Under Dan Campbell's leadership, everything seems possible for Detroit Lions

Amon-Ra St. Brown stood at his locker in the Detroit Lions locker room late Saturday night, and something happened that said everything.

“You guys have a chance to win the division with a win next week (against Minnesota),” a reporter said. “What does that mean to this team?”

“It'd be big,” St. Brown said after the Lions beat the Denver Broncos in Ford Field, 42-17. “I'm not sure — when's the last time the Lions won the division?”

“Thirty years,” a reporter said (the Lions' last title came in 1993 when they won the NFC Central).

“Thirty years, really?” St. Brown said, a look of surprise crossing his face. “OK. I didn't know the history but it's gonna be a big game for us.”

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It’s an important reminder. These players don’t carry 30 years of frustration, 30 years of disappointment, 30 years of — holy smokes, this is so close you can darn near feel it!

Nope, this is entirely new territory for darn near everybody associated with the Lions.

But it’s been this team’s clear-cut goal since training camp.

“Yeah, honestly, man, we came into this saying we’ve got to win this division, that’s the goal and that’s where it is,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said Monday afternoon. “We talked about that this morning as a team. That was the focus when we entered it and that is still the focus, man.”

I’m starting to believe one of the reasons why Campbell has been so successful in turning around this franchise and getting the Lions into this position is because he makes things so clear and simple, and he doesn't shy away from goals.

Because if you don't make a goal, how can you ever find a path to achieve it?

Lions keep it simple, stupid

When the Lions’ hit a lull over the last few weeks — mostly because of turnovers — Campbell focused his offense on ball protection and his defense on creating turnovers.

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Simple.

When the Lions lost at Chicago because of bonehead penalties, Campbell focused on cleaning up the mistakes.

Simple.

He didn’t freak out and change anything drastically. He saw a problem and offered a clear solution.

And now? Three games from the playoffs, at a time when it might be natural to start thinking about seeding and potential matchups, Campbell has put a simple, clear goal in front of his players: Just win the division. That’s all. Nothing more.

“We’re going to do everything we can to win this division and there’s nothing that’s going to be easy about it,” Campbell said. “Man, we’ve got to go out to Minneapolis and face the Vikings who are a very dangerous team, and find a way to win it and get this division.”

All of this might be an entirely new way of thinking for a large chunk of Lions fans — obviously, anybody 30 and younger.

But it’s nothing new for Campbell. When he was coaching in New Orleans, the Saints won the NFC South for four straight years (2017-2020). After a while, winning becomes expected; and the path to winning a division becomes engrained in the culture. That’s what Campbell is trying to teach his players.

"I think the biggest thing is, yeah there’s always lessons to be learned, but I think we’re living through one of them right now, and that is, ‘Don’t listen to the outside world,’” Campbell said. “I’m sure it’s going to be now; we’re talking about seeding, now we’re fighting for the Number 2 — man we are fighting to win this division, just like we started at the end of the year. And then once you get in the tournament, it gives you the best chance to bang away and so that focus doesn’t change and so for us, man just — that’s all you’ve got to worry about.”

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Will the Lions play the Vikings thrice?

The schedule has put the Lions in a strange situation. They will finish the season by playing the Vikings in two of their three final regular season games, wrapped around a trip to Dallas.

But there is a twist. The Lions might end up playing the Vikings in the playoffs, which would make it three times in four weeks.

So how will the Lions approach that? Will they save some plays? Will they try to create some new wrinkles? Or save some?

“Let’s put the best game plan we can,” Campbell said. “We can’t worry about the game two after this, after Dallas. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. So, we can’t hold anything back. I mean, this is it. Everything’s about finding a way to get this one and the best game plan we can possibly put together.”

That seems smart. Focus on winning one game at a time.

Now, Campbell knows something else. From his experience in New Orleans.

Late in a season, as the pressure mounts and expectations soar, some players might start to press.    

“If it doesn’t go your way, you can begin to try to do too much,” Campbell said. “And that’s where, man just fall back to your training and trust what the coaches are telling you ... and you’ll be fine, but if you start pressing too much to try to make plays because you can smell it, you can feel it, that’s where you can run into problems too.”

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Campbell has never been the head coach of a playoff team, but he exudes nothing but confidence about how to get there. He carries this aura that screams to his players: Follow me. Listen to what I’m saying. Just focus on winning the division and everything else will take care of itself.

It’s pure leadership.

I know, I know. It's kinda shocking, because it’s so different and refreshing for Lions fans.

All of this. The winning. Shooting for a division title. Seeing a clear path.

It's been missing for 30 years.

But somehow, with this coach, with how he keeps things so simple, everything seems so possible.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

Next up: Vikings

Matchup: Lions (10-4) vs. Denver (7-7).

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Sunday; US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Lions by 3.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Under Dan Campbell, everything seems possible for Detroit Lions