With the Detroit Lions facing the Chicago Bears and head coach Ben Johnson, it will be a reunion of sorts for Dan Campbell, leading his team into somewhat familiar territory. While fans lock in their predictions for the Lions and Bears matchup, Campbell speaks on facing the NFC North rival and the tricks that could be thrown their way.
The reason for a reunion is that Johnson served as offensive coordinator for Detroit from 2022 to 2024, building up his name as a top mind on that side of the ball. Tasked now with ushering in a new era to Chicago, Johnson had been known for using trick plays, as Campbell would be asked about the potential use.
Let's just say that Campbell does not “really care about trick plays” and is more focused on the “meat and potatoes” of the game, according to NBC Sports.
“You’ll practice one or two things — you do for every opponent — but I don’t really care about trick plays,” Campbell said. “Let’s just handle the meat and potatoes of an offense, a defense, what we think they’re gonna hang their hat on, let’s stop that first, let’s worry about that, let’s make sure we’re all on point, and we’ll handle the other stuff.”
“They may hit us on one. That’s alright, that happens. Get back to the huddle and let’s go on to the next play,” Campbell continued.
Lions' Dan Campbell on being prepared for Bears' Ben Johnson
With the Lions looking to bounce back after a sloppy outing in the first week of the regular season in the loss to the Green Bay Packers, one aspect will be to not let the Bears catch them off guard. There's no denying that trick plays could be Chicago's catalyst in winning the game, but Campbell has the mindset of not letting those types of scenarios impact them greatly.
“We’ve got a menu, a very large menu of things,” Campbell said. “There can be anything. We’ll be good. You can’t sit there and paralyze yourself with what if, what if, what if. The most important thing is, you get in trouble if you can’t handle the nuts and bolts of an offense. If you can’t stop the run, we bleed out explosives, then that’s where you can get in trouble. I’m not worried about the other stuff.”
It will no doubt be an intense game that was already so because of the divisional rivalry, but it has added an extra wrinkle with the Detroit connection of Johnson being the Bears' new head coach. Campbell would express how Johnson will “always” be his friend, but the goal remains to win the contest.
“Listen, Ben’s my friend,” Campbell said, according to The Athletic. “He’s always going to be my friend. Nothing about that’s going to change. We’re going in, getting ready to play Chicago. We’re going to win this game. We have to.”
Detroit looks for its first win of the season when it takes on Chicago on Sunday.
