There were a lot of things that really bothered me about the Detroit Lions’ Week 16 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The team did very little well outside of special teams and some garbage-time passing offense.
This week’s film spotlight changes things up a bit. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the game — even more than the wretched run defense — was how poorly Detroit ran the ball on offense. The Lions have been reliably steady on the ground all year with outbursts of greatness. Yet in Carolina, the Lions managed just 45 yards on 17 carries. QB Jared Goff led the team with 15 yards on three carries, and 14 of those came on one improvised scramble.
I went through each of the Lions’ 14 designed run plays and followed the regular film breakdown protocol. A player doing his job well earns a plus, while a player failing at his task gets a minus in the ledger. I evaluated each player on every run.
Here’s the play-by-play for the Lions runs and the plus/minus earned on each.