Dan Campbell has officially taken over play calling from John Morton, which means the blame for the Detroit Lions' nine point performance against the Philadelphia Eagles mostly lies with him.
While the Lions' offensive line did a poor job in pass protection in this game, leading to some errant passes and a shaky performance overall from Jared Goff, Campbell had his hand in a few decisions that left Lions fans scratching their heads into the wee hours of the night.
Between being too aggressive going for it on fourth down, when it wasn't working all night, and not utilizing timeouts to his advantage, Campbell didn't have his sharpest performance as the Lions' head coach and as their new play caller. It was the first time the Lions, overall, seemed overwhelmed this season.
Campbell dealing with major adversity for first time this season
Campbell hasn't exactly had an easy go of it throughout his tenure with the Lions. After all, it was a miracle when the Lions and Campbell managed to get their first win back in 2021 after weeks of losses had stacked up against them and their newly-acquired quarterback, Goff.
This is, therefore, not the only adversity that Campbell has faced while with Detroit, and it won't be the last of it. With greater expectations come greater responsibilities for Campbell, who has suddenly left the Lions looking like a team at a crossroads as we head into Week 12 against the New York Giants.
Two huge questions will haunt this Week 11 performance from Campbell. One question that was actually posed to Campbell in his postgame availability had to do with his game management and, specifically, why he didn't use his timeouts in the first half to try and gain another possession before halftime. His response leaves much to be desired.
Dan Campbell on why he didn't use his timeouts to grab another possession in the first half pic.twitter.com/BsrCQFUP9g
— Nolan Bianchi (@nolanbianchi) November 17, 2025
Deciding to wait for the second half, where the Lions got the ball back at kickoff, to gain "another" possession was an uncharacteristically non-aggressive move from Campbell, who is known for his sneaky tactics. The Lions ended up doing nothing with that possession to open the 3rd quarter.
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Another question that emerged from this contest is Campbell's decision to get too aggressive at times, such as him going for it on fourth down five times with zero conversions on the afternoon. Detroit is, again, known for never settling for the easy punt or field goal, especially in a close game like the one we saw on Sunday night.
But, given how poorly the offense was operating thanks to the efforts of the Eagles' defensive front, it seemed odd to see Campbell continuously go for it when the Lions could've punted or even gotten at least six to nine points on several separate field goal attempts throughout the contest. He wanted to see his offense have their moment, and it was just not the game for that.
While the Lions have some days to look over what went wrong for them in Week 11, they've got two contests coming up against teams that feature strong pass rushers - one of which will be Micah Parsons on Thanksgiving. Campbell has to strike a balance between being too coy and too aggressive moving forward, especially amid a suddenly tightening NFC North battle.