In the Detroit Lions‘ 34-17 win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the Lions ran a fun play that purposely looked like it was a mistake. The play had Goff stumble in the play action fake and had Jahmyr Gibbs fall down on purpose too. The play fooled the Bears and it left Sam LaPorta wide open for a touchdown.
It worked like a charm, and it showed that there might not be a bottom to the pit in which Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson keeps his plays. It turns out that the original idea for this play was a lot crazier.
The Lions have been working on the replay they call “stumble bum” all week and the initial plan according to Jared Goff was that Johnson wanted Goff to straight up fumble the ball on purpose and then pick it back and throw the pass. Goff said, “I don’t know about that.”The Lions got off that idea pretty quickly.
It’s a good thing the Lions didn’t do that because it could have been a giant disaster. The Lions could have given up possession because they were trying to do too much. It’s just a good thing that didn’t happen.