Ben Johnson Believes He Is Growing as Lions Play-Caller

Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was recently named a young coach to watch.

Ben Johnson is in the midst of his first season calling plays for the Detroit Lions' offense.

He started off his tenure with a bang, with the Lions averaging 35 points through their first four games.

However, since then, the offense has cooled off significantly. In fact, Detroit has averaged just 15.8 points in its last five games, and scored a total of just six points in back-to-weeks (zero against the Patriots in Week 5 and six in Week 7 against the Cowboys).

During his media session Thursday, Johnson expressed there's only been one game in which he hasn't been pleased with his play-calling. And, it wasn't either of the aforementioned contests. Instead, it was the Lions' Week 9 tilt with the Green Bay Packers, in which Johnson's unit only mustered up 15 points. 

"It was actually two weeks ago against -- shoot, who did we play? It was Green Bay, it was Green Bay, yeah. I’m getting my wires crossed a little bit there. Yeah, I wasn’t very happy," Johnson expressed. "I mean, it started with the first drive. That fourth-and-1 call wasn’t very good by me, and I had a couple in that game that weren’t very good calls. So, learn from it and move on.”

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Despite some lackluster offensive performances in recent weeks, Johnson believes he's been growing as a play-caller as the season has progressed.

"Certainly every week, every week, we as a staff, we’ve come up with, I think, a sound gameplan," Johnson said. "There’s only been one week so far this year that I’ve been disappointed with too many of my play-calls. Every week, there’s a few that you want back, but there’s only one game this year (the Packers game) that I really felt like I didn’t help us offensively enough. And, that’s a situation where you acknowledge it, you learn from it and you don’t make those same mistakes again. So, I think I am growing as a play-caller as we go. But, like I said, I haven’t really thought about it (a self-evaluation of his play-calling) in-depth beyond that.”

On Sunday, Detroit will square off with the New York Giants. The Giants are led by first-year head coach Brian Daboll, who was previously the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills.

Although the "G-Men" are far from a high-octane offense, Daboll has done a solid job of breathing new life into a unit that was 31st in points a season ago (15.2 points a game). 

"To me, he (Daboll) does a great job of getting his scheme to fit his personnel, probably more so than most coaches in this league, because he can morph from, ‘Okay, I got (Bills quarterback) Josh Allen, and we’re a little bit more spread out and getting the ball to these playmakers.’ And then now, in New York, they’re a little bit more run-heavy, and feed (Giants running back) Saquon (Barkley), it sounds like," Johnson said of Daboll. "Miami, before I got there, was the same thing. They were a little bit more ground oriented. They had (former NFL RB) Reggie Bush, and a really strong offensive line, and that was really what he leaned on. And then, he went to the college game at Alabama, and was probably more spread RPO, from what I can gather. So, he’s been able to really weave in and out, and mesh his scheme and philosophy to who he has. And, I think that’s a great trait for any coordinator or coach.”