It was a surprising and tough loss for the Detroit Lions on Saturday night as they fell 45–31 to the Washington Commanders in the NFC divisional round of the playoffs to officially end their season.
As the No. 1 seed with a 15–2 record, there was of course a lot of pressure and high expectations put on the Lions to advance to the Super Bowl, and possibly even win their first title. But, that dream came to an abrupt end at home.
Lions coach Dan Campbell did not hold back his emotions when speaking at the podium after the game. He had to take multiple pauses to get through what he wanted to say.
“It just hurts to lose, man,” Campbell said. “I don’t care if you’re the seventh seed, sixth seed, five seed, one seed, because I’ve lost it all down there and it stings and it hurts.”
He really started crying and getting emotional when talking about how much work the players put into getting to this point.
“It’s like the players, you know what they put into,” Campbell paused. “A lot of people don’t know what they go through. You have to get up. Bodies beat to s— and you know, mentally stay locked in and do those things, so long season,” Campbell paused again before saying “It’s my fault. It’s my fault.”
Dan Campbell was visibly emotional during his postgame press conference after the Lions’ loss to the Commanders. pic.twitter.com/NIREn7qgRv
— ESPN (@espn) January 19, 2025
It’s clear Campbell is taking the blame for the Lions’ loss on Sunday based on his emotional ending line in the video. Campbell isn’t expected to be in the hot seat this offseason, but the team may have to consider some other changes moving forward if they finally want to capture the long-awaited Super Bowl title.
