Breaking News: Lions Top Star To Exist After Crisis With Coach
Win, lose or draw, one thing’s for sure: When it comes to Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, All-Pro offensive lineman Penei Sewell says he’s “got his back until the end.”
Campbell has received criticism for twice deciding to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal in the second half of Sunday’s NFC Championship Game loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Sewell, however, refuses to blame the loss on Campbell.
“I don’t agree with any criticism towards Coach. I’ve got his back until the end,” Sewell told ESPN from Orlando, Florida, during an Accelerator Active Energy event with popular YouTuber Donald De La Haye Jr., aka “Deestroying.”
“If he tells me to jump off a cliff with him, I’m right next to him,” Sewell said of Campbell. “I’m so serious. So, whatever he says, whatever he calls, we’ve just got to execute. So, that’s on us really. That’s my guy.”
Detroit ended just one win shy of reaching its first Super Bowl, with the Lions winning two playoff games in the same postseason for the first time since 1957 and matching the franchise record for most wins in a single season (12).
In his third season, Sewell was voted one of six team captains and allowed just one sack on 1,178 offensive snaps played. He is considered a foundational player for the organization and made the Pro Bowl for the second straight year. He credited maturity for his improvement.
“I’m just more comfortable with everything and I’ve experienced more at the end of the day,” Sewell said. “And the game is slower and that’s pretty much it.”
With defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson both returning to Detroit next season after receiving head-coaching interest, Sewell says he wasn’t surprised with their decisions. The goal is to build something special.
“It’s family really. Those two guys coming back, it kind of solidifies that and it just speaks to it,” Sewell said. “It’s on for real. We all love them.”
The expectations are high in Detroit entering next season. And Sewell says the Lions have unfinished business.
“Every new year going in, there’s always another level to tap into, and I feel like there’s no limit and we’ve just got to go attack it like that,” he said.
Super Bowl guide: 49ers-Chiefs picks, key stats, predictions
Super Bowl LVIII kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, with the San Francisco 49ers facing the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs. This is a rematch of Super Bowl LIV, after the 2019 season, in which the Chiefs beat the 49ers 31-20.
This is Kansas City’s fourth appearance in the big game in five years. The last time the 49ers won the Super Bowl was after the 1994 season in Super Bowl XXIX. The 49ers entered the playoffs as the NFC’s No. 1 seed, while the Chiefs were the AFC’s No. 3 seed.
Our NFL team has you covered with everything you’d ever want to know for 49ers-Chiefs, including team previews, bold predictions and game picks. We also provide betting advice from our sports betting experts, game-plan breakdowns from our analysts, and in-depth statistics from the ESPN Stats & Information team. We look at the two quarterbacks, coaches, positional advantages and some X factors as well. We even preview the officiating, halftime show, injury report and top Super Bowl MVP candidates.
It’s all here in a handy one-stop cheat sheet. Let’s dive in, starting with an overview of the exciting matchup.
Sunday brings us a matchup of the NFL’s most consistently dominant teams over the past five seasons, each with something to accomplish with a victory.
A win for the Chiefs would confirm them as a dynasty. The list of teams to win three Super Bowls in five years isn’t long. The mid-1970s “Steel Curtain” Steelers. The mid-1990s Cowboys as built by Jimmy Johnson. The Tom Brady-and-Bill Belichick Patriots managed to pull it off twice in two different decades. That’s it. A victory would put the Chiefs among the greatest five-year runs in league history, full stop.
The 49ers might feel like they would be the dynasty if a few things had broken their way. Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan aren’t going anywhere, but a win would dramatically impact their stories. Purdy would go from being Mr. Irrelevant and a quarterback carried by his skill position players to the guy who beat the most talented quarterback to ever live in a Super Bowl. Shanahan can’t go back in time and hold on to those two leads his teams blew in the Super Bowl, but winning one as a head coach would rewrite his legacy.
Oh, and Taylor Swift will be watching, too. Five months ago, the season began with a Chiefs loss. Will it end with one? — Bill Barnwell, senior NFL writer
This is Shanahan’s seventh season as the 49ers’ coach and his second Super Bowl appearance, the last one coming four years ago vs. the Chiefs. If the 49ers win, Shanahan will join his father, Mike, as a Super Bowl-winning head coach. The Shanahans would be the first father-son head-coaching duo to win a title in the history of the four major men’s pro sports.
How’d they get here?
The Niners rolled through the regular season, racking up 12 wins with a point differential of plus-193, third best in the NFL. They were so dominant in the conference that they wrapped up the NFC’s No. 1 seed in Week 17. For most of the season, San Francisco faced questions about how it would fare if it needed to deliver in close and late situations. As it turned out, the Niners were saving their best for last in those moments.
Quarterback Brock Purdy engineered a game-winning drive in the rain against the Packers in the divisional round and the Niners erased a 17-point second-half deficit against the Lions in the NFC Championship Game to earn a rematch against the Chiefs and a chance to avenge their loss to them in Super Bowl LIV. — Nick Wagoner, 49ers reporter
Reid is in his 11th season as the coach of the Chiefs and is fourth on the NFL’s all-time head-coaching wins list (283). He is seeking his third Super Bowl title in his fifth Super Bowl appearance. If the Chiefs win, he would be the fifth coach to win at least three Super Bowls, joining Bill Belichick (6), Chuck Noll (4), Bill Walsh (3) and Joe Gibbs (3).
