Dan Campbell Press Conference — Oct. 26, 2026

[0:00] So, really, you know, start on defense. [0:04] You know, I thought they, you know, really, that was a really good outing, man. [0:09] That's two weeks in a row. [0:10] I feel like our defense is playing pretty good football now, gaining a lot of confidence. [0:16] You know, our coverage units, man, much improved. [0:20] Really, all of those guys really stepped up and, you know, played pretty good for us. [0:28] You know, we were, we looked like we played as one unit. [0:30] We were disruptive up front. [0:32] You know, I thought Hutch's sack early in that game was, you know, that was big, man. [0:36] Just kind of set the tone a little bit. [0:39] And it was good to see. [0:42] Knocked out the run, you know, and really kind of kept that pass game down considerably from what they've been doing all year. [0:51] You know, we were efficient in that regard and really had an opportunity for three other interceptions, you know, [0:58] that we're in position close enough to make that we could have. [1:04] So, that was good. [1:07] We were good in the red zone. [1:09] You know, I was proud of those guys. [1:12] Dorsey, you know, Reed, Chuck Clark, Ty Leak, I thought were really, really good. [1:17] Obviously, Rock and Hutch and Jack and then Bebe coming back was big for us. [1:22] Those guys had a big hand. [1:25] You know, and then them putting out the fires, man. [1:28] That stop we had, you know, we don't convert, you know, backed up. [1:34] And they got the stop there, forced the field goal. [1:38] That's exactly what, you know, what you expect. [1:41] You know, if they're in that position, you just got to hold them to a field goal. [1:44] They did that, you know. [1:45] And really, we were two for three on sudden change. [1:47] So, that was outstanding. [1:49] Offensively, you know, look, we ran the ball. [1:56] We got yards. [1:57] Gibbs ran hard. [2:00] We need to be more efficient, all right, and we need to find some explosive runs. [2:07] You know, we're investing a lot right now in the run, [2:09] and that's where we got to be better. [2:10] But we were able to use it to stay ahead of the sticks in some regards, you know, [2:16] and chew up some of these mid-runs, mid-yardage runs. [2:21] Explosives were big, man. [2:23] Our receivers came up big. [2:24] Golf was big once again for us, [2:25] and the protection was outstanding by the O-line, really was. [2:29] So, the explosives were huge. [2:32] You know, the first drive and the last drive were, in some regards, [2:34] our best drives of the game, which were important. [2:36] Set the tone and then finish it off. [2:38] Use up the rest of the clock and, you know, and not get the ball back. [2:42] Let Bates come out there and kick it. [2:45] So, that was good to see. [2:47] Obviously, the two turnovers were not good. [2:50] That could have cost us, but we were able to overcome, [2:53] and our defense did a good job. [2:56] I thought Sewell played an outstanding game, man. [2:58] His effort was unbelievable. [3:00] I mean, it was just from start to finish, man, the hustle. [3:04] This guy is all over the field. [3:07] You know, we talked about golf, his game. [3:10] He's just playing at such a high level, [3:12] continues to play at such a high level. [3:14] You know, it's like, how do you not put it in his hands? [3:17] More than we are. [3:18] I mean, how do you not? [3:19] So, and then Saint. [3:21] Saint was outstanding. [3:22] We talked about it last night. [3:24] J-Mo was big. [3:25] Tesla. [3:26] I think, well, he only had one catch. [3:27] That guy was all over the field. [3:28] I mean, just blocking his tail off. [3:30] Doing his part. [3:33] It was impressive, man. [3:36] And Laporta and Brock were big. [3:38] That's two weeks in a row our tight ends have really stepped up [3:41] and played complete games for us. [3:44] And on special teams, you know, DJ, that was a big block. [3:46] And really, he was bringing it the whole time on field goal block. [3:49] But he did a hell of a job on defense, too. [3:53] And Eric O'Neal and Rolder really stood out for us in the return game. [3:56] And then we know Carter, man. [3:58] It's good to kind of have this guy. [4:02] You know, he sees it and he can hit it. [4:05] So there's some potential there that I think we all see. [4:09] So it was a good win. [4:12] You know, as fast as we can make the corrections [4:17] and get ready for Minnesota, we have to do that. [4:20] Questions? [4:22] Run game, Dan. [4:23] Obviously, if you can get Jameer 100 yards, good day. [4:26] They had a lot of backfield penetration. [4:27] It just seemed like maybe every second or third snap, [4:29] they had a guy in the backfield. [4:30] Were they attacking something schematically that you need to clean up? [4:34] Or was there just a lot of one-on-one losses that you'd like to see fixed? [4:38] There was a couple of one-on-one losses just from technique, you know. [4:42] Just bad footwork and whiff, you know. [4:46] There was a couple of those. [4:47] And then the other ones were missed targets. [4:51] You know, either we're not all on the same page or we are. [4:57] This side of it is and this side isn't. [4:59] So those are MEs. [5:01] We're not on the same page, and that's what happens. [5:03] You know, we can't have that happen. [5:05] You know, we can't have a free runner there for Gibbs, [5:08] and we're, you know, three yards in the backfield there. [5:11] It's not, you know. [5:12] So that's our own doing. [5:14] You know, we've got to get that cleaned up. [5:17] We've got to get that cleaned up. [5:19] Well, the outstanding game overall, what did you think of him? [5:23] Who's that? [5:23] Say it again. [5:23] Panay. [5:24] Yep. [5:25] Just as a route runner, drawing the double there. [5:27] Obviously, we've seen some of that from him before. [5:29] But just, you know, maybe explain that play a little bit [5:32] and kind of his role there and, you know, how he handled it. [5:36] Yeah, I mean, really, he's just, you know, as far as between he and J-Mo, [5:41] he's the high shallow. [5:42] J-Mo's the low. [5:44] You're just, your body alone creates interference if somebody, you know, [5:48] they either got to go over you or under you. [5:50] You can't hit anybody. [5:52] He's not trying to do that, but that's it. [5:53] And then he's really becomes somewhat, you know, [5:58] I don't want to say lasting progression, [5:59] but it could go that way depending on what the backer does. [6:02] So, he went over there. [6:03] It was zone. [6:03] He sat. [6:04] And then it's like, hey, I'm available. [6:05] They stuck to him. [6:06] And then J-Mo was open, so it worked out. [6:09] But, I mean, we, you know, that's soul. [6:11] I mean, he, all the little things mean something to him. [6:14] I mean, you know, you put him in there tight end, let him run routes. [6:17] I mean, he's, all right, so you got this? [6:19] Oh, you owe me a five? [6:20] All right, yeah, I built this. [6:21] Okay, good. [6:21] Zone, I get up there and sit. [6:22] Do you want me to move back if he sees with the eye? [6:24] You know, he's just, he's a football player. [6:27] So, it was awesome, man. [6:30] I mean, we trust him. [6:31] You know, I'd said this before, he's a weapon for us. [6:33] The guy can do any and everything. [6:35] He really can. [6:37] And it's, you know, how do you use him as many ways as you can use him [6:40] just to showcase his ability because it helps us. [6:45] Just to go back to the run game real quick, inconsistencies feel like maybe [6:49] kind of a season-long issue. [6:51] You look at some of the stats, you're top ten in explosive run rate, [6:54] but you're also top ten in negative runs. [6:56] So, I mean, I guess how do you view that as possible and how do you fix it? [7:02] Yeah, that's a good question. [7:04] You can see you're baffled by it. [7:06] It baffles me, too, sometimes. [7:09] You know, I think, let me start here. [7:13] I think, and because you're not wrong. [7:16] You're not wrong. [7:17] I do think, man, getting Cade back now, you know, [7:21] that was a good game for Cade to get in there, man, and get his feet wet again. [7:26] He's only going to get better and better, man. [7:27] You know, I mean, he played a full game, you know. [7:30] I mean, it was 68 reps or whatever that was after, you know, [7:34] and he's practiced a little bit, but that's a lot. [7:36] And so physically and mentally. [7:39] So he's going to continue to get better. [7:42] And the more he and the rest of those guys now can play together, [7:46] I think is going to go a long way. [7:47] Because I've got to mention this. [7:49] Some of it is target. [7:50] We will get that cleaned up. [7:52] We can get that cleaned up. [7:53] But some of it, too, though, is the, man, we went way too far on this combination block. [7:58] Like, everything is back inside. [8:00] And some of it is the youth, if I'm being honest with you. [8:04] Some of it is the youth or the rust on some things. [8:07] They're going to get better. [8:08] I believe that. [8:09] And we're going to harp on it. [8:10] I'm going to harp on it, man. [8:11] Because we have to. [8:14] We can be so much better. [8:15] We will be so much better. [8:17] The guys are working at it. [8:19] But now we've got to, yeah, we've got to eliminate these TFLs, [8:25] some of these things that we're creating anyway. [8:28] And, man, just give Gibbs a little bit of a sliver because he'll do the rest. [8:34] Analytics models supported your decision to go for it on that fourth down late in the game. [8:40] I'm shocked. [8:41] How much of that was data, though? [8:43] Was that a data decision or a bad feel? [8:46] No, literally it was what I said. [8:48] I just, with where that was, where the clock was at, is, look, I know what I'm conceding. [8:56] If you don't get that, I believed we were going to get that. [8:59] I know what you're conceding. [9:00] But I also know, without any doubt, any question, we are getting the ball back with plenty of time [9:05] to answer and rebuttal whatever they've done. [9:09] It was really that simple. [9:12] When you watch six weeks of Jordan Love launching these balls and first downs and first downs [9:17] and flags and, you know, what, you know, I wanted to leave it in our hands [9:24] and take it away from anybody else. [9:28] Fourth and late. [9:30] Yeah, just didn't work out. [9:31] You know, we, that was another, we're not on the same page. [9:35] You know, that's, that's our own doing. [9:37] And, you know, we certainly helped on that in a bad way. [9:42] You know, we, as long as we're all on the same page, we got a chance there. [9:45] An update on Ennis, what's his outlook? [9:51] Yeah, it's not major. [9:53] He's got a little ankle here. [9:55] We feel like, as of right now, that he'll be at practice Thursday. [10:00] That's kind of what we're looking at. [10:02] So, but we don't feel like it's major as of today. [10:07] DJ Reed, it feels like the run defense and tackling's been pretty stout all year, [10:13] and now the coverage is beginning to catch up. [10:14] Are you starting to see more of the player that we saw pre-injury last year, [10:19] like meets two, three, four, especially? [10:21] Well, he, look, he's always been aggressive now. [10:23] I mean, he, he's never, he's never had any fear about fitting the run. [10:28] I mean, he's one of our best tacklers off the perimeter. [10:31] And so, you know, that, that was, you know, I thought he played his best game yesterday. [10:38] But I think there is also merit for a number of those guys playing, you know, [10:42] letting them all kind of play, getting some reps and, and using them in, [10:46] in different situations, different packages. [10:49] But, but that was good to see out of Reed, man. [10:51] I thought, I thought he, he did some really, really good things for us. [10:55] A couple of plays before that fourth down, Dan, [11:01] it looked like Gibbs maybe had picked up the first down and second down. [11:04] Imagine the clock and the timeouts and all that factored in. [11:07] How much did you consider challenging? [11:09] Yeah, I mean, I was, but it wasn't, there was nothing that, that was clear. [11:14] Didn't feel like it was clear for line to gain. [11:16] So, you know, so I, I just didn't feel like it was, [11:23] it was worth it using, losing the timeout if it wasn't going to be clear enough. [11:27] The, the vantage point wasn't clear enough, you know. [11:30] Yeah, St. Brown also had an ankle last night that he got checked out. [11:35] Was that also looking promising? [11:36] Yeah, I think, you know, like he and, uh, and Ennis, um, you know, [11:42] I think those guys will probably, you know, sit Wednesday, [11:45] but the plan is to get them going Thursday. [11:48] And I think they'll be fine. [11:49] They should be good, you know, now we'll see when we get there, but, um, yep. [11:55] Cut up the film. [11:58] Does Green Bay jumped ultimately on that last sequence? [12:03] The, after the whistle celebration of each one of your guys do it. [12:06] Does that make it onto the film, like for a light moment in film at all? [12:10] Or do you guys cut through that? [12:11] And have you been able to enjoy that? [12:12] No, I, no, I mean, I'm, I'm onto the next thing, you know, I, um, [12:17] I'm onto the next thing. [12:19] That was, it was, that was, it's a good job of our guys, man, [12:22] being disciplined and picking that thing up. [12:24] You know, that was, that was a huge play. [12:28] It's been 17 games since you guys had won two in a row. [12:31] What does it mean to kind of stack a couple and, [12:33] and have a chance to kind of just take off from here? [12:35] Well, it, you know, it means a lot. [12:37] It's, you know, I mentioned this all the time. [12:39] Good teams win multiple games at multiple points in a season. [12:42] And so that, this is a step in the right direction. [12:45] We got back to back wins. [12:46] We, you know, we need to try to put stacks more here together. [12:50] So this was, this was big. [12:52] That was against a good opponent that was hot in our division. [12:56] Um, so those are, uh, those are good things, man. [13:00] And so we've got to build off of it. [13:02] And, uh, obviously we got another hot team coming in right now, Minnesota, [13:07] that, that we're going to have to be on top of our game. [13:09] We, you know, we got to play a lot cleaner than we did against Green Bay. [13:13] But man, there, there's some things we are definitely getting better at. [13:16] You know, I'm excited about this whole line plan together. [13:19] You know, I mentioned this before, but now that we've kind of got those guys going here, [13:23] we can, we can get this five settled in and let them just, just soak them with reps together [13:29] in real games and let them grow. [13:31] And then I'm excited for the defense where it's going, man. [13:34] We are improving right now. [13:35] And this has been a big task. [13:37] This is a tall task against a really good opponent with, with some weapons. [13:40] But, uh, but it's another man. [13:43] We're excited about this, man. [13:44] Second division game at home. [13:46] So, um, it's good, man. [13:49] It's good to get a win. [13:50] All right.