Dan Campbell: Criticism for keeping starters in blowouts is a good problem to have

The three biggest blowouts of this NFL season have been wins by the Lions: They beat the Jaguars by 46 points on Sunday, and they beat both the Cowboys and Titans by 38 points earlier this season. No other team in the league has won a game by more than 37 points in 2024.

But winning games by blowout raises questions about running up the score, and keeping starters in the game for too long. Lions coach Dan Campbell says he understands that some will criticize his approach to continuing to play his top players with big leads, but he welcomes that criticism.

“Normally this doesn’t happen. This is the third time this has come up this season. That’s a good problem to have,” Campbell said. “You want to know that you finish on a good note, you found a rhythm, you keep the rhythm.”

Lions quarterback Jared Goff was still in the game, throwing passes, into the fourth quarter, and so were the rest of the Lions’ starters. Once the starting offense scored its seventh touchdown on seven possessions, Campbell did pull Goff and many other starters, although Campbell was questioned about why one of his most important players, right tackle Penei Sewell, played every snap. Campbell noted that the Lions only had eight active offensive linemen, so they couldn’t take all five starters out, and he says when it’s time to take players out of the game he prioritizes older players or players who have injuries, and Sewell is young and healthy.

“You got to do what you got to do to finish the game out, and you can only do so much about it,” Campbell said.

Campbell made clear that he’s not going to tell his players to take their feet off the gas just because someone might get hurt late in a game.

“I do not want to let the fear of injury take away from our identity,” Campbell said. “The minute you start worrying about injuries, that’s when bad things happen.”