The door swung open. Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson marched through it, took a sip of water and headed to the podium in the media room. He looked serious and ultra-focused.
“Few things we’ve got to improve on from last week, starting with, really, the coordinator-to-head coach communication,” Johnson said with a straight face. “Just letting him know what the play-call’s going to be ahead of time, I think that would help.”
Everybody cracked up.
Johnson was making light of calling a pass to right tackle Penei Sewell on third-and-7 just after the final two-minute warning against the Minnesota Vikings, a trick play that sealed last week’s win. Because head coach Dan Campbell said on “The Pat McAfee Show” he didn’t even know it was happening.
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“Here’s another thing that happened, these things happen during the game. So, we’re in that situation and the fans are doing the wave around the stadium,” Campbell said. “And so I’m just watching and I hear Ben Johnson’s like, ‘Hey Coach, do you want to brrk, brrk, brrk … and I’m so focused on the wave and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’
“And I look up and we’re throwing it to Penei and I’m like, ‘What the (expletive) are we doing?’ They said, ‘Coach, you said it was fine.’ But it worked out great. It was unbelievable.”
McAfee broke into laughter.
Campbell was making light, taking the focus off himself at a time when he was getting praised for making such a gutsy decision, and he was giving the credit to Johnson and the players.
“That’s awesome,” Johnson said, smiling. “He’s the best.”
If you focus only on Campbell’s crazy comments and outsized personality, you will miss something important.
“He’s wicked smart, man,” said Dave Fipp, the Lions’ special teams coordinator. “He’s super intelligent. I know he comes across as different, but I don’t know, whatever those SAT scores and all that stuff, I guarantee you, it’s off the charts.”
Campbell coaching the coaches
Over the past six weeks, this team has done something special in winning five of six, and it all starts with Campbell. He has injected a self-deprecating humor, a strong work ethic, an unquenchable thirst for winning and a sense of collaboration through the organization.
Oh, and something else. He has a fantastic staff.
Johnson looked and sounded like a head coach on Thursday, just the way he carried himself and addressed the media. Maybe you don’t want to hear that. Because rumors have already started to pop up that he could become a head coach during the next hiring frenzy.
And defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has already interviewed for coaching jobs.
But maybe another reason why this team has improved is because of how Campbell coaches his coaches.
“Gosh, man, he’s a beast,” Fipp said of Campbell. “Great to work for as a coach because he empowers you and enables you and keeps you honest. He makes you better. He’s incredibly smart. And in, really all three phases, as smart as anybody I’ve been around.”
Campbell doesn’t force his ideas on anyone. This man with the outsized persona is more subtle than that.
“The other part of him that to me is really unique is his ability to convey some of the messages,” Fipp said. “He’s got a unique way of like, conveying a message or delivering a message to you, kind of the way he wants things to be done, or how things can go, but without telling you, this is how you got to do it. He makes you think and he’s inquisitive. And it makes you think, ‘You know what, he’s got a point.’ And then it kind of becomes your idea.”
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How does all this show up on the field?
Johnson said something interesting while talking about quarterback Jared Goff.
“Our relationship has grown as the season has gone along,” Johnson said. “I mean, shoot, he’s done a number of times the past few games where I get a little bit too aggressive and the play isn’t there down the field, and he’ll just burn it at a receiver’s feet and save the play that way. Not take a sack, not force something, and so he’s doing a really good job with that and it allows me as a play-caller to call, shoot almost anything on the call sheet, because I’m not worried about a negative play happening because I trust that he’s going to be able to do something positive with it for the most part.”
Personally, when I see Goff throw at somebody’s feet, I figured the play just didn’t work. It never occurred to me that it was because Johnson called up a super-aggressive play and Goff was bailing him out. And that, in turn, would give Johnson even more confidence to be aggressive.
That’s seriously cool. That’s how all this collaboration can flow from the coaches to the players and back. That’s the trust they are talking bout.
And it brings me to my last point: While some focused on Campbell’s talking about the Sewell play — trying to figure out if Campbell was serious or joking — he said something far more important in that interview. Something that was even more revealing.
“It’s important for all of us, myself, my coaches, these players across the board that we all understand this is not because of one person, one coach or one player or anything, man,” Campbell said. “It’s because all of us.”
When you view the Sewell joke through that lens, his point becomes even clearer.
“That’s why we’re winning because we are playing as one, and we’re winning with all three phases,” Campbell said. “We’re winning with guys that nobody hears about all the time. They just do their job, man, they come through for us in big moments and, and that has been our strength. It’s always been our strength. And we get to stay true to that because the minute we start thinking, well, it’s me, it’s me, it’s me — we’re gonna have problems. I think as long as we stay on course, we’re gonna be okay and play pretty good football.”
Campbell has put his own new twist on an old-fashioned, tried-and-true philosophy.
It’s a different way to phrase a Bo Schembechler-ism: “The Team. The Team. The knee-biting Team.”
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Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.
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