The Detroit Lions are licking their wounds after a 27-24 home loss to the Minnesota Vikings coming out of their bye week.
It was an ugly, disjointed performance from Detroit’s offense that started with the run game. The Lions’ vaunted rushing attack that torched these Vikings a year ago was held to 65 yards– their lowest total since a 27-13 drubbing at the hands of the Green Bay Packers.
“Their movement up front and everything, it was tough,” offensive coordinator John Morton said. We had things for it. We had chances… That's the biggest thing. We had a good scheme. It takes all 11, especially on offense. It takes all 11 guys. If you don't do it, it could be tough.”
Lions run game needs serious improvement ahead of Week 10
The Lions are currently ninth in the NFL in rushing yards per game with 125.1 after finishing sixth last season. But Detroit is just 20th in estimated points added per rush, suggesting a big dropoff in the running game’s efficiency after the Lions finished top 10 last year.
And the Lions’ usual home run hitter, Jahmyr Gibbs, is only 22nd in the league in explosive run rate at 7.08%.
Detroit has been feeling the retirement of All-Pro center Frank Ragnow lately. It also doesn’t help that first-year starting guard Christian Mahogany is now out until December with a leg injury and both of Detroit’s starting tackles in Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell are banged up.
Inconsistent offensive line play has led to both a subpar running game and shaky pass protection. Detroit took five sacks against Minnesota, which put them behind the sticks often. The Lions are 25th in the NFL in third down conversion rate at 36.27% after ranking fourth last season.
“That type of defense, it's like one, two, three, and all of a sudden you get [an explosive play], you know what I mean?” Morton said of Minnesota’s aggressive style. “But you get behind the eightball, then your play calling kind of changes. A lot of second longs and third and longs, it's hard.”
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One way to mitigate those third down woes and make the distance more manageable is, of course, an effective ground game. Detroit hasn’t been able to wear their opponents down nearly as much this season and set up the play-action opportunities they usually like to live off of.
“First down efficiency is going to lead to the ability for us, because we're pretty good at play action,” Decker said. “Open up the play action game and then one thing that we were efficient at in the past is when you can keep it in third and manageable, you can run the ball….We just need to be efficient on first and second down because it's it's hard to call the plays when it's third and 16.”
This Sunday, the Lions will travel to face a Commanders team that currently allows the 11th-most rushing yards per game at 124.2. It’s been an up-and-down season for this offense, and another lackluster performance could put them behind in the hotly contested NFC North race. If the running game is going to round back into form, now’s as good a time as ever.
“Whatever you want to call flow, rhythm, execution, just everything as a whole, I feel like we've just been missing that flow,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said. “And so if we get that back— I should say when we get that back— I think we'll be just fine.”