All is fair in love and football.
The Detroit Lions matched their highest-scoring output of the season in Saturday's 42-17 win over the Denver Broncos, but Broncos coach Sean Payton said he had no problem with his good friend Dan Campbell's decision to got for a late touchdown on fourth-and-2 with 2:21 to play and the game in hand.
"Listen, that’s football," Payton said. "That was not — when you load the box like we were doing, that wasn’t running up the score at all. That was really playing the right scheme versus a heavy front."
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The Lions scored touchdowns on six of their final seven possessions Saturday and led 35-17 while at the Denver 10-yard line trying to run out the clock.
The Broncos loaded nine defenders within 5 yards of scrimmage to counter a Lions offense that had an extra lineman on the field.
Jared Goff took a snap from under center, play-faked a handoff to tight end James Mitchell, who was lined up in the backfield as a blocker, then dropped back to pass. He looked to the right flat, where Amon-Ra St. Brown was covered by a Broncos defensive back, then scanned the rest of the field as rookie tight end Sam LaPorta ran open in the back of the end zone for his third touchdown of the game.
Campbell and Payton are longtime friends who spent 13 years together in the NFL.
Campbell played for the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys when Payton was an assistant with the teams, then played for and coached under Payton with the New Orleans Saints.
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He called Payton "a stone-cold killer" in the runup to Saturday's game, saying he had no doubt his mentor was "going to come here to try to embarrass us."
After the game Saturday, the two met at midfield, where Campbell pulled Payton close during the customary postgame handshake. Asked what the two said to each other, Campbell said, "We love each other, man. That’s my guy, and I love him. Always will."
Payton was complimentary of Campbell and the Lions on Saturday, saying, "He's done a great job here; I'm proud of him."
At 10-4, the Lions have a three-game lead in the NFC North and can clinch a playoff spot under one of seven scenarios this weekend. The Lions have not made the playoffs since 2016 and have not won a division title since the 1993 season, when they played in the five-team NFC Central.
"Whenever you have somebody you respect, like I do him, and you’ve learned everything from and it’s, in essence, you’re doing the same things that he does with your own team, it feels good (to win)," Campbell said. "But it’s also that the ability for our team to win against somebody of his stature — Super Bowl winning coach, does it right —yeah, that’s good, that’s a good win, man, because I know what he’s about. So, I’m happy for our guys that we got a 'W' here when we needed it. Get to 10, and now we got three to go.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
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