How the Lions’ offense is turning into one of the NFL’s most lethal

Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images

The Lions are forcing teams into bad choices, and hammering them for it.

In case you missed it, Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff didn’t miss on Monday.

No, he literally did not miss.

Goff went 18-for-18 in the Lions win over the Seattle Seahawks, and while it was a super impressive performance by the signal caller, I also think it paints a picture of how lethal this Lions’ offense can be.

Goff was 12/12 off play action, and most of his passes went over—you guessed it—the middle of the field.

Look at all that green goodness, like a lush forest of digs and over routes to Sam LaPorta.

Goff is such a confident thrower over the middle of the field, and has really good arm strength to fire in those passes, so it’s no surprise that OC Ben Johnson has them dialed up at every time. It also helps to have a punishing run game that can help you pry open those dig windows, but that’s where the Lions win. They force you to be wrong in the most important parts of the field, and from there they HAMMER you.

Detroit shifts a TE to the left, then another TE into the backfield as a fullback. Everything about this screams run play, but the Lions run play action. Look at all the eyes that get sucked in on the run fake. Goff has enough time to get out of a sack attempt, turn around and still find this deep curl route.

Again, run fake with the split zone action, and watch the linebackers just walk right up to the line of scrimmage. Detroit’s run game is so lethal that it forces linebackers to account for their ability to run the ball, and what happens is these dig windows that Goff loves become wide open. This linebacker hauls ass to get back, but by then it’s too late. The Lions’ offense is so well constructed and intentional, I love it.

On the Jameson Williams touchdown, the Lions did a great job of manipulating the Seahawks second level defenders and Goff worked on schedule to get this ball out. So Seattle is trying to rotate into inverted Cover 2, with a safety blitz. The first crosser by Sam LaPorta draws the eyes of the linebacker just enough for Williams to fly by, and Goff does a good job of hitting him in stride. Next thing you know, Williams is high stepping into the endzone.

Now, there are times where Goff has to get a bucket on his own, and when he’s targeting the middle of the field off play action, he can do that. This throw to Tim Patrick was kinda nifty. The linebackers don’t fall for the run fake and there’s a safety buzzing down into the dig window. Goff throws this really nice, layered ball to Patrick and it moves the chains. We talk about arm strength a lot when it comes to 65 yard bombs downfield, but this play requires a lot of arm strength and talent. When Goff is working like this off play action, it allows him to show that arm off. Pretty sick throw.

The Lions are so difficult to cover because when you want to flood those dig windows and not play the run, they can simply do this. The easiest way to break 2-high safeties is run it at them until they get out of it, then throw it downfield to attack them. Congratulations, Detroit. You have pleased Mel Kiper Jr.

When the Lions are playing complementary football like this, they’re unstoppable. Using the run to set up the pass, and allowing Goff to work that middle area off play action turns that offense into a machine. While I think they can get too pass happy sometimes, Detroit can beat anyone when they get back to basics. Detroit is on a bye this week, but with a Dallas team that stinks at stopping the run coming in, maybe Goff can go 18/18 again.