ALLEN PARK — When Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery are all cooking, the Detroit Lions and quarterback Jared Goff are nearly impossible to stop.
And while that sounds obvious, the stats speak for themselves to prove the point. The Lions are 12-0 when Gibbs and Montgomery score in the same game. They are 9-0 when Gibbs, Montgomery and St. Brown score in the same game, too, which is an NFL record streak for any star-studded trio.
Heading into a Monday Night Football matchup with a Baltimore Ravens team that has scored 40-plus points in both games this season? Yeah, the Lions are going to need all of that and more in this one.
The Ravens are missing two of their best pressure creators on the defensive line, meaning the opportunity to repeat last week’s showing is there. Baltimore will be without edge rusher Kyle Van Noy and Nnamdi Madubuike for Monday Night Football.
Madubuike has a sack in each of the first two games, with 10 pressures created. Van Noy, the former 2014 second-round pick of the Lions, has 21.5 sacks across his first two seasons with the Ravens.
Last week, Goff looked like the world’s best conductor, throwing for 334 yards and five touchdowns. Williams and St. Brown each crossed the 100-yard mark for only the second time in the same game. And if Goff is clean in the pocket, and the running game is clicking again, watch out, because the Lions are confident they can hang in a shootout with this red-hot Ravens offense.
“Oh, 100%. I think we’re all super confident,“ St. Brown said. ”We are (confident) as an offense. We’re confident in being able to put up points in any way, whether that’s through the air, on the ground, if it takes us, you know, 12 plays, 15-play drive or a two-play drive, either one is fine for us as long as we score points.
“But we feel like, you know, we can put up points versus almost any team in this league if we do what we have to do, execute, take care of the ball, all the little things. But like I said, you have a good defense going against a good offense. You never know what happens.”
St. Brown had the first three-touchdown catch game of his impressive career. His connection with Goff had coach Dan Campbell calling what they do a true work of art earlier this week.
This duo has been locked in for five seasons now. St. Brown is a two-time All-Pro receiver for a reason, and Goff will feed him as much as humanly possible.
“Yeah, I mean, listen, it’s an art form. So, if you love art — which I’m not saying I do or I don’t — but it’s awesome to watch,” Campbell said. “They’ve got such a rapport with each other, and they trust each other immensely. The way that he runs his routes, and he’s so crisp and he’s so detailed, and his body demeanor screams to Goff, it helps him anticipate the throws.
“They’ve just worked together for so long. We’ve got a tremendous amount of trust in those two players. And these guys are playing as good football as you can play, and they have for a while. I mean, those are two of our big studs, so it’s great to see.”
And each of those pieces plays into the others’ success.
Williams and his electric speed dictate attention every time he’s on the field, which opens life up underneath for the route-running surgeon that is St. Brown. When St. Brown is playing like he was last week, dominating on third down and adding nine catches all over the field, a defense has to adjust, opening a door for Williams to sprint through.
And sprint through that door Williams did. Williams had only two catches, but he went off for 108 yards and one touchdown in Week 2. The Lions even missed two deep shots earlier in the game, so those looks were there for Goff and Williams consistently.
Gibbs ran 12 times for 94 yards and a touchdown, while Montgomery had 57 yards and a score of his own last week. Each brings a different style and set of skills to the backfield, meaning the Gibbs-Montgomery rotation can feel like counterpunch after counterpunch for a defense at times.
And when the rushing attack is breaking explosives and is established like that, it opens up the play-action looks. Goff made a killing on the play-action against the Bears, completing 12 of 14 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns. And whenever a play-action fake makes the opposing safety bite, watch out for Williams, because he’s long gone.
The Lions quarterback, who happens to be the reigning NFC offensive player of the week, also gave love to those four playmakers for their blocking.
St. Brown held his own on the outside to spring Gibbs’ 6-yard touchdown to open the game. He occupied Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds to help seal a path for the running back. Williams was also spotted racing downfield looking to help clear paths, too, and he sold his route with perfection to open a lane on Brock Wright’s second-quarter touchdowns, too.
“Yeah. That’s cool,” Goff said. “I mean, that’s the DNA of our team and the DNA of the guys that they continue to bring in here — guys that do that. When you see guys like Saint and (Lions RB) Jahmyr and David and Jamo do it over and over and over again, it’s like everyone has to do it; they don’t have a choice. It’s cool.
“It’s part of our culture, and those guys continue to do it, and it helps, it really does. It springs some of those runs and some of those long downfield plays and gets them in the end zone.”
