Dan Campbell has found his crutch word to explain Detroit Lions’ losing

The Detroit Lions don’t seem close to doing anything good at 1-6, but head coach Dan Campbell has found his crutch word to describe the team’s ongoing ineptitude.

NFL games do often tilt one way or the other based on a few plays. But’s also true that bad teams find ways to not make said plays, and lose close games. On Sunday, after leading 14-0, 21-7, 24-14 and 27-17, the Detroit Lions lost to the Miami Dolphins 31-27 as the offense was shut out in the second half.

Tilt a few plays the Lions way, and they might have three or four wins this season. But losing brings talk of “should haves”, “wish we would haves” and other hypotheticals. A mentor of head coach Dan Campbell’s, Hall of Famer Bill Parcells, once said, “you are what your record says you are.”

At 1-6, the Lions are the worst team in the NFL right now.

Dan Campbell has found his crutch word to explain Lions’ losing

After the game, Campbell went to what has become his crutch word after losses.

"My thought is as frustrating as it is, I know how close we are because we are still talking about one play,” Campbell said after Sunday’s loss. “And the hard thing is to just keep doing your job and staying in the thick of the storm, and the easy thing is to go down below and get under the blanket, eat all the food and whatever."

And he leaned into it.

"Hey, it’s frustrating, but I know everybody’s tired of hearing it’s close, but I do know we’re close, and you just don’t know when it’s going to turn. But if we don’t keep swinging away at it, it’ll only get worse.”"

As SI.com reminds us, crutch words or phrases are nothing new for a Lions’ head coach.

The truth is, though there were a few which provided particular swings in momentum, the Lions fell short on more than one play against the Dolphins. And that has been the case many weeks, as penalties, missed connections in the passing game, missed tackles, poor defensive coverage, etc. have tended to accumulate.

To say “we are still talking about one play” is an attempt by Campbell to reduce the complexity of winning or losing games for his players (“if we can just make ‘one more play’….). That’s fine, but on the other hand it comes off as an oversimplification and at worst an oversight.

After Sunday’s game, via SI.com, Lions left tackle Taylor Decker said losing is “exhausting.” That’s spoken like the longest-tenured player on the team, now in his seventh season with a playoff appearance in his rookie season and a 27-59-2 record since.

Being “close” has to pay off in wins once in awhile. The more Campbell keeps having to say how close he thinks his team is after a loss, the closer he’ll get to being unemployed after the season.