Dan Campbell postgame media availability | 2024 Week 1: Lions vs. Rams

all right um start here um man I give that team a ton of credit you know what Sean did uh with that team getting them in here and and uh man I thought they had a heck of a plan they adjusted um to some things that we threw at them well and they just kept coming man they fought and they fought um and it was um you know man it was you know there's a lot of I respect it I do I respect it and that quarterback man Stafford I thought played lights out man and and played tough and hit after hit get just kept getting up and making unbelievable throws so um I just give them a lot of credit they did they fought now um but but we're hard to break so we did what we had to do and uh you know our defense held there uh before that fox makes a heck of a punt and uh defense holds offense we get it back and uh you know get it in overtime we win the toss and and we don't look back so we eventually found our Rhythm we did what we had to do and I said it earlier in the week the team that makes the most mistakes is the one who usually loses these early games and uh we made one less mistake and and uh so now we just got to improve from there yeah sure I mean look there's always going to be that and and uh there's always going to be I'm telling you uh you know I just pulled up the first two games uh you know the Thursday game Baltimore Casey and then Green Bay Philly and you just go through and you just you just try to go you know fly through it and look at you know things that man are what kind of games are these are they what you think they are and and it's you know some of these mistakes show up and does it cost the other team how many and man it's inevitable it's every year and it it really is it's you know first game and the ones that that that can just play basic football the best man the you know the blocking the tackling targeting communication taking care of the football being smart with it the check down it it it's they win and um so yeah there's things that man they're going to come along with it and it's the first time a lot of these guys in a while have have played that many plays with that much intensity um you know and so this is our first taste we'll get better we'll get in a better flow um on both sides of the ball we will but the end of the day our defense uh held these guys to less points than our offense and our offense scored more points than their offense did and so uh we found a way to win you talked about just the expectations of of Jameson Williams and how impressed you guys have been all Camp just to come in here have a couple big plays 121 yards and touchdown just how happy are you for him to get off to that kind of stuff yeah listen I you know uh expected him to to play pretty good you know to play better um and uh and he showed up I mean that was a that was a big game you know to be able to catch some of these and go through it and the best part of it was he didn't even play his best ball there's still so much to clean up um but it also shows the work that he's put in and he he is improving and he's an improved player and he wants it man and he keeps working on it and he just he keeps taking these steps so as long as he keeps doing it um and keeps making plays he's just going to continue to get better so yeah I'm proud of him I'm proud of where he's at but he's got so much room to continue to growel like an appropriate performance for David Montgomery given the conversation we had last week the way he finished that game how much of that is is him his style running get stronger as the game goes on how much is it that you can maybe manage or balance his work guy like Gib also yeah I mean look that's going to help you know and I do believe in that having that onew punch of of two different backs you know but but I just look I said it uh after we ran the in test uh in whatever that was July 26th I guess um you know the day before we started our first practice and he was he just man you talk about a guy who was in outstanding shape look up all of our guys were but this guy just looked I mean he looked like he didn't break a sweat for this thing and and then the first few days of practice he doesn't look fatigued he he just and so he's in unbelievable shape he's working worked uh worked extremely hard and uh and he's just man he's reliable he's reliable he he runs heavy he's tough he's physical he gets in a rhythm and I think he's a catalyst for us you know he starts carrying it and he gets better and better and I think the line feeds off of him and he feeds off of them and um and we get what we get so that guy's a stud just stud was playing without a couple of his tackles in there he seemed to there something there that he knows the lines he see the quick releases getting into the outside did did he for a lot of the game kind of have the right game against guys what he was working with yeah I thought uh look I thought Sean Sean had a heck of a plan last week and he had another one this week now we we threw some wrinkles at him you know um I think we we threw a couple of things at him that it was going to take them a minute to adjust to and they did but to that point they adjusted quickly and and Stafford knew exactly you know what what he needed to do he knew where his Outlets were and yeah he was going to get rid of that ball they were going to go a little Tempo on us and some things and uh you know try to apply a little pressure on us um but I I thought he played outstanding I really did man and uh you know and they were they got banged up over there and and they uh they just kept they just kept coming you know look the first time we really defensive ends together what you think you in those two as a and huge play huge play and uh yeah the ends I mean it's it's really what we uh this is this was the vision the whole time this is what we we knew we were going to get when we got Davenport and uh we felt really good about uh the production Hutch is bringing and brought last year and what he was going to be able to bring this year and then just the thought of somebody who can crunch the can over there man crush the can and and send him his way a little bit uh or vice versa and that's what Davenport can do he's long he's physical he's strong he's a big man um and so that showed up today you know it showed up we were able to hem him up a few times in there and um and so those it it's it's good for him it's going to be good for Hutch and it's going to be good for Davenport the game looked a lot like the last time you guys met this team last year same quarterback duel back and forth same same T tension did you think it would pick up the same way like this that you that you would hit the field basically running the same way you were last year um yeah I mean you you don't entirely know what it's going to be like I just knew this I knew it was going to be a hard fought game I did know that uh because I I I think this coach does a hell of a job you know I do I think Sean always puts together a good game plan uh and then and Stafford man you know he um it's almost like you don't want to hit him cuz I think when you hit him he plays better and uh you know he just he just continued to make plays so so I think those two guys are always going to give you a damn good chance to to uh hang in there and have success and so no I I guess if there's any frustration with me it's just look you don't um you know it's not going to be perfect you just want it to be cleaner you just want it to be cleaner than it was that's all uh even for the first game but ultimately it's always going to be about we got to get better and whether we won or lost today we got to get better and we we won we still have to get better and uh we'll clean all this up and then and we got to play better against Tampa next week you second no I you know we'll see them tomorrow I you know when I saw uh just the replay of both of them I I I wasn't too concerned I know why they threw them especially the second one like okay I got it you know I understand um it's ticky tacky but that's that's what they do you know and they're going to throw it because they believe it they see it and all good we overcome it um so um but no I I didn't feel like it was some blatant like oh he's out of bad position or I need to talk to him about it I don't want to take away his Stinger Man I want him to play aggressive and look I thought he did some really good things today certainly was not too big for him uh he stepped up I thought Carlton did some good things too really the back game played pretty good overall you know we just there's a couple of things communication wise we got to clean up and and we will we will okay