t hinder Detroit’s probabilities of clinching the highest seed within the NFC.
