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Lions’ Trick Play Success Continues With Crafty Hook-and-Ladder TD vs. 49ers

Ben Johnson remains in his bag.

Tyler Lauletta

Lions fool 49ers with hook-and-ladder.
Lions fool 49ers with hook-and-ladder. / ESPN
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The Detroit Lions bag of tricks just keeps getting deeper.

On Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson pulled out another bit of trickery, calling a hook-and-ladder that wound up going for a 41-yard touchdown.

Initially, quarterback Jared Goff hit wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown with a quick pass. As St. Brown was going to the ground, he flipped it to Jameson Williams, who streaked down the sideline for a score.

This is about as clean of a hook-and-ladder as you can hope to execute.

The Lions have been leaning on trick plays all season. Aside from Detroit’s aggression on fourth down, their willingness to try bold, and sometimes silly trick plays has proven quite effective.

While sometimes the plays backfire—like when they attempted to set up offensive lineman Penei Sewell to throw a pass—the highlights are well worth it. Last week’s “Stumble Bum” against the Green Bay Packers was an instant hit.

The hook-and-ladder wasn’t even the only bit of deception the Lions tried to pull off on Monday night. On another play, Detroit sent Sewell on a fake reverse, adding a bit of eye candy to what was otherwise a simple run play.

With the Lions already having secured their spot in the postseason, we can’t wait to see what Johnson dials up on the biggest stage.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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