Dan Campbell didn’t ask for too much from his Lions team for the weekend before Christmas. Coach Campbell kept it simple for his players in their Week 16 road trip to Chicago to play the Bears.
“The two most important things for me was, I wanted to see us play Detroit football and I wanted to win,” Campbell said in his postgame press conference. “That was it. I gave no other stipulations.”
Mission accomplished. The Lions controlled the game from the opening possession, a quick 3-and-out forced by the Detroit defense followed by a Jake Bates field goal on the Lions’ ensuing drive. The Lions gained 475 yards with a balanced offensive attack full of some explosive plays.
“We had all the–offensively, defensively–we had the keys to victory,” Campbell continued. “But basically that’s what I saw; I wanted to see our identity take shape, and I wanted to win this game. And we did that.”
The Lions won 34-17, improving to 13-2 on the season and sweeping the Bears in the process.