Latest loss brings Campbell to tears
Lions’ coach gets emotional in wake of another heartbreaking defeat
MINNEAPOLIS — Dan Campbell has tried to soak the Lions in his signature blend of confidence and enthusiasm, a 6-5 energy drink of a head coach determined to hoist one of the NFL’s most historically unsuccessful franchises onto his broad shoulders.
For all the tough talk, such as his introductory promise that the Lions would ‘‘bite a kneecap off’’ while figuratively climbing to their feet after being knocked down, there’s no doubt Campbell deeply cares about his team.
After a second crushing defeat for the Lions in a span of three weeks, the emotion came spilling out as Campbell conducted his postgame news conference in the wake of a 19-17 loss to the Vikings.
Greg Joseph kicked a 54-yard field goal as time expired to give the Vikings (2-3) the victory and keep the Lions (0-5) winless, despite a brazen call by Campbell for a twopoint conversion with 37 seconds left that delivered a short-lived, one-point lead.
‘‘When you see your players give all that they have and you lose that way, it’s tough,’’ Campbell said with red, wet eyes and a faltering voice as he tried to hold back more tears. ‘‘You don’t want that for them, but we’ll be better for it.
‘‘Ultimately, we didn’t do enough to win, but I was proud of them and I loved the fight they had in them and I loved the grit.’’
The Lions trailed for nearly twothirds of the game and were down 16-9 with no timeouts left when the Vikings handed the ball off to Alexander Mattison on third-and-seven from their 21 right after the twominute warning.
As Mattison churned his legs for extra yardage, Mattison had the ball ripped away from him by the Lions’ Jalen Reeves-Maybin. Three plays later, D’Andre Swift had the Lions in the end zone to trigger the two-point try that Campbell had decided on ahead of time.
‘‘I wanted to finish it off,’’ Campbell said. ‘‘I felt the best way to win that game was to go for the twopoint and be done with it. I trusted our guys.’’
The Lions lost to the Ravens by an identical score. In that game, the Ravens scrambled into position for an NFL-record 66-yard field goal by Justin Tucker on the final play. The Lions let Lamar Jackson complete a 36-yard pass on fourth-and-19 in the closing seconds, and there was a missed delay-of-game penalty before the winning kick that likely would have pushed Tucker out of range.
This time, the Vikings took over at their 18 with 33 seconds and two timeouts left. Kirk Cousins completed three passes, two to Adam Thielen for a combined 40 yards, and the Vikings pulled out the victory on Joseph’s fourth field goal of the game.
‘‘We haven’t quite got over the hump, but I do think, in the long run, this is going to pay dividends for us,’’ Campbell said. ‘‘As ugly as it is right now and hard to swallow, I do think we’re building something special here that’s going to serve us well in the long term.’’