<\/p>\n
When Peyton Manning saw the Detroit Lions’ postseason end abruptly with a divisional playoff loss to the Washington Commanders, he knew exactly how Dan Campbell and his team were feeling.<\/p>\n
Much like the 15-2 Lions, Manning\u2019s 2005 Indianapolis Colts had only two regular-season losses but were knocked out in the divisional round by the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 21-18 upset.<\/p>\n
After Detroit\u2019s shocking 45-31 defeat, Manning reached out to Campbell with a text of encouragement.<\/p>\n
“I said, ‘I know how you feel, I’ve been there, and it’s not a good feeling,'” Manning shared with the Indianapolis Star on Monday during the “Night of Champions” event celebrating the 2006 Colts’ Super Bowl XLI victory. “‘Understand that, but we did win the whole thing the next year. You just kind of keep sawing wood.'”<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the kind of loss that could probably make an organization say, \u2018Let\u2019s change everything. … Let\u2019s kind of blow the whole thing up and start over,'” Manning added. “Or your organization and owner can say, ‘Hey, we\u2019re doing something right, let\u2019s keep going.'”<\/p>\n
Detroit lost both coordinators to head coaching jobs \u2014 Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears and Aaron Glenn to the New York Jets \u2014 but the Lions will continue striving for the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
General manager Brad Holmes is expected to focus on defensive upgrades. According to the latest NFL Mock Draft Consensus, Detroit is projected to pick Texas A&M defensive lineman Shemar Stewart.<\/p>\n
Manning shared that “Finish” became the Colts’ mantra for the following season. The Lions should consider adopting the same mindset.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019d been knocking on the door, and we were coming close,\u201d Manning said. \u201cWe were obviously doing something right. Just needed to do a little bit more.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Peyton Manning saw the Detroit Lions’ postseason end abruptly with a divisional playoff loss to the Washington Commanders, he knew exactly how Dan Campbell and his team were feeling. Much like the 15-2 Lions, Manning\u2019s 2005 Indianapolis Colts had only two regular-season losses but were knocked out in the divisional round by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"\n