Dan Campbell is never one to mince words. The Detroit Lions head coach made sure his message was crystal clear from the very start of the preparations for next Monday’s game in San Francisco against the 49ers. His Lions are coming to play, no matter what.

As Campbell talked about the Lions’ latest win during his postgame press conference, cheers from the Detroit locker room could be heard in the background. It was clearly in reaction to Jayden Daniels’ game-winning, last-minute touchdown pass against Philadelphia, which was happening at the same time.

Dan Campbell didn’t ask for too much from his Lions team for the weekend before Christmas. Coach Campbell kept it simple for his players in their Week 16 road trip to Chicago to play the Bears. “The two most important things for me was, I wanted to see ...