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Since Dan Campbell has taken over as the\u00a0Detroit Lions\u2019 head coach, there\u2019s been a large shift in the way that this team\u2019s offense plays football. In fact, there\u2019s been a large shift in the way everyone\u2019s offense has been playing football, and it largely comes from Campbell. We\u2019re talking about the aggressive nature in which plays are called. The Lions are not scared to try things on 3rd-and-long, and they\u2019re definitely not afraid to try things on 4th down.<\/p>\n
That aggressiveness has taken over the NFL. You\u2019re starting to see a lot more teams attempt the latter. Everyone wants to go for it on 4th down now, and while they\u2019re not exactly doing it the way the Lions do, it\u2019s still happening, and it\u2019s changing the way that defensive coaches think about football around the league.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, as a defense, if you got yourself into a situation where it was 3rd-and-7, you knew what you could do. You could send the house and dial up a NASCAR package, or you could put your safeties over the top because you knew that there was a throw coming. What do the Lions do? They don\u2019t throw it. They instead run the ball, and maybe they get that first down, but if they don\u2019t, they definitely get four or five yards and turn it into a 4th-and-short, let\u2019s say 4th-and-3. If the Lions are anywhere near the middle of the field, you know they\u2019re going on that 4th-and-3 and they\u2019ll hit you with a run or a pass there.<\/p>\n
Listening to\u00a0The Athletic Football show\u00a0this week, they spoke with defensive coaches, and that very scenario is something that everyone is trying to figure out right now. How do you defend that? We\u2019re not necessarily talking about plays themselves; it\u2019s that aggressiveness.<\/p>\n
Put yourself in the shoes of a defensive coach going up against the Lions. It\u2019s 3rd-and-7, and conventional football wisdom tells you they\u2019re going to pass to make up yards and try to reset the downs, but this is Detroit. They have Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. They\u2019re going to run to set up a 4th-and-short. So let\u2019s gear up for the run. Well, now that you\u2019ve geared up for the run, you\u2019ve left your queen undefended, so to speak. Now the Lions can go for that pass. Ok, so we\u2019ll defend the pass. Well, now the Lions can go for the run. Now you\u2019ve gone cross-eyed.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just the perfect example of how the Lions\u2019 offense and aggressiveness have changed defensive football. You have to throw conventionality out the window with this team because there\u2019s nothing conventional about it. Other teams are seeing that, and they want to try it. The Eagles have become that now that they know the Tush Push is an unstoppable play. So they\u2019re a four-down team every time. The Bears are likely to try and become this type of offense, too. That\u2019s why Week 2 is going to be really interesting to see how Kelvin Sheppard responds to that.<\/p>\n
2025 is a big year for the Lions offense, and it\u2019s going to be fun to see how the rest of the NFL responds to what they do. Everyone thinks that with Johnson leaving that the intrinsic nature of this offense goes with him, but that\u2019s all Dan Campbell and even Johnson will tell you that. I can tell you from what I\u2019ve seen this summer that the Lions still have quite a bit up their sleeves on offense.<\/p>\n
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Since Dan Campbell has taken over as the\u00a0Detroit Lions\u2019 head coach, there\u2019s been a large shift in the way that this team\u2019s offense plays football. In fact,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"\n