Detroit Lions’ Dan Campbell must learn one thing: Heartbreak is not a block to build on

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MINNEAPOLIS — Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell came to the podium with his heart on his sleeve, tears in his eyes.

 “That was tough,” Campbell said Sunday afternoon after the Vikings beat the Lions, 19-17, on a last-second field goal. “I was proud of the way the guys fought — that’s the first thing I told them.”

His voice cracked with emotion, and he looked like his heart had been ripped out of his chest.

It’s amazing what being a Lions coach can do to a guy.

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“It’s tough to be 0-5; it’s tough to lose like that again,” Campbell said. “But I was proud of them, man. You don’t find a way to get yourself back in a game and get to where we were at, if you don’t believe and give all that you had.”

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That’s a fair point. Give them credit for that. If nothing else, this team plays hard. The Lions were down by 10, 16-6, with three minutes to play. But they didn’t give up. They kept fighting — only to stumble into heartbreak once again, losing on another last-second field goal, their second in three weeks.

“We just, once again, made one more mistake than them and it cost us,” Campbell said.

Trouble is, I’m not sure what mistake he was talking about.

Maybe he was talking about quarterback Jared Goff, who had two turnovers on the edge of the red zone.

Maybe he was talking about the defense that couldn’t stop the Vikings on their final drive. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins made two huge plays, hitting Adam Thielen for 21 yards and then again for 19 to set up a Greg Joseph 54-yard field goal to win it as time expired.

At least this one went through clean. It didn’t need to bounce off the crossbar — or your heart — to get through, like Justin Tucker’s NFL-record 66-yard field goal that doomed the Lions, 19-17, on Sept.26.

Yes, the same result. The same score.

This was like some Lions-centric reboot of “Groundhog Day.”

Play horrible, make mistakes, offer some hope, tease an entire fan base … and find a way to lose at the end.

Yes, we have seen this movie before.

Too many times to count.

“I was proud of them and I love the grit,” Campbell said. “When your defense plays that way, you have a chance to win every game. I thought our defense played lights out today.”

That’s one way to look at it.

Yes, the Lions defense kept this game close.

Then again, the Vikings are not exactly an offensive juggernaut, especially without Dalvin Cook, out with an ankle injury. Even without their star running back, the Vikings ran for 120 yards, slightly above their average this season. Meanwhile, they passed for 264 yards, just off their 270.3-yard average.

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So it wasn’t like the Lions played great defense to shut down the Vikings.

The Vikings are just not good.

These were two bad teams playing bad football, stumbling their way through an ugly game, as fake snowflakes floated down from the ceiling in U.S. Bank Stadium.

Surreal.

“It’s tough,” Campbell said. “You want it for those players. They are out there busting their ass. You know, it’s tough.”

It looked like the Lions’ efforts would peter into nothingness until Jalen Reeves-Maybin made things interesting, ripping the ball free from Alexander Mattison’s grasp and giving the Lions a chance with less than two minutes to play.

As Goff went onto the field, Campbell told him: “When we score, we are going for two points.”

Three plays later, D’Andre Swift scored on a 7-yard run.

“I felt the best way to win that game was to go for the two-point,” Campbell said. “We worked it this week. I trusted Goff. I trusted the O-line. I trusted our receivers and backs. That, to me, was an easy decision to make.”

The Lions called a play they had practiced all week. Only there was a problem. In practice, Goff was throwing to Quintez Cephus.

But Cephus was hurt.

So KhaDarel Hodge filled in.

And Goff hit him for two points, giving the Lions a 17-16 lead.

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“It speaks to our guys,” Goff said. “I don’t know if KhaDarel Hodge ran the route — ever. I think it was Cephus the whole time in practice. Then, Cephus goes down and KhaDarel steps in. He’s a smart player and knows what he has to do and gets open. That indicates the type of guys we have.”

What type of guys do the Lions have?

That’s a loaded question.

This is a team that needs wide receivers, needs defensive backs and needs — well, a lot more talent.

And nothing will change until they improve their roster.

Heartbreak is not a currency

Over the next few days, much will be made of Campbell’s decision making.

You wanna know why the Lions went for two?

Because Campbell had one shot to win this game. One play. And it had worked in practice. That seems like a smart decision. I loved it.

You wanna know why the Lions rushed only three players on the final drive?

Because rushing four, in Campbell’s view, would have put too much pressure on his weak defensive backs. He didn’t say that, exactly, but that’s what I think he meant.

Perhaps one decision will be viewed as aggressive and the other conservative.

But that’s not how I view it: I see a guy who is trying to win any way possible and making decisions based on his talent — he knows he has a weak secondary and his offense is … sporadic, to put it kindly.

“We are not quite there,” Campbell said. “We haven’t quite got over the hump. In the long run, I do think this is going to pay dividends for us. As ugly as it is right now, as hard to swallow, I think we are building something special here that’s going to serve us well in the long term.”

That’s where I have to stop him.

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I love his passion. I love his emotion and honesty.

But Lions fans have been here before.

Lions fans know one thing: Losing heartbreakers does not make players tougher. It is not a secret pathway to success.

Heartbreak is not a currency that can be acquired, like gold coins or badges of courage, and turned into good fortune.

If it was, the Lions’ past 60 years would make them the NFL’s mightiest franchise.

But as this game ended, and fake snowflakes came floating down from the ceiling, it was like looking into a demented snow globe.

It was a scene we have seen so many times.

And it’s nothing but a cruel joke.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.