Roster still needs help, but Lions deliver hope under Campbell
DENVER — The Broncos got booed Sunday afternoon at home. That’s how you know the Lions were rolling, if even for a quarter.
Hey, you take victories where you can. Not that Dan Campbell and his coaching staff and his banged up — and COVID-hit — roster are looking for pity — or even a moral victory after losing 38-10 on Sunday.
Frankly, they’re all just trying to survive at this point, 13 games and 11 losses into the season. They just don’t play that way. It’s commendable, even admirable, and before you start dismissing the effort these Lions show week-to-week as simple professionalism, remember that paycheck and obligation aren’t always drivers of competitiveness.
Or effort.
Here’s a team that was missing six players to COVID protocol, and of a dozen players who missed practice time with a non-COVID illness, all but running back Jermar Jefferson played.
Still, the Lions were also missing D’Andre Swift, fellow running back mate Jamaal Williams and tight end TJ Hockenson because of injuries. There were several others out, too.
During the game, linebacker Alex Anzalone went down with an ankle injury and cornerback Jerry Jacobs took a hit to his knee from teammate Jalen Elliott and had to be helped off the field. The Lions got to Denver with two healthy corners. They left with one.
So, yeah, watching them fall down 14 in the first quarter and then put together consecutive drives to score 10 and make Denver fans uneasy — or probably just angry and embarrassed because, you know, their team was getting outplayed by the Lions — was noteworthy.
Oh, the feel-good momentum shift didn’t last. The Broncos moved the ball at the end of the half for a long field goal and pushed the lead to seven.
Then, when the Lions got the ball to begin the third quarter, running back Godwin Igwebuike fumbled within Lions territory. Denver scored.
The Lions got it back and went for it on fourth-and-2near midfield. Jared Goff actually tossed his pass into the helmet of Broncos’ defensive end Dre’Mont Jones.
It caromed high and fell to the turf, just as the Lions season did a long time ago (Well, it never really caromed anywhere, unless you count off a goal post at the end of the loss to
Baltimore.)
Denver took advantage of the failed conversion and scored again. Suddenly, the Broncos’ fans were cheering and doing the wave, and the potential embarrassment was averted.
You can keep watching these games and focus on the stretches after the fumble and the failed fourth-down conversion and the ugly score at the end and the batted passes and interceptions and see a roster that has little to offer beyond next month, and a coaching staff that still has a lot to learn.
And that’s not unreasonable, certainly.
But at some point the moments these Lions keep showing, under Campbell and this staff, suggest, maybe, there is something underfoot that’s ... hopeful?
No, not the talent.
The Lions need that almost everywhere. But if Campbell can get his team, after flying
halfway across the country in mid-December to compete against a middling Denver team, to compete the way it did in the second quarter? What will he be able to accomplish with a healthy team?
And an improved roster.
Yes, it will be on him to improve this roster, along with general manager Brad Holmes, and to manage games better. (For the record, his call to go for it on fourth down trailing 24-10 from inside Lions territory made lots of sense. The game was almost over anyway and, well, why not?)
It will also be on Campbell to keep his players engaged and competitive for another four games with little to play for but game tape and pride. These aren’t little things, of course.
Even so, how many pro teams have we seen lose their will in similar circumstances?
Does this mean Campbell will be a good
game manager in high-leverage spots, given a roster good enough to compete for the postseason?
That’s hard to say.
But watching him coach, and watching his team complete in one of the worst seasons in modern franchise history, continues to show us what he is doing during the week. If he and Holmes and the rest of the braintrust can improve the talent and add playmakers, he might just be onto something.
The final score doesn’t tell us everything that’s happening in the locker room. It tells us about the roster.
For a quarter, though, a one-win team staved off a blowout and found a little respect in the boos. This tells us something, too.