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Dan Campbell: Detroit Lions time management mistake in playoff win over Bucs 'on me'

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles hug at midfield at the end of the NFC divisional playoff game at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles hug at midfield at the end of the NFC divisional playoff game at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.

The Detroit Lions averted a potential time management blunder Sunday at the end of their divisional playoff win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field, a mistake head coach Dan Campbell said falls squarely on his shoulders.

"We didn’t handle that whole thing well on our end," Campbell said Monday. "We should have bled (the clock) more than we did. Look, I’ll be the first to admit that. That’s on me. But yeah, we knew they had a timeout left and I could tell he wasn’t going to call it. And, so, that’s how it ended."

Derrick Barnes intercepted a Baker Mayfield pass at the Tampa 28-yard line with 1:33 to play and the Lions leading, 31-23.

Dan Campbell watches warmups before the NFC divisional playoff game between the Lions and Buccaneers at Ford Field on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.
Dan Campbell watches warmups before the NFC divisional playoff game between the Lions and Buccaneers at Ford Field on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.

The Bucs had one timeout left, but choose not to use it after Lions quarterback Jared Goff took a knee on the first snap of the series.

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Goff took his second kneel-down snap with 1:06 on the clock, with about 16 seconds still on the play clock. And the Lions snapped the ball the final time, on third-and-12 from the Tampa 30, with 37 seconds to play.

Had the Bucs used their final timeout after Goff's last kneel down, the Lions would have been forced to try a 47-yard field goal to ice the game or punt and pin the Bucs deep in their own territory.

Kicker Michael Badgley made his only field goal attempt Sunday from 23 yards, and hit a 54-yarder last week vs. the Rams, but did not attempt a kick longer than 41 yards in the regular season.

Had he missed the long kick, the Bucs would have taken possession at their own 37-yard line with about 30 seconds left, in need of a touchdown and 2-point conversion to tie.

Bowles, a coach with the Dallas Cowboys when Campbell played for the team in 2005, explained his decision not to take a timeout.

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"They already had a field goal and lined up and it would have been about 12 seconds left on the clock in the ball game," he said postgame Sunday. "We weren’t going to come back from that. No sense in prolonging the obvious." He doubled down on the comments Monday.

The Lions would have attempted a field goal with about 12 seconds left had Tampa used its final timeout after the Lions' first kneel-down snap.

Badgley is a 38.4% kicker on field goal tries of 50-plus yards in his career.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Campbell: Lions time management gaffe in win over Bucs 'on me'