Here is everything Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said after his team lost 48-42 to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Opening statement
“Credit that team. They were ready to go. We knew they would be, we knew they would have a sense of urgency coming off of that tough loss out there on the West Coast. We just couldn’t quite match it. They did a good job. Ultimately, it’s like I told the team, I didn’t have those guys ready to go, not like that. Not when you’re playing a team like that. That’s with me.
“We had a number of guys that have played a lot better than that, just overall, and so that tells me that’s me. I didn’t have these guys completely ready to roll. It doesn’t mean—I thought the effort was good, guys fought. It’s just, there was little things in there that bit us, things that we knew we could not give these guys anything—it’s too good of a team—and we gave them some stuff there.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow, but at least we know now where we stack up against one of the AFC’s best teams, and it’s not good enough—not today, it’s not. Tough pill to swallow, but like I told the team, nothing changed from whether we won or lost today. We’ve still got to win next week. I mean, that’s the bottom line. So we’ve got to bounce back and get ready to roll.”
On the disappointing defensive effort Sunday
“Yeah, it’s frustrating. I thought we would, we’d be better. It’s not the, you know, some of these things where they make a play, man, I can live with that stuff. It’s across the board, when you know that you have self-inflicted wounds—there’s things that we did on our own—and gave those guys something to where they had better opportunities. That’s the frustrating part. You just want to know that you didn’t help them, and I do feel like we helped them a little bit there.”
On how much today was a case of injuries catching up to the defense
“No, I’m not buying it. I’m not. I don’t buy it. We can be better. We should’ve been better. We know how good they are, but that team was more urgent than us today, overall.”
On Bills QB Josh Allen getting outside of the pocket
“Yeah, you know, he got us a few times. We knew, unless we were in certain coverages, we had to keep him hemmed in there. And it was going to take a lot of discipline up front. And then there would be these things—particularly third down—where we could cut it loose and go get him, and we had some of those.
“And then somebody we may have that’s trying to spy out on him has got to get him, and we couldn’t get him. Look, he poses a huge issue, I mean, he’s tough, and we knew that going in, and certainly, we wanted to be able to handle that better, and it was just one of those days we just didn’t. And then we couldn’t counteract it on offense.
“That was kind of some of this issue too is, you know, I thought on defense we had two crucial stops at the end of half. One of them goes in at halftime, obviously, but at least you eliminate points. And the one before that, offense gets it back, we can’t score, we can’t turn it into points. And then vice versa, you know, offense starts going, and then we couldn’t stop them on defense. So it just was one of those games we didn’t complement each other well.”
On whether he views the game up as Allen being great and the Bills being ready, or the Lions having serious deficiencies on defense
“No, I just feel like we didn’t play at the same level that that team did today. That’s how I feel, and that’s why, honestly, I put this on me. I didn’t, I just didn’t feel like I had them ready to go, not like we’ve been. You can get away with, maybe if you’re not quite all the way to a 10, but not against the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs or Green Bay Packers, Minnesota, Philadelphia—whoever they are. It’s not going to be good enough, and it wasn’t good enough today.”
