Football is officially back, and while it wasn’t the most spectacular of displays, the Detroit Lions have their first preseason contest in the books and are now looking ahead to their second.
The Lions were bested by a 16-13 final score against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday evening at Paycor Stadium. The Lions mostly utilized backup players, while the host Bengals used their starters early. Lions defensive end Ahmed Hassanein stood out and boosted his stock with two sacks and a forced fumble, while kicker Jake Bates connected on two field goals.
Rookie quarterback Luke Altmyer, who is hoping to earn the backup spot behind Jared Goff despite the signing of Josh Dobbs, sparked a late rally with an 80-yard touchdown drive, but Detroit’s comeback attempt ended when Cincinnati recovered the ensuing onside kick.
Afterward, Lions head coach Dan Campbell offered a recap from his vantage point.
Detroit Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell Pointed To Positives And Negatives
Afterward, Campbell said that he liked the way his players competed and pointed to several standout plays on both sides of the ball.
“I thought the guys competed,” Campbell said. “I love those guys, they took the coaching to the field. It was something we really wanted to see. Overall, there were some guys who really showed up. Just off the top of my head, I was watching Skyler (Gill-Howard) get to the quarterback there, it was a critical fourth down to get the offense the ball. That takes a tremendous amount of effort, but that’s what is expected, that was awesome. That was such a bang bang play. That was close, it could’ve gone either way. (Tarik) Black’s catch on the sidelines, I thought that was outstanding. I thought it was hell of a throw by (Luke) Altmyer. I know they threw the flag, but eight out of 10 times they’ll take that. And then obviously scoring at the end.”
“Ahmed (Hassanein) was disruptive. Roger (McCreary) did some things at corner. It was a ton of guys. That was good.”
However, what Campbell wasn’t happy with was the multiple sloppy penalties that were committed, along with the dropped passes as well as the struggles on third down.
“What wasn’t good was the penalties,” he said. “We played really sloppy. We shot ourselves in the foot. We were not good on third down and that was primarily due to drops and penalties. It was the first one, we’ll learn from this.”
Dan Campbell Also Commented On The Offensive Line
When asked about the performance of the club’s offensive line, Campbell said that he would need to go through the video before making a full assessment, though he offered an optimistic initial first take.
“I can’t make a true judgment until I’ve seen the tape,” Campbell said. “I felt like my eyes were never on them and that’s a positive. That’s a pretty good sign and they’re handling their business. We didn’t have any issues on the perimeter.”
Campbell and the Lions will now begin preparations for their second preseason game on Saturday against the visiting Washington Commanders.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Dan Campbell Calls Out Lions With Blunt Message Following Preseason Loss appeared first on HEAVY.