By now the Lions offense and its anemic approach to third-down passing is well-chronicled. This is an offense that had 19 straight third-down pass attempts intended to targets short of the required yardage to pick up the conversion, after all.
But how do they stack up against the rest of the NFL? Is it really that bad, or are other teams also having the same sort of limp offerings on third down?
A data scientist, Dr. Brad Congelio, brings us the answer. Using play data from nflfastr, Congelio measured the average passing target distance for every offense on third down and at least 10 yards to go for the conversion.
The graphic below highlights just how far behind the rest of the NFL the Lions offense is in those situations. Not only do they have the lowest passing success rate (2 for 24, per NFLGSIS), the distance of the average target is the lowest in the league. The Lions aren’t even averaging half the target distance of the 31st-ranked team in that metric, the Houston Texans.
A result that far off the axis of NFL normalcy doesn’t happen by accident. Detroit isn’t well-equipped to convert those situations between offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn, quarterback Jared Goff, and an underwhelming receiving corps. Alas, the data shows they’re not even trying.
Lynn’s offense deserves the “do something” meme Congelio inserted into the graphic.