energized Dan Campbell, the head coach of the Detroit Lions, maintains he has moved on from the devastating loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night.
DETROIT — Dan Campbell’s passion has been on display since the moment he was hired as coach of the Detroit Lions, famously saying at his opening news conference nearly three years ago that his teams would kick in teeth and bite kneecaps of opponents.
Campbell has screamed with joy, and shed tears, after wins and losses.
And he has never looked and sounded as fired up as he was on Monday.
Roughly 36 hours after a disputed call at Dallas led to a loss that took away a shot at the top seed in the NFC, Campbell insisted he had moved on and said players would do the same as they prepare for the regular-season finale.
I’ve got pure octane right now,” Campbell said. “I woke up. I’m ready, so we’re moving forward.”
Looking back was not part of Campbell’s plan at his weekly news conference.
In an opening statement that lasted 2 minutes, 10 seconds, he did not address the negated 2-point conversion caught by offensive tackle Taylor Decker against the Cowboys.
Officials determined Decker was an ineligible receiver because they said offensive lineman Dan Skipper reported in as eligible when both approached referee Brad Allen along with offensive lineman Penei Sewell before the pivotal play.
Decker told reporters in Dallas that he reported as eligible and Skipper said he didn’t say a word to the officials.
Campbell said he didn’t know if Skipper wiped the numbers on his jersey, potentially causing confusion for officials because they may have thought he may have been doing that to report as eligible.
After a series of questions related to the penalty, the usually talkative and cooperative coach seemed uncharacteristically annoyed by the media.
“Why do you guys want to talk about this?” he asked.
Campbell said he did not know of a response from the NFL relating to the team’s questions about the call, adding team president Rod Wood is charge of communications with the league.
“Until you guys asked me the questions, I’m over it,” Campbell said. “I don’t even want to deal with it. Rod’s handling all of it, man. He’s got it and I don’t even want to deal with it. I’m done. I’m good. I just want to go and I want to get ready for Minnesota and our players will be ready to roll.”
Wood was not available for reporters Monday, and the NFL has not commented on the call.