SAN FRANCISCO – There is someone to blame for the Detroit Lions’ devastating loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, but that someone is not head coach Dan Campbell.
Social media was flooded with angry Lions fans after a 24-7 halftime lead turned into a 34-31 loss in San Francisco. Many of those fans pointed the finger at Campbell for passing up a pair of long field goal attempts on fourth down.
But frankly, that’s not at all fair.
The field goal attempts in question would have been from about 46 and 48 yards, respectively. On the 46-yard try, Campbell elected to instead try a 4th and 2, and on the 48-yarder, he went for a 4th and 3.
I know this was an incredibly emotional game, but seriously, let’s be a little reasonable. Campbell chose high-probability conversions over low-probability kicks. Both of those decisions were the right calls.
The Lions’ kicker, Michael Badgley, was cut by the team in the summer in favor of Riley Patterson. Only when Patterson began to struggle did they sign Badgley back to the practice squad and then elevate him to the active roster.
There’s a reason Badgley was available to be signed in mid-December: He’s not overly reliable.
Yes, he made an important kick in the win over the Rams, but that was in a dome in front of his home crowd. Badgley had more missed extra points during the regular season than field goal attempts longer than 40 yards.
You wanted that guy to decide the fate of this season?
There’s no way Lions fans who have praised Campbell for his aggressiveness all year suddenly expected him to abandon his mentality in the biggest game of the season... right?
RIGHT???
It’s so easy to blame the coach after a game like this, but that frustration is misplaced. Campbell was never going to take everything the Lions had worked for and risk it on the leg of a kicker who wasn’t even on the roster six weeks ago.
Campbell’s willingness to go for a touchdown on fourth down is the reason the Lions beat the Rams. His fake punt is the reason they beat Kansas City in the opener. If you’re angry that he didn’t kick some low-percentage field goals in the biggest game of the season, then I hope you were equally outraged when his gambles paid off earlier in the season.
The worst part about blaming Campbell for this loss is that the first of those two fourth-down plays worked like a charm -- except the player who should have caught the ball dropped it.
Which brings me to where the blame actually belongs.
Football is the ultimate team game. More often than not, if 10 players do their job but the 11th doesn’t, that particular play isn’t going to work.
Unfortunately, on Sunday, Josh Reynolds was that 11th player in two of the biggest moments.
When the Lions were up by 14 points and Campbell decided to go for a 4th and 2 from the 28-yard line, Jared Goff hit Reynolds right in the hands for what should have been a conversion inside the red zone.
The Lions would have been safely in field goal range at that point and gone up either 17 or 21 points. They probably would have won the game.
Instead, the 49ers got the ball back and marched 72 yards on five plays to pull within a score.
Then, with the game tied at the end of the third quarter and the Lions desperate to stop the bleeding, Goff hit a wide-open Reynolds on 3rd and 9 for what would have been a huge gain, but he dropped the ball once again.
The Lions were forced to punt, and the 49ers went on to kick a go-ahead field goal.
Reynolds has been an incredibly reliable player for the Lions all season. He’s one of Goff’s favorite go-to guys on third down and in the red zone. Detroit wouldn’t have been in the NFC Championship Game without him.
But on this particular night, he made a couple of untimely errors that turned a rocky stretch into a freefall the Lions simply couldn’t survive.
Reynolds isn’t the only player who cost the Lions on Sunday. Jahmyr Gibbs lost a fumble. C.J. Gardner-Johnson missed a key tackle. Kindle Vildor let an interception bounce off his face and into the arms of a 49ers receiver for a 51-yard gain.
But if Lions fans are so keen assign blame, then Reynolds deserves the biggest slice of the pie.
Hindsight is 20/20, but Lions fans should know better than to expect their head coach to change his stripes.
Campbell did what he’s done all season. Reynolds did not.
