Dan Campbell Can Become Next Andy Reid

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21

Didn’t Campbell say the only player they expected to be limited when camp starts is Reader.

Edit:

I would anticipate everybody else to be pretty close to ready, if not it’s going to be tight. It’ll be enough to where they’re going to get a really good amount of training camp work, if that makes sense. So no, there’s nobody that I’m alarmed by. I would say Reader is probably the one that’s going to take a minute.”

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Two things:

  1. It made a 2 score game a 3 score game. With the 49ers getting the ball first in the second half, you’re buying a guaranteed 2 score lead the first time you possess the ball in the second half. That’s a position that you can more easily control the game from than if you find yourself only up 7
  2. A big part of the reason you go for it on 4th and goal from the 3 is that if you fail, the opponent is in a horrible situation trying to break out from their own goal line or make space to punt and forcing the punt gives you a short field. But with 10 seconds left in the half, that pressure isn’t there, they can take knees or just throw or out of bounds

With five minutes left in the half I think Dan goes for it, but without being able to force the 49ers to run four plays, let alone having time to drive down a short field after an assumed punt, it’s not the same equation. Likewise if we get the ball first in the second half then Dan definitely goes for it. But the circumstances suggested he should give more weight to kicking the FG.

I liked that call at the time and I like it now. We didn’t lose that game because we were only up 17 at the half.

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23

Fair enough. I still think he’s kicking himself over it, but I can admit it was a 50/50 decision for all the reasons you mentioned.

But in the end it didn’t help us at all, whereas a TD might have. Certainly had we scored a TD our win probability would have been higher than after kicking a FG.

Or it could have turned out that a TD wouldn’t have mattered anyway either. Who’s to say? But I’d bet a lot of money Dan regrets not going for it there. And I bet he regretted it in the moment too.

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My big thing is we were on fire offensively in the first half. We go for the tuddy and I really like our chances of getting it.

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Also, it kinda went against our identity. Not to say that we didn’t take the pedal off the metal a few times during the season, but our aggressiveness was a hallmark. I just wonder if that easing off came at the worst possible time.

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Dan is pretty honest about this stuff. Pretty sure he was asked about this the day or so after.

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27

We weren’t ready to be the champs.

We had to wait for the new unis. These ones will go down in Lions history. We all be watching highlights in our rocking chairs cutting onions. Everyone at the nursing home will be telling us to shut up, we already know all your Lions stories.

“And then Dan, by gob, he went for it on fourth down from the seven yard line and clinched the Super Bowl. Anyone want to watch the Youtube with me?”

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He’s really good at taking that into consideration - things like energy, momentum, feeding the hot hand, etc. It matters. The energy of the game matters.

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Which is why I think he regretted not doing it.

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30

His stated regret was the run on 3rd down at the end of the game, not the FG at the end of the half.

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31

I think he should have kicked the FG on both occasions. In both instances you have a chance for a 3 score lead. I’ll take my chances with that.

32

On a serious note, this is exactly right. They were not ready for it. Even if they won, who knows if they win the SB.

Just like the Pistons weren’t ready to beat the Celtics, then weren’t ready to beat the Lakers, and in turn next in line was the Bulls, who weren’t ready to beat the Pistons.

With all due respect to the Lions, they hadn’t won a single playoff game in 30 years and went on to win two and lose the third.

Sometimes, what you think is the most heartbreaking loss of your career is exactly the heartbreaking loss you needed in the end.

Campbell has some work to do to be anything resembling the next Andy Reid.

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33

officials won that series, not Los Angeles

pistons got jobbed

34

We don’t disagree, but the pen-holders still put the “official” result in the books. So it is part of the story just as much as the phantom foul is.

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