Mike Tomlin Makes Campbell’s Gamble About Goff vs. Love
Mike Tomlin did not look at Dan Campbell’s fourth-down call Sunday and see a gamble. On NBC that night, the former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach turned the Detroit Lions coach’s decision into a judgment about two quarterbacks: the one Campbell had on his sideline, and the one he would have been handing the ball back to.
The situation was the kind that usually gets a coach second-guessed all week. Detroit faced fourth-and-1 at its own 24-yard line with 4:53 left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 17. Campbell kept his offense on the field, Jahmyr Gibbs took the handoff up the middle and was dropped for a two-yard loss, and Green Bay took over at the Detroit 22 with 4:50 on the clock, according to the ESPN play-by-play.
Tomlin got the question on Football Night in America before the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks game, and he was not interested in the second-guessing. “I don’t think it’s as reckless as people think,” Tomlin said. “If he punts that ball right there, Goff might never get a chance to respond.”
Mike Tomlin made it a Jared Goff and Jordan Love question
He went further after the Chiefs and Seahawks game, and the longer version had almost nothing to do with field position. It was about which offense was more likely to be holding the football when the night ended, as Pro Football Talk transcribed it:
“It centers around elite quarterback play. When you got elite quarterback play, and particularly when you’re playing elite quarterback play, you want to make sure your guy at least has a chance to have the ball at the end of the game. And that’s what that decision appeared to be about for me. If he punts that ball the way Jordan Love and company has been operating, it’s not possible, it’s probable that they’re gonna matriculate the ball down the field and win the game. And so what he did by going for it, he was either gonna be successful and keep the ball for his quarterback, or he was at least gonna give his quarterback an opportunity to answer. I was always ready to make that decision when I had Big Ben [Roethlisberger], for example, and I was facing another elite quarterback.”
That is a meaningfully different argument than the one Campbell has been defending since the final whistle. Punting is only the safe choice if you believe your defense gets the ball back. Tomlin’s read was that against Love, in the form he has been in, Detroit would have been watching the clock run out from the sideline.
Green Bay could not make the Lions pay
The Packers never got the touchdown that would have ended the argument. Love’s third-and-5 throw deep left for Josh Jacobs fell incomplete from the Detroit 17, and Trey Smack’s 35-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Lions linebacker DJ Wonnum with 3:25 to play. Packers fans spent the rest of the night on their kicker.
Jake Bates won it as time expired
Detroit got the football back and did exactly what Tomlin said Campbell was playing for. Goff led a 10-play, 71-yard drive, and kicker Jake Bates made a 22-yard field goal as time expired for a 20-17 win.
The Lions are 4-2 and the Packers are 4-3. Campbell got away with this one, and Tomlin handed him a better defense of it than the result did, but the math does not promise the next one goes the same way.
Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.