Breaking down the Detroit Lions’ wild play against the Vikings, its multi-layered origins, and what it reveals about the coaching staff
The Lions turned an unusual formation into a first down against Minnesota, but the story behind the play reveals something even more interesting about how Detroit’s coaching staff develops its ideas.
The Detroit Lions got a big win on Sunday when they beat the Minnesota Vikings and ended their undefeated streak. One of the more fun things that happened in that game is what I’ve seen some fans refer to as the CFL play. We’re talking about this bad boy here:
The Lions had St. Brown line up roughly 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and the first thing that goes through your mind is all the weird-looking formations you’ve seen that have been immediately blown up in the past. This one worked. It merely got a first down; it wasn’t a huge touchdown, but it’s a story worth talking about.
Whose idea was this?
Lions head coach Dan Campbell gave passing game coordinator Mike Kafka the credit for this one and said that the Lions have had it on the table for a few weeks now, but decided to finally run it in this game.
“That was more Kafka’s baby. And like most plays that come here, somebody gets an idea, and then you start massaging it. You know, you slap it up against the wall. Hey, what about this? And everybody kind of picks away at it a little bit. You know, that’s how it goes. I mean, Drew (Petzing) will have stuff and we’ll pick at it. Hank (Fraley) and Scottie (Montgomery) and David Shaw and Kafka and for (Marques) Tuuisosop and (Bruce) Grakowski and (Tashard) Choice, I mean, we all have ideas, and you throw them against the wall, and it’s either perfect or you start massaging a little bit, and you start tinkering, and you start. But that one started with Kafka. It was it was awesome. You know, it was it was something good. We had it up for a couple weeks, just hadn’t run it yet, and this was a good week to do it.” Campbell said.
This is such a good thing the Lions do. I assume other teams do it to a degree, but the Lions have always been a team that has been all in on taking play ideas from just about everyone on the coaching staff. During the Ben Johnson era, the Lions had a whole group of position coaches who worked on special teams for the team.
Where did it come from?
Jared Goff talked with Fox 2’s Dan Miller this week and said that the play originated with Chip Kelly at Northwestern. It wasn’t hard to find a play like this, Northwestern has been running things like this all season.
It’s a little different than what the Lions ran, but the idea is the same. It’s kind of confusing for defenses because you’re thinking, “What is that guy doing all the way back there?” Then you’re wondering if he’s a decoy, if he’s going to run the ball, or if this is a pass. The play didn’t work for Northwestern, but it worked for the Lions in the way they ran it.
The fun thing is the Lions aren’t just cooking up their own stuff; they’re watching football around the country, whether it’s NFL or college, and they’re pulling things from it that could work for them.
We’ll see what else the Lions pull out this season. So far, there’s been some fun creativity.
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