One of the takes I've been hearing a lot after the Detroit Lions 21-20 win over the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs is that the Lions offense doesn't look like the juggernaut that many seemed to think it would look like. 

I get that thought process initially. I think everyone was thinking this was a unit that could uncork some serious plays and run the score up on just about everyone. That didn't really happen on Thursday night. The Lions offense put up 14 points on 368 total yards. That would have been their 10th best outing in 2022 in terms of total yards. So maybe there's something to that. 

The thing is, I'm not sure we actually saw the Lions offense on Thursday. I mean yeah, we clearly saw the Lions put out an offense with our own eyes. But I don't know if that was anywhere near what they think the finished product is going to be.  

The snaps, targets and carries really tell the story if you ask me. Let me break those down one by one and show you where my head is at. 

Snaps

Right off the bat, you have to look at Kalif Raymond. He was the Lions second best receiver in 2022. He was second in both receptions and receiving yards He only played 19 total snaps on the Lions offense Thursday. That's crazy low. He was playing an average of just over 32 a game in 2022. 

Jahmyr Gibbs is another example. He's expected to be a big play maker for the Lions and he did make plays on Thursday, but he was only in the game for 19 snaps as well. It was as if the Lions were taking it slow with the rookie. That's not an uncommon thing. The Chiefs only played their top offensive rookie Rashee Rice for 20 snaps in this game. He showed out as well. 

The Raymond thing I can't understand, but I do get the idea of bringing a weapon along slowly.

Carries

The Chiefs were missing Chris Jones in this game and the Lions clearly wanted to make sure that they took advantage of that. David Montgomery carried the ball up the middle 21 times. It paid off in the end too. He ran for 76 yards and a touchdown. 

This leads me to believe that the Lions wanted to take a conservative approach to this game hit the Chiefs in the spots that hurt. Right up the middle. 

This also help the Lions with time of possession. You didn't see the flashy huge plays because the Lions were too busy trying to burn the clock. The Lions won the time of possession game by well over five minutes. 

Targets

This goes back to the conservative thing I was talking about. The Lions did a lot over the middle of the field. They went at  the Chiefs linebackers. Take a look at Goff's passing chart from Thursday. 

Everything is inside the numbers except four passes. The Lions had a gameplan to work the middle of the field and they didn't budge from that. 

It's becasue of that, that you didn't see the Lions breaking off any big plays or doing anything that they're projected to do. 

Could they have played better? Sure. They ultimately got the job done when it counted most. I think we'll see more of the expected identity as the season goes one, but don't expect the Lions to back off a gameplan if they have one. It worked after all. 

The Lions are in need of a shakeup at receiver

There's not a whole lot to complain about right now when it comes to the Detroit Lions. They went out and stood toe to toe with the Super Bowl champion in their own building and won the game.  Still, there is something to complain about and maybe there's something that might get done about it. […]

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