Name tags were optional, but the Detroit Lions played with such a motley crew of offensive skill players in Sunday’s 20-19 win over the…
Name tags were optional, but the Detroit Lions played with such a motley crew of offensive skill players in Sunday’s 20-19 win over the Carolina Panthers that Matthew Stafford wore a call sheet on his wrist for the first time anyone remembers in his 10 NFL seasons.
“Obviously, some changes just because of personnel stuff,” Stafford explained Sunday. “Not so much scheme or anything. We’ve had our headsets go out at some inopportune times and had to burn some timeouts in the last couple weeks, so we just wanted to cover all the bases. And shoot, if I was going to wear it, we might as well use it a little bit.”
Stafford referenced his wrist on more than one occasion on Sunday, and that helped the Lions piece together their first respectable game on offense since they traded Golden Tate to the Philadelphia Eagles at last month’s deadline.
They managed only 309 yards of total offense and had just two bookend touchdowns in the first and fourth quarters, but ran the ball well enough for most of the game to keep the clock churning while their depleted receiving corps delivered a handful of big plays.
“We knew it was going to be a collective effort,” Stafford said. “It was going to have to take everybody doing a little bit here and there to make that thing go for us. We didn’t light the scoreboard up by any means, but got enough points to win the game, which was nice.”
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The Lions have two emerging stars on offense in running back Kerryon Johnson and wide receiver Kenny Golladay, and both played big roles in Sunday’s upset.
Johnson ran for 87 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries in just under three quarters work before leaving with a left knee injury.
He’s scheduled to undergo further evaluation on Monday, when the Lions should find out how long they’ll be without their prized rookie. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Johnson’s knee is sprained, will not need surgery and is week-to-week.
Golladay caught a career-high eight passes for 113 yards and delivered two of the game’s biggest highlight plays. He saved Stafford from throwing a first-quarter interception, when he ripped the ball out of Panthers cornerback James Bradberry’s hands, and laid out for a fourth-quarter touchdown that proved to be the game-winning score.
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Johnson and Golladay combined for 210 yards from scrimmage – Johnson also had 10 yards receiving – while the Lions patched together a supporting cast that did just enough to keep the game plan from crumbling.
Bruce Ellington, in his first game as a Lion, played 33 of a possible 65 offensive snaps and had six catches, but clearly was out of sync with Stafford much of the day. Andy Jones, fresh of a recall from the practice squad, played 19 snaps and delivered a key block on Johnson’s touchdown run. Even blocking tight end Levine Toilolo got in the mix, shaking loose from a Panthers defender for a big first-down pickup on the Lions’ go-ahead second-quarter field-goal drive.
The stars carried the day Sunday, and the replacements were just good enough, but if the Lions are to build on the positive momentum they gained from beating the Panthers, they’ll need more from both groups – and one person in particular – in a short Thanksgiving turnaround this week against the NFC North-leading Chicago Bears.
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Johnson’s injury means the Lions will once again turn to the scrap heap to piece together a running game that’s been their Achilles heel for most of the last two decades. None of the Lions’ in-house options – LeGarrette Blount, Theo Riddick and Zach Zenner – is even a reasonable facsimile of Johnson, and playing that ferocious Bears defense without some balance on offense is like boxing blindfolded.
(For what it’s worth, I’d give Zenner the bulk of the carries out of the backfield and continue to play Riddick and Blount in their specialized roles.)
Golladay had six catches for 78 yards in the Lions’ 34-22 loss to the Bears earlier this month, and he’ll have even more on his plate Thursday as the team’s unquestioned No. 1 offensive weapon. Marvin Jones is still nursing the knee injury he suffered at Soldier Field, and a couple days of walk-throughs and light workouts isn’t enough to iron out all of Ellington’s timing kinks.
The real spotlight, though, will fall on Stafford and an offensive line that got steamrolled in Chicago but was much better Sunday. The Lions allowed just one sack against the Panthers, after giving up 16 the previous two weeks, and Stafford played turnover-free football (with a tip of the cap to Golladay).
Stafford has been closer to average than great this year, and that’s part of the problem with the Lions’ 4-6 record. They need more from their quarterback, and he’s certainly capable of delivering.
If he can do that starting this week, with a hobbled cast around him, the Lions might just be able to creep back into the playoff race. If he can’t, well, the Lions will once again be looking forward to next year.
“We flip it quick,” Stafford said. “Obviously it’s, I don’t even know, Wednesday or Thursday in our world right now (of game preparation), so this thing will come back to us pretty quick here. I’ve done it quite a few times, so I understand how to do it.”
Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!
