Dan Campbell Says He Doesn’t Regret Fourth Down Calls Despite Lions’ NFC Championship Loss

The Detroit Lions gave up a 17-point lead in the NFC Championship Game, ultimately losing to the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31, Sunday night.

Many have already laid blame at the feet of Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who twice went for it -- and failed -- on fourth down despite being in field goal range.

The first was a 4th & 2 at the San Francisco 28-yard line while ahead 24-10 with just over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. Though, the second attempt was on a 4th & 3 from the Niners' 30-yard line with Detroit down 27-24.

San Francisco scored a touchdown on its subsequent drives following the Lions' turnover on downs. Not that Dan Campbell looks back with repent.

"I just felt really good about us converting, and getting our momentum and then not letting them play long ball," Campbell told reporters postgame.

"They were bleeding the clock out. That's what they do. And I wanted to get the upper hand back. You know, it's easy [with] hindsight and I get it, you know, I get that. But I don't regret those decisions. And that's hard.

"It's hard because we didn't come through, it wasn't able to work out but I just I don't. I don't. And I understand the scrutiny, I'll get, that's part of the gig, man. But we just didn't work out."

There were other moments which dearly cost the Lions an inaugural Super Bowl berth. Namely, Kindle Vildor's missed interception which led to a 51-yard catch from Brandon Aiyuk, and Jahmyr Gibbs' fumble which also led to another 49ers touchdown.

Wide receiver Josh Reynolds made two inexplicable drops on third and fourth down respectively, both ended drives. In addition, to a Lions punt which could've been downed at the one-yard line, only to be a touchback.

As for the loss itself, Campbell gave a vivid description of how he felt postgame after surrendering a 24-7 halftime lead.

"It's like getting your heart ripped out and it's hard, you know, it's hard," he said.

"We didn't come in at half -- nobody [was] really doing backflips, like 'alright we got this thing won.'

"They know better. We all know better. We talked about, we knew they were gonna make a run in the second half. We talked about it. We knew we were gonna have to weather a storm in the second half, and so when they started to make a push, we weren't surprised.

"We just couldn't counter back and we've always been able to counter back, we just couldn't quite do it in this one."