Lions' Campbell: Costly clock management, loss to Bucs 'on me' - ESPN

DETROIT — An emotional Dan Campbell briefly held back tears when addressing the Lions' 20-16 upset loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Detroit's head coach made no excuses, instead blaming himself for the team's 1-1 start despite entering the Week 2 matchup at Ford Field as a 7.5-point favorite, per ESPN BET.

«I asked for improvement from last week was the story and we did improve. And their coach cost them — their head coach cost them this one,» Campbell said. «So, critical error to end the half and 100 percent on me. We improved. There's areas we've got to continue to improve on, but it's not OK.»

In a rematch of the NFC divisional round playoff matchup, Detroit's offense scored just one touchdown on seven red zone trips against the Buccaneers.

Their six red zone drives without a touchdown were the most by a Lions team in a game since 1981, per ESPN Research. However, Campbell pinpointed the drive that ended the first half where they were flagged for having too many offensive men on the field as a major blunder.

The Lions trailed 13-6 at that point and could have scored on third and 2 at the Buccaneers' 9-yard line, but the clock expired due to a 10-second runoff because of the penalty.

Quarterback Jared Goff and the offense spiked the ball to stop the clock, but the field goal unit started running onto the field with a few seconds remaining as the time was mismanaged.

«Look, it was nothing that's going to make any sense to anybody. There's no way to justify this. It's a massive error on my part, no one else's,» Campbell said. «It was just between hurry-up field goal and clocking and it was 100 percent my fault. 100 percent.

»That's why we have guys on the field who try and clock it and it's just one of those