The first clue was the glasses. Seeing Dan Campbell wear reading glasses is a little like seeing Superman wearing support hose. But he had them on for a reason. And when does a head coach have to read during a game?
When he’s calling the plays.
“I just wanted to change it up a little bit,” Campbell told the media, after surprising fans and reporters alike in calling the offensive shots during a mammoth 44-22 Detroit Lionswin over Washington on Sunday, Nov. 9. “Let’s just see if maybe a different play caller can get us a little rhythm, that’s all. It’s honestly nothing more than that.”
Spoken like a humble captain. But if a ship starts rocking, the captain is who you look for. And the Lions were listing last week, heading into the schedule’s toughest stretch and coming off their most disappointing loss of the year, an offensive splat at home against the Vikings in which “play-calling imagination” seemed to equal “bad screen pass.”
So suddenly, there was Campbell on Sunday, with the reading peepers and a huge playboard in front of him, chattering into the headset like a NASA technician.
The result: 44 points, 546 yards of offense, no punts, not a single sack allowed, and a quarterback field day.
Trust your passes to guys who wear glasses.
“I thought he did a great job,” said Jared Goff, who had a stellar afternoon with Campbell calling the shots, hitting 25 of his 33 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns. “It’s knowing when to go and when to pull, and push and pull and push and pull. It’s one of his best strengths as a leader — not to cross leadership and play calling.”
Ah, but that’s exactly what happened Sunday. Dan Campbell the leader became Dan Campbell the play-caller because he had a sense his team needed it. Taking the reins away from offensive coordinator John Morton wasn’t about power. It wasn’t about control.
It was about winning.
As Campbell quipped in a post-game radio interview with 97.1, the Ticket: “I just wanted to … see if we could push a little oxygen into the O.”
The O just floated over a skyscraper.
Campbell picked right opponent
Now, let’s be honest. If you’re going to dive back into play-calling, it helps to do it against one of the worst defensive teams in the league. Washington ranked in the bottom three or four of the most important defensive categories. And they lost players early in Sunday’s game to both injury and temper tantrums.
The results were Lions receivers with huge cushions or with single linebackers trying to cover them, and Jameson Williams racing in a TD pass so unencumbered, he had time to do a forward flip into the end zone and not hit anything but his rump.
The Lions O-line created rushing holes the size of a Buick. David Montgomery piled up 71 yards on the ground and Jahmyr Gibbs doubled that, with 142 yards and two touchdowns, including a 44-yard burst where he was barely touched.
Even Goff admitted the Commanders were ripe: “The way that they play on defense gives you a chance to get the running back in advantageous matchups.”
That’s how Berkeley grads say it.
Others say: “They can’t stop a Hot Wheels car.”
Either way, this win was just what the Lions needed, a reset of their offensive excellence, and another victory after a rare defeat, something they have consistently provided under Campbell. The Lions have now gone more than three years without losing back-to-back games, the longest such streak in NFL history.
That says something about Campbell’s feel for the players. And he wasn’t about to risk that record in a road game against the team that knocked the Lions out of the playoffs last year. He could tell the offense under Morton was getting predictable. And let’s face it, with so many weapons – I mean, consider Goff, Gibbs, Montgomery, Williams, Amon-Ra. St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, it’s almost like an All-Pro team at every key position — you shouldn’t be dull, repetitive, or, in most cases, even beatable. Getting the offensive line to buy in with an inspired performance is a huge part as well.
So, Campbell took over. And note it was done with no fanfare, no big announcement, nothing that might embarrass Morton or make him look like a culprit.
“You gotta give Johnny a ton of credit for handling it the way he handled it,” Goff told the media. “As a veteran coach and a guy who’s shown to have no ego over and over, to have that happen and for him to not miss a beat in game planning, and helping me in the pass game, the whole thing was really cool and impressive by him. It all worked really well.”
What about Philadelphia Eagles?
Of course, success breeds expectations, and it will be tough for Campbell to take off the glasses anytime soon. The Lions play the NFC East-leading Eagles in Philly on Sunday night. You don’t really think they’re going back to Morton calling plays for that one, do you?
“I told (John) I need ya, I need ya,” Campbell said. “And listen, John Morton is all team, man. He’s a grinder. He’s a worker.”
But he’s not the head coach. And I admire Campbell for what he did, because leaders recognize that their job is not the same as everyone else’s. They can’t just react. They have to anticipate. Campbell was looking at his team and seeing what many others were seeing: something less than the sum of their parts.
“When you’re a head coach and you know how you want it to look,” he said, “it’s one thing to say how you want it to look, but … it’s hard to crawl into my head …
“I have a good feel for our players. I know what they’re capable of.”
On Sunday, they showed it. Next Sunday will be tougher against an Eagles team that has already beaten the Rams, the Chiefs and the Buccaneers this year. And there’s still the question of the defense and its secondary injuries.
But one safe bet is that playboard will be in front of Campbell next game, and those reading glasses will be perched on his nose.
“I can’t see anymore,” he grumbled.
Well, in case he missed what took place offensively under his direction, let us sum it the way they say it in the eyewear world:
It was a spectacle.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom on x.com.
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