Dan Campbell knows a disputed finish when he sees one, and he knows the only thing a team can do after it is keep moving.
So when asked Monday about Western Michigan’s heartbreaking loss to Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 5, the Detroit Lions coach reached back to one of the most infamous officiating controversies in NFL history and kept his advice simple.
"If I’m Western Michigan, on to the next one," Campbell said Monday, Sept. 7.
"Get locked in on the next one. Because you've got no control over what just happened, regardless.
Doesn’t matter. And so the best way to prove your own worth is to knock off the next one, man, and make sure you’re ready.
That was the only thing I thought of. If that was me, that’s what we've got to be ready for.
That was it."
Campbell was on the sideline in New Orleans as assistant head coach for the Saints during the 2018 NFC championship game, when officials missed an obvious pass interference call against the Los Angeles Rams. The Saints were left without a chance to run out the clock and kick a game-winning field goal, and the Rams went on to tie the game in regulation and win in overtime to reach the Super Bowl.
That experience made it easy for Campbell to understand the gut punch Western Michigan felt after a wild finish in Ann Arbor.
The Broncos seemed to have stunned Michigan when safety Micah Davis knocked down a Hail Mary from Bryce Underwood on what looked like the final play. Television replays showed the ball in the air with time expired before it reached Davis’ hands.
Officials, though, reviewed the play and put one second back on the clock after an alternate feed showed Davis touching the ball before time ran out.
Underwood then hit JJ Buchanan on a second Hail Mary, and Michigan escaped with a 13-12 win.
Campbell said he had heard about the ending but didn’t watch it unfold and was "staying away from that."
Still, he was clear about what has to happen next for Western Michigan.
"You just make it happen," he said. "You have to.
You've got to make it happen. You've got no other choice or you could sit there and sulk in it, worry about it and try to change the rules and then you go into the next game and get your face kicked in."
Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor and president Russ Kavalhuna delivered a similar message Sunday, Sept. 6, saying there was nothing untoward about the loss and the Broncos had to move forward.
"Ultimately the refs did not cost [us] this game," Taylor said. "If we make the mistake of making an excuse, it allows us to be bitter instead of getting better, and I [don't] think that that's where we want to go as a football team."
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