Lions left tackle Taylor Decker is among the many who expected that Detroit head coach Dan Campbell would elect to go for it on 4th-and-4 late in the team’s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. It’s easy to see why Decker would think that after Campbell had gone for it five previous times on fourth down in the game, successfully converting four.
“I thought we were going to go for it, I did,” Decker admitted in the locker room after the game.
Campbell chose to try a 53-yard field goal instead. Kicker Austin Seibert badly missed, his second botched field goal of the game. Minnesota capitalized on the good field position and quickly turned Detroit’s 24-21 lead into a 28-24 Vikings victory.
Decker shed a little more light on his thoughts,
“I know there are some analytics to football but I also know Dan (Campbell) is very apt to just be like, ‘I believe in our guys’, so let us go make a play. You know, what if we kick the field goal and it works — great. It just didn’t work out in our favor.”
The veteran left tackle continued,
“We do know coach believes in us. We know our coaches believe in us to be able to get the job done. We just didn’t make enough plays to get the job done … we get one first down and the game is over.”
Decker also added that he had faith in the defense to make a stop. Unfortunately, the Detroit defense gave up the game-winning touchdown in less than a minute.
