There were a lot of things that really bothered me about the Detroit Lions’ Week 16 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The team did very little well outside of special teams and some garbage-time passing offense.
This week’s film spotlight changes things up a bit. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the game — even more than the wretched run defense — was how poorly Detroit ran the ball on offense. The Lions have been reliably steady on the ground all year with outbursts of greatness. Yet in Carolina, the Lions managed just 45 yards on 17 carries. QB Jared Goff led the team with 15 yards on three carries, and 14 of those came on one improvised scramble.
I went through each of the Lions’ 14 designed run plays and followed the regular film breakdown protocol. A player doing his job well earns a plus, while a player failing at his task gets a minus in the ledger. I evaluated each player on every run.
Here’s the play-by-play for the Lions runs and the plus/minus earned on each.
1st run: Amon-Ra St. Brown gains 0
After beginning the game with four straight passes, the Lions make their first attempt on the ground on a trick formation. WR Amon-Ra St. Brown sets up behind QB Jared Goff, who is in a pistol formation with RB Jamaal Williams off-set to his left.
The play goes for no gain. Several Lions are beaten to the point of attack by the Panthers’ defenders they’re tasked with blocking.
Plusses earned:
LT Taylor Decker, exceptional inside wham block
Minuses earned:
TE Brock Wright, missed engagement in space
RB Jamaal Williams with a terrible cut block
C Frank Ragnow, thrown to the turf
RG Evan Brown, who is assigned to somehow get in front of St. Brown on the other side of the formation while running past Decker’s (really nice) block and some other traffic. Give his minus to OC Ben Johnson, but Brown wasn’t close to pulling it off either.
2nd run: Jamaal Williams gains 1
This is 1st-and-goal from the Panthers 4-yard line. Williams is a single back who motions to his right just before the snap. It’s a heavy formation with three TEs, all tight to the line.
Williams gets thumped just past the line and driven backward.
Plusses:
RT Penei Sewell
C Frank Ragnow
TE Shane Zylstra
Minuses:
LG Jonah Jackson, who flat-out whiffs on picking up the LB who made the hit and tackle on Williams. Some of his minus goes to OC Johnson, who asked him to block a player lined up to the inside of Ragnow by going outside Ragnow.
RB Jamaal Williams
Just for reference, the Lions run the exact same set and Williams motion on the very next play. Goff hits Zylstra for a touchdown when he releases out instead of blocking. The Williams run may very well have been a “loss leader” type of play.
3rd run: Williams gains 3
This play is a great example of what happens when just one player misses his assignment. Lions are again in a heavy set with 2 TEs and RB Justin Jackson playing a FB role aligned tight to left tackle.
Plusses:
C Frank Ragnow
WR DJ Chark
LG Jonah Jackson
WR Amon-Ra St. Brown
RB Jamaal Williams
Minuses:
LT Taylor Decker, who quickly fell off his block at the direct point of attack. If he hold his block even one count longer, Williams has a potential big gain off left tackle.
4th run: D'Andre Swift gains 3
This is another play that should have gained a lot more than it did. Goff is in the shotgun with Swift to his immediate left. St. Brown motions right to left and sets up as a de facto TE. Swift runs to the right and cuts back inside.
Plusses:
LT Taylor Decker
RG Evan Brown
WR Kalif Raymond
C Frank Ragnow
Minuses:
RB D’Andre Swift. If he stays with the run as blocked, he’s likely not touched for at least five more yards down the field. Raymond’s block on the outside gives Swift a massive lane behind Brown and Ragnow’s blocks, but Swift either doesn’t see it or trust it. He instead cuts back inside to the pursuit traffic and gets bowled asunder. The Panthers ran a close facsimile of this play twice and gained over 20 yards both times.
RT Penei Sewell, couldn’t engage with the LB in space. Again this falls somewhat on Johnson for asking the right tackle to make a block five yards up the field directly in front of where the left tackle started the play.
5th run: Jonah Jackson loses a yard
Jackson gets his only carry and he never had a chance. The Panthers defense was all over this single-back run to the left.
Plusses:
LG Jonah Jackson
WR DJ Chark
Minuses:
RG Evan Brown
RT Penei Sewell
LT Taylor Decker
6th run: Jamaal Williams loses 4
This one also never had a chance. Two TE set tight right with Williams in an offset I-formation. Williams almost didn’t get the handoff; the defense was in the backfield that quickly.
Plusses:
RG Evan Brown
Minuses:
TE James Mitchell, never touched his assignment who initiated the tackle
7th run: Williams gains 1
This is a successful play despite the meager yardage. On 3rd-and-1, Williams plows behind left guard to pick up the first down.
Plusses:
RB Jamaal Williams
RG Evan Brown
LG Jonah Jackson
RT Penei Sewell
8th run: Williams gains 4
This is an inside draw out of the shotgun. The Lions ran motion left-to-right behind the play but the Panthers didn’t bite on it, which ruined an otherwise well-blocked play. The motion was supposed to take the LDE (lined up outside RT Sewell) to the outside but he stayed home and knifed behind Sewell, who was assigned to pick off the backside safety, to make the play.
This was the last play of the first quarter.
Plusses:
C Frank Ragnow
LG Jonah Jackson
LT Taylor Decker
RG Evan Brown
Minuses:
I was fixing to give Sewell one here, but he was more the victim of circumstance than any ineptitude on his part. If DE Yetur Gross-Matos bites on the motion action, Sewell is in great position to make his block in space. Tip of the cap to the defense.
9th run: Kalif Raymond gains 9
Fun play alert! Raymond starts lined up in the left slot. TE Shane Zylstra is aligned wide right and motions in pre-snap before reversing course and becoming the lead blocker for Raymond on an end-around after a play fake to D’Andre Swift to the left.
Plusses:
TE Shane Zylstra
WR Josh Reynolds
C Frank Ragnow
WR Kalif Raymond
RB D’Andre Swift for selling the fake well
Minuses:
WR Amon-Ra St. Brown
This is the play before Goff’s costly fumble.
10th run: Swift gains 4
Goff is under center with an I-formation, with TE Garrett Griffin motioning into the fullback spot.
Plusses:
LG Jonah Jackson
RG Evan Brown
RT Penei Sewell
TE Garrett Griffin
Minuses:
None. Swift gets the benefit of the doubt on his read of the blocking and gained solid yardage before going down on first contact.
11th run: Swift gains 1
Lots of blocking motion on this play, with the left side blocking to the right and the right side flowing left, where the play is designed to go. The blocking on this is significantly better than the net outcome.
Plusses:
TE Garrett Griffin
C Frank Ragnow
RT Penei Sewell
LT Taylor Decker
WR Amon-Ra St. Brown
WR Josh Reynolds
Minuses:
RB D’Andre Swift. The play is designed for him to take this run to the outside but he chooses to stay inside and sacrifices well-blocked yardage potential off-tackle.
12th run: Williams gains 2
Into the second half now. Counter play to the right with TE Griffin offset to the left. Eight-man box from the Panthers defense. Really nice play by safety Myles Hartsfield prevents what could have been a good gain here; there was no blocker to account for Hartsfield with the loaded box.
Plusses:
RT Penei Sewell with a massive pancake on the down block that I’m not ashamed to admit I watched several times.
TE Garrett Griffin
TE Brock Wright
Minuses:
RB Jamaal Williams, who has to beat Hartsfield one-on-one and didn’t quite get it. Probably a little harsh here on my part but Williams is fully capable of making this happen and just missed breaking the tackle.
13th run: Williams gains 3
Single-back shotgun set on 1st-and-10 in the Carolina red zone.
Plusses:
RT Penei Sewell
TE Garrett Griffin
LT Taylor Decker
LG Jonah Jackson
Minuses:
C Frank Ragnow
14th run: Swift gains 4
3rd-and-9 from the Carolina 11-yard line in a shotgun set.
Plusses:
RT Penei Sewell
TE Brock Wright
RB D’Andre Swift, for finishing his run nicely
Minuses:
C Frank Ragnow for a low snap that throws off the timing of the run
LG Jonah Jackson
