In Thursday night’s 34-31 win over the visiting Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions required all hands on deck on defense. With injuries running rampant, every healthy body was thrown into the action for Detroit.
The most glaring note from the snap counts for the Lions and Packers is this: Green Bay ran just 50 offensive plays, but Aaron Glenn still had 17 different Lions defenders play at least 10 snaps.
Four Lions played all 50:
Kerby Joseph
Jack Campbell
Terrion Arnold
Carlton Davis
Pat O’Connor worked in 41 snaps on the line, while EDGE Al-Quadin Muhammad saw action in 37. These were healthy scratches a month ago.
Tracking the newcomers to the Detroit defense:
DE Jonah Williams – 25
DT Brodric Martin – 23 (Martin had played just two all season prior to this game)
DE Myles Adams – 19
LB Kwon Alexander – 17
EDGE Mitchell Agude – 9 (practice squad elevation)
LB Jamal Adams – 8
Green Bay rolled through its own defensive depth, with an astonishing 20 different Packers players seeing at least 10 snaps. The Lions offense ran 80 plays against them, however.
The starting offensive line and QB Jared Goff played all 80, with the exception of right guard Kevin Zeitler. Rookie Christian Mahogany came in for three snaps that Zeitler missed while seeing treatment on the sidelines. They were the first three offensive snaps of Mahogany’s career.
No. 3 TE Shane Zylstra out-repped No. 4 WR Allen Robinson 16 to just five. No. 2 TE Brock Wright played 49 snaps, just four fewer than No. 3 WR (and star of the game) Tim Patrick.
At RB, Jahmyr Gibbs was on the field for 45, while David Montgomery saw 36. Simple match indicates that both were on the field for at least one snap together, which would be the first time all season that’s happened. Craig Reynolds played one snap, while rookie Sione Vaki only appeared on special teams.
Detroit did not use an extra OT in this game, which makes sense with regular No. 6 OL Dan Skipper playing at left tackle in place of an injured Taylor Decker.
