Lions vs. Saints: What I learned from film study of Detroit’s Week 13 road win

The defense as a whole wasn’t great, but don’t blame the linebackers. Even while playing without unit leader and team captain Alex Anzalone, the LBs were the best part of the Detroit defense.

It starts with rookie Jack Campbell. Playing with the green dot and playing ILB or MLB almost exclusively instead of also dabbling at SAM, Campbell played his best game in a Lions uniform. He was sharp on his pre-snap reads and aggressive in attacking what the Saints were trying to do. Campbell’s block avoidance in the run game was exemplary, and it helped limit a lot of yardage. The range to the sidelines from the middle was readily evident.

Fellow starter Derrick Barnes also played well – a lot better than his lowly PFF score would indicate. I thought Barnes read and reacted to the best of his ability. He’s never going to be an asset in coverage, but in this one I didn’t find him to be a detriment either.

Campbell’s role in the interception on New Orleans’ first pass play is emblematic of how well he played. The Saints came out in a 2TE set, both aligned tight off left tackle. It was a delayed release by the inside TE, Juwan Johnson, after Johnson (correctly) read that it was a four-man Lions rush and his blocking wasn’t needed. The second Johnson released, Campbell darted from about 10 yards deep in zone coverage and closed with controlled aggression. On replay, it looked more like a drop by Johnson than Campbell getting a hand on the ball, but the rookie LB’s presence certainly played a role in the critical takeaway. That’s an instinctive, dynamic play we haven’t seen very often from the Lions LBs over the last few years decades.

One area where they both progressed in the game was handling Taysom Hill. He’s an unusual weapon and the Saints use him as a little bit of everything, but primarily as an option quarterback. He gained 33 yards on his first two touches and then the Lions did a very good job of snuffing him out (except in the red zone). Campbell started keying on Hill almost exclusively when he was taking the snap from center, while Barnes did a nice job of scraping and containing, as did DE’s Josh Paschal and Aidan Hutchinson.

Can’t forget Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who was very active in his 20 defensive snaps. He looked very adept in coverage. The Lions defense played much smarter and better as an overall unit in coverage with three LBs on the field than a third safety and that might be the first time in the Aaron Glenn era that’s been true. Malcolm Rodriguez also chipped in with a few good reps.

Overall, it felt like the Lions LBs were very consistently where they needed to be and when they needed to be there. Relative to the safeties behind them, that really stood out in this game.

Jameson Williams touched the ball just twice in the game. He caught his only passing target on the Lions’ opening drive, a contested catch situation where he made the reception despite being interfered with (Detroit declined the penalty). He probably should have been a lot more involved in the offense, because he played very well and did impact the game well beyond the stat sheer.

I want to spotlight a play where Jameson William made a big impact even though he didn’t do anything on the stat sheet. It’s the touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown, and that doesn’t happen without Williams.

That’s Williams wide right of the formation with St. Brown in the slot. The Saints are in-man coverage with a safety over the top.

As soon as the receivers start their routes, it’s clear the safety is there to help on Williams deep. He opens the hips and pedals back to the outside. It isolates St. Brown on the slot CB.

As St. Brown breaks inside, look how much room he gets because the safety is honoring Williams’ deep speed to the outside. The ball comes out just as the next screenshot. The safety help for the slot is 15 yards away, honoring Jamo. He’s double-teamed despite having one target to that point.

There were more opportunities to actually get the speedster the ball. He was open a few times on crosses and drags. One notable instance came on a third-down play on the drive after Williams scored on his (spectacular) end around. The pressure allowed from both tackles impacted Goff enough that he couldn’t see it or throw it, but in a typical Lions pocket, he’s got Williams for an easy conversion with a lot of room to run, too.

Williams continues to run better, more precise routes. He’s learning how to avoid the jam and to use positional leverage a lot better than he used to, as well. Again, the stats didn’t show it, but I was very impressed with Williams’ play in New Orleans.

The Lions offense came out blazing, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions. On the first play of Detroit’s fifth possession, right after the Saints scored to cut it to 21-7, center Frank Ragnow went down with a leg injury.

It proved to be a critical loss, but not in the way you might think. Sure, kicking Graham Glasgow into center and installing greenhorn rookie Colby Sorsdal in Glasgow’s spot at right guard is an obvious downgrade at both positions. But it sure looked on film like offensive coordinator Ben Johnson overreacted to no longer having his Pro Bowl center.

The timing on pass plays sped up, with Johnson dialing up a lot shorter, safer routes. Play-action, where Jared Goff is at his best, disappeared almost completely. So did doing anything other than interior runs on first down, a critical change that put the Lions into 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-longer. With both Glasgow and Sorsdal not being as good in the run-blocking department, it played into the Saints’ hands. If you didn’t look for him, you’d never know Jahmyr Gibbs was playing. Johnson ignored his dynamic rookie beyond having him run dives and conservative, low-risk/reward plays.

I won’t profess to know how much autonomy Goff has at the line to check out of plays, or just how many sight adjust/audible options there are called in situations. It could very well be that Goff also got conservative (read: scared) by the lesser line play. But the confident, aggressive, creative play-calling — the secret sauce that makes Johnson the hot name in coordinators — went away faster than Jamo can sprint past the defense and that sure felt like it was more on Johnson. Goff’s demeanor coming off the field helped me lead to that conclusion.

There has to be some acquiescence to the reality of the line not being as good. It didn’t help that RT Penei Sewell had a weirdly “off” day either; Sewell’s high PFF score did not at all pass the eye test. But it looked like Johnson clamped a chastity belt on his own offense in the land of the French Quarter. Thankfully, he found the key (a key named Sam LaPorta) and unleashed the offense in time to wake back up and win the game. Better late than never…

–Unheralded block of the game goes to TE Brock Wright on the Lions’ first touchdown. Wright aligned inline next to RT Penei Sewell and crossed in a power route formation. He took the play-side safety with him in coverage and slammed the pursuit LB with a textbook block. David Montgomery would’ve scored regardless, but Wright was excellent nonetheless. That’s a role player doing everything right to make the stars look good.

–Undrafted rookie LB Trevor Nowaske was thisclose to blocking two separate New Orleans punts.

–Without going into great detail, I thought this was the worst overall game Amon-Ra St. Brown has had in two years. And he was still impressive enough to score a touchdown where he should have been tackled twice. He and Goff were not in sync.

–I decided to count the number of times Hutchinson was blocked by just one Saint. I did not get through all of the fingers on my first counting hand.

–Kerby Joseph had another subpar coverage game at safety. He’s been very late to recognize his responsibility too often. The way the Lions CBs struggle in downfield cover, that can’t keep happening. Joseph looks like he’s guessing too much.

–Bruce Irvin brought presence as a pass rusher. His long stride off the snap is a different look for blockers off the edge and it worked. The roughing-the-passer penalty he earned was a definite downer, but Irvin should be back in the lineup again.

–If you’re looking for Saints’ offseason needs, tight end should be very high on the list. Aidan Hutchinson absolutely laid waste to any TE that tried to block him, and none of them were as good of a receiving threat as Brock Wright has been for Detroit.

–When you watch the All-22, they periodically flash the camera on a scoreboard near midfield inside the Caesar’s Superdome to indicate the time and the down/distance. Even with the game in New Orleans, a good 40 percent of the fans visible in the crowd in those shots were rocking Lions gear. That’s pretty cool.