The Detroit Lions had every opportunity to change the tone of their season on Thanksgiving. Instead, the Green Bay Packers walked out of Ford Field with a 31–24 win, and Dan Campbell walked into the postgame press room with honesty, frustration, and plenty to say.
Below is a complete, cleaned-up, word-for-word breakdown of everything Campbell said, organized by topic, with each section including his full quotes.
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Campbell opened by crediting Green Bay — and acknowledging exactly where the game was lost.
“Credit that team and Matt. They did a good job. They closed that game out, and they made the critical plays. I’m proud of the way our guys fought. I feel like we came in ready to go from that aspect with plenty of energy, but really this game came down to fourth down and those critical moments. We were 0-for-2 and they were able to capitalize on three of them. Those are the one or two plays that make the difference when you’re playing a really good team. That’s what it came down to. Like I told the team, it’s frustrating. I know we’ve got a lot to be thankful for even after a loss. We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole. That’s the bottom line. We are in a little bit of a hole. But that’s just what it is. There’s nothing more than that. All we’ve got to do is worry about cleaning this up, getting to the next game, and finding a way to win the next one in front of us. After this day or two they get off, that’s what the focus will be.”
Campbell thought Detroit’s coverage was there — the Packers simply made a play.
“It was a good decision — going for the win, finishing the game. They came up with it. BB was in phase. That was sticky coverage, and thirteen went up and made a hell of a play. Credit to them. It wasn’t like we weren’t in position. That’s just those moments.”
Campbell was unusually transparent with his self-critique.
“I didn’t like one of those fourth-down calls. I don’t know how good of an opportunity we really gave our guys on that first one. But we had an opportunity, and even at the end of the day we had an opportunity and we just couldn’t get it done later in the game.”
He added that the recent struggles don’t change his philosophy:
“No, it doesn’t change my approach. A lot of it depends on where the game is at, the opponent, how your defense is playing, and what you feel like you’re going to get from that defense. Who you’re going to. All those things. Going into it, we liked those plays. I wouldn’t say that’s going to have an effect on me. You always want to convert them, and we’ve had a lot of conversions here. It just didn’t work out today.”
Campbell fully acknowledged the impact of losing Amon-Ra St. Brown in the first quarter.
“For sure. When you lose a guy like Saint, it’s tough. Everybody knows the production and the versatility he has, but also all the dirty work he does in the run game and all the little things — the nuances of where you line up, where you go, who you block. If it’s this look you go here, and if they go here, you need to slide back and do that. He is so smart and he’s tough. There’s a million jobs he does, and he does them at a high level. It hurts when you lose him.”
He praised the players who stepped in:
“With that, a guy like Jammo stepped up. I thought he was electric — made a lot of big plays for us. That was good to see. We thought he would. I wish we could’ve gotten the ball in his hands more. We had some calls there that the defense took him away and it had to go somewhere else. TK — we trust TK. It’s why he’s here. It’s why he’s on the vet squad and we elevate him, because he can return for us and he can do a million jobs on offense. Tesla made some big plays today. That is a positive. We had three really new tight ends. Dwelley kind of started for us, we used Skip, and then there was Ferg and Horton. It was good to see those guys compete and mix it up.”
Campbell refused to speculate without watching the tape.
“I don’t know. It’s a good question. I need to watch this game. I want to know what this game looks like before I make a comment on that.”
Campbell remained cautiously optimistic.
“I’ll know more tomorrow. I don’t feel like this is long-term. That’s the good news. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be here for a week or two, maybe, if we’re lucky.”
Campbell made one of his bluntest statements of the night.
“You need a little help. You’ve got to do your job. You’ve got to win, and you need a little help. That’s what it is. But it all starts with you doing your job — which is us — and finding a way to win the next one in front of us. It really is that simple. Don’t make more of it than needs to be. It’s frustrating. It sucks. It’s tough. But we did it to ourselves, and we’re the only ones who are going to get out of it as well.”
This is where Campbell’s tone completely changed.
“Yeah, fired up. Fired up to get Frank — to get him back. He wants to play. He wants to be a part of it. He misses the game. He misses his teammates. So really fired up. He’s a good football player. He brings a lot of production back to that O-line and the game itself, but he’s also a great teammate. He was one of our captains. He brings a lot to our team.”
Campbell also explained how the decision came together:
“I think this is something that’s been on his mind for a while. And then he called me. So we were good.”
He added:
“Yesterday morning is when I got the call officially. I know his teammates had talked to him, and I know some of those guys have been back and forth with him. I got wind of something not too long ago. But hey — we’re fired up.”
Campbell credited his players for fighting.
“Things are a little different — that’s the best way to say it. Sometimes you’ve got to go about things a little differently. I thought those guys battled up there today. They did some good things in the run game. I thought we had some pretty good protection on a lot of our play-pass stuff. I know we got hit on some things, but those guys competed.”
He singled out center Michael Colón:
“Colón started for us at center. I thought he was clear. I thought communication was good. Tried to finish.”
And then he widened the lens:
“When things don’t go right, it’s all-encompassing. I’m part of that. I can always be better and need to be better. It’s all the positions — not just the O-line. It’s about finding our own rhythm. Once we find the rhythm, keep the rhythm. You’ve just got to go about it a certain way.”
Fans were vocal. Campbell knew it.
“I know that’s frustrating when you’re a fan watching, but I know how we needed to play against that defensive front. It was about playing for the last possession. We were going to do that. I was going to have the defense get the stop, use our timeouts, and get one more shot to go win the game. That’s how we were playing it. I wanted to play it just like that. I wanted to keep it in our hands and not turn it into a ‘pin your ears back and fly up the field’ with Micah Parsons and those guys.”
Campbell didn’t shy from accountability.
“I can always be better. I’m always going to want more. I’m always going to feel like I need to do some things a little bit different, but you can always go hindsight on all of this. ‘Man, why’d you run here? I wish I would have play-passed on this one. I wish I would have dropped back on this one.’ Ultimately, we didn’t win the game.”
He added:
“As far as the way I wanted to play that game offensively — that was the vision I had for it. We’ve got to convert those first two series. We’ve got to find a way to convert on third. And then the fourth downs. You’re talking about two or three plays against a good team that made the difference.”
Campbell admitted the obvious.
“Yeah, he’s a playmaker, and he does a ton for us. I’m not going to say it doesn’t influence you or affect you.”
But he emphasized that Detroit still had options:
“I have a lot of trust in Tom Kennedy. I have a lot of trust in Jamo, especially when we know what the coverage is and we’ve got him running. We still have Gibbs. If you like the players and you like the play, sometimes you may not like the coverage you think you’re going to get, or where the ball is going to go, or which player has to win on that route. But in the moment, it felt like the right thing to do today.”
Dan Campbell left nothing unsaid. He acknowledged mistakes, defended key decisions, accepted responsibility, and praised the players who stepped up. He was raw and brutally honest about the Lions’ situation.
And he summed it up best with this:
“We did it to ourselves, and we’re the only ones who are going to get out of it.”