Detroit Lions’ Dan Campbell on fake punt: ‘I shouldn’t have done that to those guys’

Dan Campbell rolled the dice, and the Detroit Lions crapped out.

Campbell said he was to blame for a fake punt the Lions failed to convert in the third quarter of Thursday’s 29-22 Thanksgiving loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Jalen Reeves-Maybin was stopped for no gain on a direct snap to the personal protector, and the Packers scored three plays later to take a 15-point lead.

“Yeah, look, that’s a bad call on me,” Campbell said. “That’s a bad call. I shouldn’t have done that to those guys. That’s a bad call.”

The Lions faced a fourth-and-4 from their own 23-yard line when they ran the fake with 5:32 left in the third quarter, a situation similar to one they converted in the first quarter of their Week 1 upset of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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Reeves-Maybin ran for 3 yards on fourth-and-2 from the Lions’ 17-yard line on that play, and the Lions drove the length of the field for the game’s first touchdown.

Asked if the punt team had the right look to run the fake Thursday — the Packers had five players spread across the front line of their punt rush unit, including one outside each of the Lions’ wing protectors, and three defenders behind them in off-ball linebacker roles — Campbell said only the call was his fault.

“It’s a bad call on me,” he said. “It is. Shouldn’t have done that.”

One of the most aggressive coaches in the NFL, the Lions have largely benefitted from Campbell’s game management the past 2.5 seasons.

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The Lions rank among the NFL leaders in fourth down attempts (27) and conversions (13) and entered Thursday with conversions on eight of the nine fake punts they’d run under Campbell. The one fake they failed to convert would have gone for a first down if not for a dropped pass.

Linebacker Derrick Barnes said the defense didn’t do its job after the fake.

“Honestly, I’m the type of guy that never blames coaches or anybody for the call. It’s whatever he felt was right and it was executed right, it doesn’t matter,” Barnes said. ‘That’s one of those things where the defense coming out, you’re ready to go. Like we say, more TV time (for us) and force a turnover, get the ball back anyway we can, force a field goal, however it takes. That’s really the mindset of the defense. Don’t let them in the end zone.”

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Lions quarterback Jared Goff defended the decision, too.

“We trust the hell out of him,” Goff said. “He makes those calls, most of the time he’s right. When he’s not, we’ve got to pick him up and make the plays to help us win the game. But yeah, we trust the hell out of him and love when he puts us in situations to make him right.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.