There was a critical moment during Sunday’s press conference after the Detroit Lions were wiped clean by the Cincinnati Bengals. Head coach Dan Campbell faced, by my count, his sixth question on the performance of Jared Goff. This one was about whether he could accurately judge Goff’s play given the mental errors of his supporting cast. His initial answer was no, he couldn’t with how the receivers and offensive line was playing. But then he took a big pause—literally about six seconds long—and considered his next words very carefully.
“I feel like he needs to step up more than he has.