Jared Goff has unquestionably played his worst football of the season over the last two weeks. He’s turned the ball over six times and, with the exception of the final four minutes against the Bears in Week 11, has failed to put the Lions in a position to win. It’s a far cry from the MVP-level play he provided for most of the first half of the season.
However, the veteran quarterback should not be held solely responsible for the team’s recent offensive struggles. Particularly against the Packers on Thursday, Detroit’s usually stalwart offensive line failed to adequately protect him. In fact, Goff was pressured on 45 percent of his dropbacks (nine of 20) in the first half of the Lions’ Thanksgiving game against Green Bay. Furthermore, the Packers’ three sacks were aided by shoddy protection, including Rashan Gary’s strip-sack of Goff in the first quarter.
Overall, Taylor Decker and his offensive linemen delivered a forgettable performance. They repeatedly let Goff down, allowing Gary and company to wreck havoc on Detroit’s starting quarterback. However, as bad as Goff and the offensive line were, there is one more person to blame for the team’s offensive woes on Thursday: offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. He’s been a mastermind for most of the season, guiding the Lions to the league’s sixth-most points (294) and second-most yards (4,460). He didn’t, however, bring his “A game” in Detroit’s second game of the season against the Packers.
Johnson’s reliance on the team’s run game was one of the most obvious flaws in his gameplan on Thursday. He called far too many run plays with Detroit trailing by two or three touchdowns. One of the most notable examples occurred at the start of the second quarter. Johnson devised five run plays on an eight-play drive that went for 34 yards and resulted in a Jack Fox punt with the Lions trailing by 14 points, 20-6.
Despite the Packers’ early lead, there is something to be said for Johnson not abandoning Detroit’s “bread and butter” offense – its ground game. However, you could argue that with the Lions trailing by two goals, the second-year offensive play-caller should have changed his philosophy and been more forward-thinking. To me, this would have been the ideal time to incorporate a passing game downfield strike.
Nonetheless, Johnson chose to play it safe on this drive and for the rest of the game, and the Packers were more than ready for it, even with key defensive contributors like Jaire Alexander and De’Vondre Campbell out. Johnson was not the primary reason for the Lions’ inability to move the ball in this Week 12 divisional matchup. I attribute the ineffective play to Goff and his failure to take care of the football, as well as the offensive line’s poor performance.
Johnson, on the other hand, should not be overlooked due to his predictable play-calling. He, too, deserves some of the blame for Detroit’s poor offensive performance on Thursday.
