Allen Park — Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell finally revealed he got some clarification from the league following a potentially missed delay of game penalty in the closing seconds of Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens that would have negated Justin Tucker’s NFL record 66-yard field goal attempt.
If you were hoping for a satisfactory response, or even a mea culpa, prepare to be disappointed.
“I didn’t turn it into the league, but I called and it’s really a subjective call is really what it came down to,” Campbell said Friday. “I think they’re kinda split on it. You guys have heard the procedure of it, and I’ll be honest with you, I’m so over it now.”
Lions fans have been up in arms since the end of the game after what has been perceived as the latest officiating blunder that has cost their team. Some have gone as far as suggest the team should stage some form of protest.
But that’s not Campbell’s style. He’s not going to allow officiating to be an excuse for his club. And while Sunday’s missed call might have cost the Lions a regular-season game, it doesn’t come close to comparing to the blown pass interference call that sent the New Orleans Saints home in the NFC Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams a couple years back, when Campbell was an assistant on the New Orleans staff.
“I get some of that,” Campbell said when asked whether he, or someone in the organization, needed to make a bigger deal out of Detroit’s woes with officiating. “That’s not my (approach). Look, I came from a place where we didn’t have some great calls go our way either, but we won a lot of games. I don’t use that as an excuse. I mean, you make your own luck and we’ll find our luck. We’ll earn it and make it happen.”
Campbell said he’ll continue to seek weekly clarification from the league on questionable calls, not to highlight that the officials made mistakes but to find areas where he can improve as a coach.
“Yeah and the ones where should this have been holding? Well, I know I’m going to get the, ‘Yes, that should have been holding,'” Campbell said. “Each team will turn those in. That’s not worth it. It’s those ones where why would you pump the play clock here, why would that have been done? I don’t understand that. Then when you get clarification one way or another, then at least that helps you moving down the road. I want to use it as not so much I told you you were wrong. I want it, moving forward, is there something that I missed or something that can help us down the road, more than anything.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers