Thanks to a Jake Bates game-winning field goal as time expired, the Detroit Lions were 34-31 winners over the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night, improving their record to 12-1. It also extends the Lions’ winning streak to a franchise-record 11 consecutive games.
Here are four takeaways from their win.
1. Lions head coach Dan Campbell made his craziest call yet
There is not a more aggressive coach in the NFL than Campbell, and no coach who is more willing to go for it on fourth down.
A lot of times it works out in his favor.
Sometimes it does not, as was the case in last year’s NFC Championship Game.
But for as aggressive as he is, he made what might have been his craziest, most jaw-dropping and most aggressive decision ever late in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s game.
With the Lions facing a 4th-and-inches on the Green Bay 20-yard line in a tied game with only 43 seconds to play, Campbell kept his offense on the field and went for another fourth-down conversion.
This is a situation where 31 other NFL head coaches would have simply kicked the field goal, taken the three-point lead with less than a minute to play and relied on their defense to get a stop.
But not Campbell. He went for it in an effort to ensure that Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love did not touch the football again.
It almost backfired spectacularly.
