The Bills shredded the Lions on Thursday night for 41 points and 446 yards. After the game, linebacker Jack Campbell addressed Detroit’s defensive performance while fighting back tears on multiple occasions.
Jeff Skversy of Fox 29 posted the video of the locker-room session with the 2023 first-round pick, who signed a four-year, $81 million extension in the offseason.
“It’s on me,” Campbell said. “I gotta be better. And I ain’t got no other thing to do than look in the mirror and be better, so that’s really where it starts. It starts with us.”
He said the run defense was the most frustrating part of the performance.
“Just guys not getting off blocks, not doing their job,” Campbell said.
He was asked if something didn’t feel right going into the game.
“No, just — I mean, every time I lace up my cleats, I’m going 100 percent,” Campbell said. “Yeah, put it on me. I played terrible, so I gotta be better, especially for the offense and for all these guys in the locker room.”
Were they doing anything special schematically?
“No,” he said. “Just played bad. . . . I don’t know how to explain it. You just feel like you’re letting your teammates down, honestly. And that’s what it is. I just gotta be better, so.”
The good news for the Lions is they get some extra time before their next game — and the next three before the bye are objectively winnable: Jets, at Panthers, at Cardinals.
If all goes well, they’ll be 4-1 with two weeks to get ready for back-to-back home games against the Packers and Vikings. If they should lose one, or two, of the next three games, there will be plenty of soul searching during the early-season break.
And more questions about whether the Super Bowl window has indeed closed.
