The legend of 'Dan Gamble': How fourth-down aggression became 'tradition' in Detroit
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Eric Woodyard, ESPN
DETROIT — Lions coach Dan Campbell didn’t flinch.
A thrilling Week 14 game against the Green Bay Packers had come down to the final moments. Facing a fourth-and-1 with 43 seconds remaining and the score tied at 31, Campbell’s Lions held the ball on the Green Bay 21-yard line. The Packers, who had exhausted their final timeout two plays before, were holding out hope that quarterback Jordan Love would have enough time to get the offense in field goal range — or better — after a likely chip-shot field goal attempt by Campbell’s Lions on the next play.
Conventional wisdom said the Lions, who wound down the clock before calling a timeout, should kick a field goal. Campbell had other plans. What came next seemed to unfold in slow motion. Quarterback Jared Goff took the snap, tripped on one of his offensive linemen, and, while falling to the ground, barely reached the ball to running back David Montgomery, whose 7-yard gain set up Jake Bates’ winning 35-yard field goal as time expired. It was Detroit’s fifth fourth-down attempt of the game — and its fourth conversion.
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For most teams, this level of risk would be extraordinary. For Campbell’s Lions, it’s business as usual. Since his arrival in 2021, the Lions have gone for it on fourth down at the highest rate in the NFL (31.3%).
That aggressiveness hasn’t wavered, even after criticism for two failed fourth-down calls in last season’s NFC Championship Game loss to the San Francisco 49ers, whom they visit for a rematch Monday night (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC, ESPN, ESPN+). Campbell’s bold philosophy remains the backbone of Detroit’s identity, a mindset forged through preparation and unwavering trust in his coaches and players.
“When you’re in it with these guys, and you’ve been around them long enough …,” Campbell said as he named coaches and players after the win against the Packers. “There’s been enough time on task with those guys … that I felt good, and I felt like we’d find a way.
“You’d love to say that if you’re going to do that, you’re going to convert every one of them, but that’s not the reality. … There is risk with it, but I felt like with our guys, it wouldn’t be as big of a risk as it may appear to be.”
The Lions say successful conversions exact a toll on the opposing defense, physically and psychologically. Fourth-down plays have also been nerve-wracking moments for Detroit’s players, especially those new to the team. But over time, they’ve learned to adapt and relish the opportunity.
“It’s cool with me as long as it gives us another chance to keep scoring and get the ball, I’m with it,” Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs told ESPN. “Pretty much I think if it’s like fourth-and-5 and under, I think we’re pretty much going to go for it. I do that on the [Madden] game so I ain’t got no problem with it.”
CAMPBELL HAS EARNED the nickname “Dan Gamble” in Detroit for his trademark aggressiveness.
Heading into Week 17, the Lions have the most fourth-down attempts (144) in the NFL since Campbell took over in 2021. They have converted 55.6% of them (80-for-144), which is 10th best in the league over that span.
His penchant for rolling the dice showed early. Four games into his tenure, his winless Lions controversially passed up two field goal attempts — on a fourth-and-5 from the 5-yard line with the team trailing 14-0 on their second possession, then again on a fourth-and-1 late in the fourth quarter — in a 24-14 Week 4 loss at the Chicago Bears.
Campbell, whose team finished 3-13-1 that season, was unapologetic.
“I don’t regret any of them,” Campbell said during the postgame news conference.
Campbell hasn’t changed as the Lions’ record improved. Tied at 38 with 1:47 remaining in a Week 10 game against the Los Angeles Chargers last season, instead of kicking a field goal, Campbell kept his offense on the field on a fourth-and-2 from the Los Angeles 26-yard line. Goff then found tight end Sam LaPorta for 6 yards and kneeled three times before Riley Patterson kicked a game-winning 41-yard field goal as time expired.
“For us, it’s traditional now. It’s what we do,” Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said. “But, being on this team for so long, you’re used to it. It’s the way we play football. … You already know before the game what the mindset’s going to be. So it’s never a surprise going into any game. It’s fun.”
The approach can take some getting used to, however. Veteran guard Graham Glasgow wasn’t in Detroit for Campbell’s first two seasons. The Lions’ third-round pick in 2016 rejoined the team as a free agent in 2023, after three seasons in Denver. He said the fourth-down decisions caught him by surprise at first, but now his heart pounds a little less in those moments.
“We had one versus the Jaguars earlier this year where I was like, ‘All right, we’re going to just take the points’ and we went for it, we got it and scored the touchdown and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh,'” Glasgow told ESPN. “It really kind of demoralizes the defense. They think they’re going to get you off the field and then they don’t and then it’s a whole ‘nother set of downs so that’s tough on them.”
The @Lions go for it… and get it!#GBvsDET on Prime Video
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CAMPBELL’S APPROACH ON fourth downs presents unique problems for Lions opponents. It makes the defense play extra snaps, which takes a physical and mental toll. But, perhaps more unseen, it also affects the way the opposition must prepare.
On film, seeing the Lions go for it is no surprise at this point. But San Francisco linebacker Fred Warner said Campbell’s approach forces defensive players to retrain their brains from the traditional patterns of a defensive series. Instead, they must view each Lions possession as having an extra down.
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“You do have to prepare your mind for that and just make sure you’re aware of that,” Warner, who said Campbell “lives and dies” by fourth downs, told ESPN last week. “Because if you went out there thinking that it’s just going to be three plays and you’re out on the fourth-and-1, fourth-and-2, and you get surprised with it, then obviously you’re going to be in for a heck of a game.”
The mental trick is not just a way for individual defenders to stay focused during each series. The Lions’ aggressiveness on fourth downs makes their play calls more difficult to predict on third downs. Heading into the weekend’s games, Campbell’s team has run the ball on third-and-medium — defined as between 4 and 6 yards — at the league’s third-highest rate, which, opponents say, makes their potent offense even trickier for defenses to decipher, knowing the run is still in play in situations in which teams tend to pass.
“It does change up what the thought process would be on third down,” Warner said, “because are they going to try to get the first down on third down? Are they trying to just get it to a fourth-and-manageable? Which is a little bit of a different way to go about it.”
“It’s similar to when you go against Philly and how good they are at the tush push,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Just understand that when it’s third-and-4, it’s almost like it’s second-and-4 because they’re going to go for it on fourth and anything less than that.”
Ultimately, Shanahan added, the result of Campbell’s gambles is an opposing defense kept thoroughly on its toes whenever Detroit has the football.
“Dan, with how aggressive he’s been, you’ve got to understand that anywhere on the field, whether it’s trick plays, whether it’s going for it, whether it’s special teams plays, everything is up. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it hurts and same thing for the opposing team.”
CAMPBELL STOOD BY his two failed fourth-down attempts in the Lions’ 34-31 NFC title game loss to San Francisco last January.
The first came on a fourth-and-2 from the San Francisco 28-yard line as Detroit led 24-10 with 7:03 left in the third quarter. The attempt resulted in an incomplete pass from Goff to wide receiver Josh Reynolds, Detroit’s fourth-leading pass catcher throughout the regular season.
On the second, Goff threw another incomplete pass, this time to St. Brown on fourth-and-3 at the San Francisco 30-yard line with 7:32 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Lions trailing 27-24.
They were two highly scrutinized plays in a game that Detroit ultimately surrendered a 17-point halftime lead, but Campbell afterward expressed no remorse about opting not to kick field goals.
“I don’t regret those decisions,” he said.
Though the results of the plays — and the loss — haven’t altered Campbell’s aggressive approach, the experience has changed the way he has prepared the Lions for similar situations this season.
Since the beginning of training camp, Campbell has heightened the team’s focus on its attention to detail and executing while under pressure, particularly on fourth downs.
“This whole year, he’s been preparing this club for these types of moments … like fourth-and-1 where we were all excited when it happened and when it went down because we understand what we’ve been prepared to do,” Lions running backs coach Scottie Montgomery said. “Coaches, players, administration, everybody, we’re on the same page so we understand what’s going on.”
Campbell says by consistently putting players in pressure situations during practice, they become mentally ready to perform when it matters most in games.
“You put them in it, and we’ve been doing that now going on four years, really. And it’s like anything else, it’s baby steps,” Campbell said. “You’ve got to work your way to it and you’ve got to gain a confidence, and the only way you gain confidence in those situations is by being under fire and doing it in real time, so you start it in practice, you begin to figure out who you can depend on, who’s going to show up for you in crunch time, and then you get in the games and you — those guys start making plays.”
As a result, for the team, fourth down has become the next down, it’s not, as Campbell says, “Oh crap, this is fourth down.”
“In those situations, it’s ‘gotta have it’ and a lot of guys are locked in. I feel like everybody has really good attention to detail about,” Glasgow said. “And, while also at the same time, in some regards, it’s kind of just another play. We prepare a lot for those situations and it’s really cool to know that that’s been working so far for us this season.”
Whenever Campbell takes his next gamble — whether it’s this week or in the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance — his fearless style has earned buy-in from everyone in the organization.
“When you look at Dan Campbell, you see a guy who’s very comfortable in his own skin. He’s not afraid to go away from the norm and deal with the consequences, good or bad, from it,” offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said. “And I know everyone in this league, they always say, ‘Be yourself, be you.’ Especially when you get a head job, and I think he’s embodied that to a tee.”
ESPN 49ers reporter Nick Wagoner contributed to this story.
