Dan Campbell's presser shows the Lions have a chip back on their shoulders
Detroit Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell met with the media on Wednesday and had a lot of interesting things to say. There was talk about how both James Houston and C.J. Gardner-Johnson could be back this season and there was talk about Amon-Ra St. Brown having steel plates in his shoes too. But the thing […]
Detroit Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell met with the media on Wednesday and had a lot of interesting things to say. There was talk about how both James Houston and C.J. Gardner-Johnson could be back this season and there was talk about Amon-Ra St. Brown having steel plates in his shoes too.
But the thing that seemed to energize him quite a but was his talk about the Lions need for an identity and how that identity might have come from the Lions loss on Sunday.
"Well, I think more than anything, it's about, I told the guys this morning, and we can get into specifics of how do you beat this team, but to me, it's more about us. I came away and when you look back, I just think about man, let's get back to what we're about. Our identity." Campbell said. "And I think we got to establish our identity and if that's our focus, and that's the way we practice, that's the way we attack it. I think everything else will fall right into place. So let's get back to all those things that we preach on offense defense, the finish, the population the football, you know, striking the football, biting the ball, offensively finishing in a dominating position. And that's got to be the focus and it starts today. You know, I think we do that, we'll be okay."
We talked about it a bit on Monday when Campbell talked about a reliability issue with his best players on defense. It felt like the he was talking was sort of pointing to the idea that the Lions had sort of bought into their own hype a little bit and they got smacked around because of it.
I also talked in that very same piece about how sometimes teams need this to happen to them. You need that moment to where you can get that chip on your shoulder. It's almost kind of fun in a weird way. You get the feeling of wanting to show everyone who you are again so they won't forget. It's powerful and it's intoxicating. Dan Campbell seems to get high off the same thing.
"I hate losing, but I love this because this is, I just feel like this is what we're all about you know? And it's we're back to reality. We're back in the mud. And you know, it's doom and gloom outside of this building in this world and man, let's just hunker down and go to work. And let's get back to what we do well, and it takes all of us to win. It's going to take all three phases and I just feel like that's what we do best and I know our guys, I know are coaches and man they, this is challenge accepted, you know, challenge accepted. So I just I feel really good. I do and I know the opponents coming in and if we don't get back to our identity this team will take your soul and so that's the motivation."
We're going to find out real quick if the Lions are back on their grind when they welcome a 2-0 Atlanta Falcons team into town on Sunday. Let's see if they come out swinging.
Lions believe there’s a chance C.J. Gardner-Johnson could be back this season
The C.J. Gardner-Johnson injury was a tough loss for the Detroit Lions. Especially since Gardner-Johnson had taken on such a big leadership role with the Lions and seemed to be the tip of the spear in the villain era. He tore his pectoral muscle on Sunday against the Seahawks and since then, all the talk […]
Featured image by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
