Bill Belichick believes the Lions are working on things that will shut up the dumbest criticism that national media has on Detroit
The Detroit Lions have been one creative team this season. It seems like every week you see a new play or two that you haven't seen before. These trick plays have become a signature thing for Ben Johnson and the Lions and they have been very useful in Detroit's big 15-win season. But without fail, […]
The Detroit Lions have been one creative team this season. It seems like every week you see a new play or two that you haven't seen before. These trick plays have become a signature thing for Ben Johnson and the Lions and they have been very useful in Detroit's big 15-win season.
But without fail, every time the Lions have run a special play this year, multiple talking heads in the national media will get on TV and say some sort of version of the following phrase: "Why do the Lions use these trick plays in games that don't matter?"
It's been very annoying to see for Lions fans and I can tell you from a local media standpoint, it's annoying for us too because it signifies that they're not really watching this team.
We've seen Johnson come up with some insane ideas this year. He actually drew up a play in which players fell down on purpose. It's crazy that anyone would watch that and think "Well that guy must have a shallow bag of plays."
One guy who doesn't take things that way is North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick. That felt weird to write by the way. Belichick is of course the best NFL coach of all time if you ask just about anyone. He had some thoughts about some of the playoff teams running what he calls "playoff plays."
Essentially these are plays that he speculates teams have been working on all year, but haven't unveiled until playoff time.
"I think that Detroit and Kansas City probably would be working on a couple of plays that they've probably been working on all year. But now saying, Okay, here we are coming down to, you know, critical games. What plays can we maybe use that are a little bit different, a little bit deceptive? Maybe it's a new blitz from, you know, Aaron Glenn or (Chiefs defensive coordinator) Spags that they've kind of cooked up, maybe some look that they've been given, and now they can give that same look and run some type of different pressure on it, or maybe it's a punt rush or fake kick, something like that.
I think those kind of plays could come in, into the, you know, into the action here for those teams, because they do have a little bit of time to work on them. And honestly, those are the kind of things that keep your players interested too. You do something special, a little bit different you know another handoff to Sewell, or whatever it is. And you know, keeps the practice energy up a little bit."
It's an interesting thought that makes a lot of sense. The Lions have been working on things all year and there's just no way that we've seen everything that they have. Plus a lot of the trick plays the Lions have run this year have been tailored towards the opponent they're running them on.
That stumble play was designed specifically for the Bears because of something Johnson saw the Bears defense do on a film a year ago. They probably have special things worked up for just Washington, but they likely have some default playoff plays to refer to as well.
We'll find out what's in the bag on Saturday when the Lions welcome the Commanders into Ford Field for the Divisional round.
Looking back on our bold and spicy predictions for the Lions 2024 season to see if we got anything right, what the heck were we thinking on some of these?
One of the fun things to do in this business is make predictions and then go back and look at those predictions to see how right or wrong you were. When you're right it feels like you're a golden god, but when you're wrong it's fun to laugh at yourself and wonder where your head […]
