DETROIT — Dan Campbell has never been here before as a head coach. He’s played the role of spoiler, back when the Detroit Lions were an afterthought at 3-13-1 and he was a caricature without proof of concept. He played catch-up last season, as his even-keeled approach and steadfast belief bought time for a young team and fueled a run that came up just short of the postseason. But this? This is all new.
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The Lions are atop the NFC North as the season winds down. For the first time, Campbell’s job is to land the plane. The initial descent, however, had been rather bumpy.
But Campbell and the Lions (10-4), as they so often do, navigated turbulence in a way few Lions teams of the past have. They were ready for what came their way on Saturday. They knew what had to be done. And now, they’re on the brink of something special.
“We just needed to win,” Campbell said, after his team beat the Denver Broncos 42-17 Saturday, “and we did that today.”
The Lions didn’t just win this game. They pummeled a surging Broncos team, essentially from start to finish, and did it in front of a national television audience. Those watching at home saw the Lions play one of their most complete games of the season, as the regular season winds down.
Detroit can clinch a playoff berth for the first time under Campbell this weekend, if a few things go its way. The simplest scenario involves a Seattle Seahawks loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night. But the Lions are aiming higher, thinking bigger. With a win over the Minnesota Vikings on Christmas Eve, Detroit can clinch its first division title since 1993.
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It’s notable because the Lions hadn’t been winning much lately, nor looked like the team we’ve come to expect under Campbell. The Lions had lost two of three entering Saturday and that could’ve easily been three of four or even four of five with the way they had been playing.
Saturday’s game had all the makings of a potential disaster, perhaps setting the wrong tone for the stretch ahead. The Lions had the second-most turnovers since Week 8, while the Broncos were the NFL’s leaders in takeaways. Strength versus fatal flaw. Opposing quarterbacks have a habit of playing their best against this Lions secondary, and Russell Wilson was on tap. You could already envision Russ cooking.
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Detroit was also competing against momentum. These Broncos are not the same team they were when the season began. In many ways, they’re reminiscent of the 2022 Lions. That team started off 1-6 before winning eight of 10. The Broncos’ 1-5 start was followed by a remarkable turnaround, too — winning six out of seven to enter the week at 7-6, just a game back in the AFC West.
No coach in this league knows Campbell better than Sean Payton. Their relationship has stood the test of time, spanning a quarter century. Payton has been able to appreciate the job his former assistant has done in Detroit. So much so, he used Campbell’s Lions as an example for his own team, when the Broncos were at their lowest.
“I was in New York when we drafted Dan and was the offensive coordinator,” Payton said of Campbell this week. “When I ended up in Dallas, I was part of the reason we were able to sign Dan as a free agent to the Cowboys. Eventually, I signed Dan to the Saints. He got injured and that’s where his career ended. Then, eventually, I was able to sign him as an assistant coach. He’s a close friend, a fantastic coach and someone I’ve always enjoyed working with. At 1-5, we just pointed to a similar situation a year ago. In other words, (they were) a team who was 1-6 and was able to flip the script.”
A mentor, learning from his mentee. But also, a mentor working feverishly to beat his mentee, with the playoffs within reach.
“We better be on our stuff because he’s going to come here to try to embarrass us,” Campbell said of Payton Monday.
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Campbell’s messaging this week was almost tactical. His players and assistants see his comments. In times like this, in need of some extra motivation to get right, Campbell often strikes the right balance between urgency and confidence. It’s what sets him apart.
After a rough loss to the Chicago Bears, Campbell said he’d need to be a little more “irritable” in practice the following week. He said he needed more from his best players, and that he knew they’d respond because of the kind of group the Lions have in place. And ultimately, he said the Lions would be ready.
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His team’s best all-around performance of the season followed. Go figure.
“We had a hell of a practice last week,” defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs said. “Everybody was physically and mentally dialed in.”
“It certainly starts with the head coach, and obviously all the leaders on the team,” rookie tight end Sam LaPorta said after the game. “I mean, if you could’ve seen us at practice this week, we were really flying around. … Obviously, I haven’t been around the league very long, but it’s Week 15 and we would get after it. Like, we were flying around the field.”
Sam LaPorta hat trick!
📺: #DENvsDET on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/vtmfEKvOLy pic.twitter.com/4sd0dbeE3o— NFL (@NFL) December 17, 2023
That’s what makes this effort, on this night, so impressive. In a city where worst-case scenarios run through the minds of its sports fans like Usain Bolt in ’08, the Lions on Saturday helped Detroit take a collective breath.
A Lions defense that has been under construction paved the way early, which is certainly notable. Players on this defense had said they lost their swagger in recent games. Since Week 7, the Lions had ranked 27th in opponent third-down conversion rate, 29th in sacks, 31st in points allowed and 32nd in red-zone efficiency. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and his players have received their fair share of criticism. But this was the type of effort that can give them some confidence heading into January.
Each Broncos possession in the first half resulted in either a fumble or a punt. There were swarm tackles and tackles in space. There were splash plays — 26 total (second-most by the team this season). It was a wire-to-wire outing. The Lions held the Broncos to 287 total yards and just 17 points.
“We know who we are, we know what we can be,” Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone said. “It just comes down to executing and just doing your job and flying around, having fun. That was really the big emphasis this week — just flying around, executing your job with a smile on your face.”
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And then there was the offense. Many of those players Campbell challenged this week reside on that side of the ball. This is the group that will carry the Lions in January, should they extend their season. They needed to play better. And they did.
Quarterback Jared Goff, on the heels of another multi-turnover game, threw for 278 yards and five touchdowns, tying his career high. Three of those went to LaPorta, Detroit’s rookie sensation. Or, um, one of them. Another Goff touchdown went to fellow rookie sensation Jahmyr Gibbs. He scored through the air and on the ground, behind an offensive line that got back on track after a poor performance the last month or so. And finally, Amon-Ra St. Brown, after recording just five catches for 70 yards in his previous two outings combined, hauled in seven of nine targets for 112 yards and a touchdown.
OMG ASB 🤯🤯🤯#DENvsDET |📺 NFL Network | #ProBowlVote | @amonra_stbrown pic.twitter.com/tnNmnRUloZ
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 17, 2023
Now the Lions are on the brink of a division title, a gift 30 years in the making. There’s nothing more they would like to do than to deliver it on Dec. 24, hand-wrapped.
“That’s our goal,” left tackle Taylor Decker said about hosting a playoff game at Ford Field. “We want to do that. That’d be pretty special. For the players in this locker room, for the coaches, definitely for the city and the fans. They’re dying for it.”
Wins like this show the continued resiliency of a group that’s ready for a chance to compete in January. The Lions have not lost two games in a row since Weeks 7 and 8 of 2022, a streak that spans 24 games. Before it began, the Lions had lost five in a row and were 1-6.
Back then, the Lions didn’t know how to win, didn’t know how to finish. They have won 18 of their last 24 since.
Campbell’s Lions looked ready by the end of last season, confident they could hang with anyone in the league, without a chance to prove it. They needed help to get to the playoffs a year ago and didn’t get it. But this year, they’ve positioned themselves to close things out on their terms, as early as next Sunday in Minneapolis.
“Man, we wouldn’t have it any other way,” Campbell said.
Time to land the plane.
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(Photo of Sam LaPorta and Dan Skipper: Rey Del Rio / Getty Images)
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