The Detroit Lions had a strong start to their 2026 campaign after coming off a 9-8 season in 2025. In Week 1, they edged out a gritty OT contest against the New Orleans Saints with a 31-30 win, which seemingly raised the expectations of everyone on the roster, including star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But when the Week 2 game against the Buffalo Bills provided a contradictory result, Lions linebacker Jack Campbell couldn’t contain his emotions.

It showed as Campbell fought back tears, shouldering the blame for the 41-31 loss. “Played terrible…I ain’t got no other thing to do but look in the mirror and be better, so that’s really where it starts. It starts with us,” he said. Similarly, St. Brown couldn’t hide his own frustration over the loss.

“The first three series were bad,” St. Brown said on the St. Brown podcast. “I feel like when you have an offense like us, you can’t start like that, especially knowing the opposing offense that we’re up against in Buffalo, with Josh Allen and the rest of them, can be very, very potent. I feel we got to control the game.

“We got a lot of guys that can make plays on our offense, and so I put that loss on us as an offense. I know everyone’s talking about the defense and what they should have done, but if we score – if they score and we score, it’s 7-7. They score again, we score again. It’s like we could have been tied up throughout a lot of that game. Maybe that would have given our defense that momentum to get a stop, whatever it may be. But I feel like we started the game off too slow as an offense. We can’t do that.”

Amon-Ra St. Brown and the Detroit Lions faced Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills on Thursday, September 17. The Bills took advantage of an electric home crowd and exploded to an early 21-0 lead, scoring touchdowns on their first four possessions.

Even though St. Brown was a dominant force, hauling in 9 receptions for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns, Detroit hindered its own comeback efforts by committing 10 penalties for 58 yards. As a result, after losing, Campbell was visibly upset.

“Every time I lace up my cleats, I’m going 100%. Yeah, put it on me,” he said. “I played terrible. I’ve gotta be better. Especially for the offense and for all these guys in the locker room.”

Campbell joined the Detroit Lions in 2023 as their first-round pick. Since then, the 26-year-old linebacker has been a constant presence in the Lions’ defense with 415 total tackles in 53 games.

And for the 2026 season, Campbell was also announced as one of the three defensive captains alongside edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson and defensive tackle Alim McNeill. Considering that, St. Brown empathized with how Campbell felt.

“I feel him. I feel any player that’s of his caliber, and that has so much love for the game. I feel the game was on me. I feel the game was on us as an offense. He feels the game was on him as a defense,” St. Brown added on the podcast.

“So I feel like Jack understands that, and he knows that that wasn’t the defense’s best performance. And he’s going to do whatever it takes to get that defense right. And I have trust in Jack because I see him work every day…So I felt Jack watching that video, man. I got to be better. We got to be better as an offense to help them out and vice versa.”

Next up, the Detroit Lions will face the New York Jets at home on September 27. And head coach Dan Campbell has already addressed potential shortcomings they had in their Week 2 game and has asserted about looking into fixing those areas.