The Lions’ offensive key to victory over the Rams is to beat them the way the Chiefs beat Detroit’s defense
Attack the womp-rat-sized hole and the Lions win this game
The Detroit Lions face one of the best defenses in the NFL on Sunday when they take on the Los Angeles Rams. It’s easy to look at this Rams unit and be scared of it. But they have a weak point, just like every team does. They have the womp-rat-sized hole that you can fly your X-Wing towards and fire your shot into.
Just do what the Chiefs did to you to the Rams, and you should be able to beat them
I was talking with our Rams beat writer, AJ Schutle, about the Rams’ defense’s weak points, and this is what he told me.
“The Rams are keenly missing STAR/nickel Quentin Lake, and if Amon-Ra St. Brown is fully healthy and ready to go, he could also be a featured option against former UDFA Josh Wallace. Additionally, none of LA’s linebackers are particularly athletic options in coverage, so the Lions could feature plenty of Gibbs’ targets out in open space to attack Omar Speights and Nate Landman. There are options for the Lions to target; they just have to figure out how to block the Rams for long enough to do so.”
If you go back and watch how the Chiefs dismantled the Lions’ defense, the answer is right there for Detroit. The Chiefs did not record a bunch of explosives in that game. In fact, Patrick Mahomes only threw three deep passes in that game, and only one of them was completed. It also wasn’t one of those games where he just ran all over the place, and nobody could catch him. The Lions sacked him three times in that game.
The Chiefs won because their game plan was to get the ball out fast and attack the intermediate part of the field. They dinked and dunked their way up he field all day long by attacking the linebackers and relying on yards after the catch. The Lions allowed 180 yards after the catch in that game.
Now, let’s take a look at the Panthers’ win over the Rams a couple of weeks ago, and you see a similar story. Bryce Young attempted five deep passes, and two of them were completed. They were two big ones, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but it was mostly dinking and dunking. The Panthers had 160 yards after the catch in that game. So the Lions’ plan has to be to attack the linebackers here and pick on the slot.
The hope then is that the Rams respect that and bring the defense in, which allows the Lions to pick on them deep. Which is what the Panthers did on two of those deep shots that wound up being touchdowns. Schulte said this is where the Lions can get their explosives.
“Sam LaPorta being out stings, as LaPorta would have been the player I would point to as the biggest mismatch this week for the Lions against the Rams. However, the Lions have quite a few players that I don’t think the Rams have anyone who can match. Emmanuel Forbes is coming off back-to-back dreadful performances, getting dunked on by Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker, and Michael Wilson. Enter Jameson Williams, who has been on a tear since the Lions’ bye week. Truthfully, I don’t think the Rams have any corner who can keep up with Jameson Williams, so he would be my first option for explosives.”
Attack the intermediate, pass it fast, get them focused on that, and then release the Jamo krakken. This has to be the game plan for the Lions on Sunday. If they can do this, they can get points on the board and have a pretty good chance of winning the time-of-possession game.
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