Everything Detroit head coach Dan Campbell and the Lions sad after losing 20-19 to the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on Saturday. Quotes are courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions media relations staffs. COACH DAN CAMPBELL The guys played hard, fought to the end. We knew it was going to come down to the wire, but I thought our defense played really well today, minus one play that was in our hands. But we were there to make a play. We didn’t. But other than that, I thought we did some really, really good things. Got off the field, got a takeaway. On offense, 1:41 on the clock, no time outs, length of the field, score. Go for two, we get it – and we get an L. I was proud of the way the guys fought. We just made too many critical errors to where it shouldn’t have come down there at the end. Look, credit to them. They played hard. We knew they would. They’d give us their best shot and they play well at home. They did again and we’ll seethem in a couple of weeks. [It will] be good.
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Two people can’t report. I don’t want to talk about it. I explain everything pregame to a tee, ok? I did that. 70 reported. 68 didn’t. We threw it to 68. That was the explanation. On the going for two at the end. I told the offense that we were going down, 1:41 left, we’re going to go down and score, and then we’re going to go for two and finish this game out. I told them that, and, so, that’s what we were doing. On if being backed up from the two-yard line to the seven-yard line changed anything.
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We were going for the win. On what happened on the last two-point play. If James Mitchell should have caught the pass. We didn’t connect. We didn’t connect. On the game CeeDee Lamb had tonight. He’s a good player. We tried to double him some, but we also wanted to pressure him. When you pressure, you’ve got to be able to hold up. You get isolated, you get some one-on-ones. He’s a good player, we know that but I thought we had the right balance. He’s tough to contain. He’s tough. But I thought our defense played pretty damn good today. You can see the frustration on your face. Can you explain where it comes from? Would you be frustrated right now? Is it on the call? Is it on the execution? I don’t like losing and that’s what happened. We lost. That bothers me. I don’t like having an L, so that’s the frustration. QB JARED GOFF On the game: “I’ll start with this: we had plenty of opportunities and it never comes down to one play of course. We didn’t play our best on offense throughout most of the game. We did there towards the end. In the second half, I thought we played a lot better. But we had plenty of chances to score. Certainly, the drive before, bad play by me. We had plenty of chances to score. We put together a good two-minute drive there, really good…I think we had a minute forty, no timeouts, we moved the ball pretty good. We get down there, get the touchdown and get the two-point conversion and yeah, it sucks. It’s unfortunate man. I don’t know if I’ve had this feeling before where you feel like you won but you didn’t. With that being said though, the next two plays we had shots at it. I had Kalif at the back of the end zone and got hit. If I can get that ball out a little earlier, we might have it. And then the last one, I had a chance…but yeah, unfortunate. I don’t know what’s going to come out since at the end there, but it sucks.” On the explanation: “Very confused. What I do know, and I don’t know if I’ll get fined for this, but I do know that Decker reported. I do know that Dan Skipper did not. I do know that they said that Dan Skipper did.” On if he feels the game was taken from them: “No. We had plenty of plays to make. We had plenty of opportunities to win that game. Our defense played their tails off. We did better towards the end on offense, but not quite enough obviously. We still had chances to do it there on the next two conversions. We had two more shots at it. We didn’t get either of them. It’s unfortunate it came down to what it did. I don’t think there was no ‘the fix is in’. They just messed it up. It happens. It’s part of the game. But unfortunately, it happened on that play.” On LaPorta and Amon-Ra: “Those guys are studs, man. They are studs. We rely on them. They both played well all night. They’re both studs.” T TAYLOR DECKER On what the officials told him after he was flagged on the two-point conversion: “They didn’t tell me anything after the play. I mean all I really want to say on it, just so I don’t get myself into trouble, is, I mean, I did exactly what coach told me to do, and went to the ref, said report. Yeah, I don’t know. It was my understanding, too, you know, Dan brings up the possibility of those sorts of plays pregame, so I did what I was told to do. Did how we did it in practice all week, and that’s probably all I’m really going to touch on with that.” On it looking like Jared Goff told him to go over there (to report) and it looked like he did go over there: “Yeah, I mean, there is not much more I can add to it. I mean, see the video of it, it is what it is, I guess.” On what it says about the team that they fought and got into position to make that play: “I would say that we had a lot of opportunities early in the game, and we didn’t play clean enough offensively. Hats off to our defense, they played a hell of a game. Definitely want to give those guys credit. Ultimately, when it came down to it, we tried to make all the plays we could and we just came up one short.” On whether it felt like a playoff atmosphere today: “Yes, it definitely did. Hank [Fraley, Offensive Line Coach] even said prior to that last two-minute drive, he said, this is like playoff football right here. It was good to go down there, no timeouts, and execute that drive for a touchdown. Unfortunately, just came up one point short.” On the final sequence of plays: “They called the penalty, and it’s like, alright, well let’s line back up and make the play. There is nothing we can do about it at that point. We just have to move onto the next play and try to score. Try to win the game. It’s kind of a gut punch, but you have to turn the page real quick because you have about 20 seconds before you have to run another play.” RB DAVID MONTGOMERY On whether this is one of the crazier endings to a game he has seen: “Yeah. But we should not have even been in that situation in the first place. We had a lot of opportunities to score. We didn’t do a bunch of things well on offense that we know we need to clean up and be better. We had some egregious behavior on our side of the ball, but you can never leave it in the hands of somebody else.” On the offense’s play in the first have, moving the ball into opponent territory but sitting on three for a while: “Our defense playing how they played and being able to hold them off for a while, it was 7-3 for a while. We were driving the ball, but we have to be able to capitalize on those, in those moments and in those opportunities.” On whether he feels like they were able to get it going in the second half: “Yeah, I definitely think we did. Ben [Johnson, Offensive Coordinator] came in and let us know we were going to lean on the run a little bit more. We did that. We were able to score.” On finding a way to almost win and whether there is something to build on here: “There is always room to build. I think for us, its not merely us just looking at it. It is taking something from it. We know are better than what we performed to be. We know we can play better and we will play better. Yeah, we gotta be better.” On getting stopped on third downs: “I don’t really think it was much of them. We didn’t do a lot of things well. We made a bunch on mistakes on our side of the ball. We are accountable for those mistakes, issues we got to clean up and we will. I think ultimately we beat ourselves.” LB ALEX ANZALONE On the defense holding Dallas to a field goal on their final drive and what it says about the defense: “We are growing. We are growing as a group, obviously stuff to clean up. For the most part, I thought we played really well today. They are a really good offense and obviously a great quarterback. I think altogether, we played solid. But stuff to improve on as well.” On the defense jarring the ball loose as CeeDee Lamb was headed toward the end zone: “Honestly, that’s huge. In the red zone, let alone the turnover. That’s a huge play. That’s what defenses thrive off of, and we definitely needed that.” On this being a game between two playoff teams, and what it says about whether the Lions are ready for the playoffs: “For sure, I think so. Obviously, guys are disappointed right now, but at the same time, there is a lot of good stuff on film; a lot to build off of. We won the North. We have at least a third seed from my perspective. We have a home playoff game. That’s really when these things count. We just have a lot to look forward to.” DL AIDAN HUTCHINSON On his individual performance which included three sacks: “I feel like the timing was right today. You wish you could come out with a W at the end.” On what the team takes away as a positive, because that is the type of game they will see in the playoffs: “My mentality is, screw it, I would rather beat them in the playoffs anyway. That is kind of my mentality. Have a short memory with this one, but keep in mind, let’s try to beat them when it counts.” On how difficult the ending was: “I guess I will let Coach Campbell handle those questions.” LB DERRICK BARNES On what it is about this team that will allow them to bounce back after this loss: “That’s what we do. We always bounce back. We go in, we own the drawing board, we learn from it, we go back to work. That’s what we’ve been doing the whole season. That’s why we are where we are now.” On what confidence this game gives that they can hang with any team: “We knew that from the jump. That’s a good team out there. But we know what we are about and what it took for us to get here. Obviously, we respect our opponent. But we are looking to win every game. Every time we go out there, we are preparing to win. Obviously, that didn’t happen. It was a great game fought by them, fought by us. We’ll be ready to go next week, on to Minnesota.” On the penalty on the two-point conversion and if he watched the play: “It’s just unbelievable. What can we do? Like coach said, can’t give the ref the game. So, it is what it is. We control what we can control and move on.”
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