Lions’ Dan Campbell Explains How Fans’ Wave Affected Trick Play

Detroit’s coach wasn’t focused on the team’s game-sealing play call for a rather bizarre reason.

While the Lions staff was busy dialing up a play to try and seal their victory over the Vikings on Sunday, coach Dan Campbell revealed that he was being distracted by a phenomenon in the stands: the wave. 

Leading 31–23 with two minutes remaining, Detroit faced a third down that if converted would have all but sealed the game. To get the seven yards, the Lions broke out a crafty trick play that resulted in left tackle Penei Sewell reporting as an eligible receiver and darting across the formation prior to the snap. The 22-year-old then made the catch in open space for a first down, allowing Detroit to add a field goal a few plays later to go up by two scores. 

The play was as risky as it was brilliant, but Campbell admitted that he signed off on the call without fully grasping what was about to take place. That was because Lions fans were doing the wave in the stands at Ford Field, and he was looking at the crowd.

“So we’re in that [third-and-seven] situation, and the fans were doing the wave around the stadium. So I’m just watching. And I hear [offensive coordinator] Ben Johnson is like ‘Hey coach do you want to…” and I’m so focused on the wave and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’ I look up, and we’re throwing it to Penei and I was like, ‘What the f— are we doing?” Campbell explained on The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday.

Though he may not have been 100% locked in during the pivotal moment, Campbell did make clear that his team has worked on the trick play with Sewell many times this season.

”Listen, we knew it would be wide open,” Campbell said. “We worked the heck out of it. We’ve seen him run the reps, we’ve seen him flip his hips. He’s got soft hands. The only thing I was worried about, and I made sure [quarterback Jared] Goff got to him, was ‘Make sure you stay in bounds. Stay in bound, stay in bounds.’ And he was great.”

In Campbell’s second year at the helm in Detroit, the Lions are 6–7 and still in the playoff hunt with four games remaining. The team has won five of their last six heading into a road matchup against the Jets on Sunday. 

Perhaps the Lions will dig back into their bag of tricks in the Meadowlands, and this time, Campbell will be locked in, so long as there’s no wave spreading around MetLife Stadium.