Physical, Detailed, Explosive: Lions Offensive Identity Explained

Ben Johnson explains what he has learned about Detroit Lions offense.

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) celebrates his touchdown with Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta (87) / Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NFL teams typically will use a bye week to do a comprehensive evaluation of the strenghts and weaknesses of each unit.

With the Lions having an early bye week, the sample size is not big enough to gleam meaningful information regarding the actual effectiveness of the offense.

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson did express to reporters that because of the early bye week, the staff did a more condensed look at the offense as a result of the small sample size of tendencies.

When asked by Lions OnSI regarding what the offensive identity was, Johnson highlighted three characteristics he believes have shown up on film.

"We believe that we are an extremely physical, detailed and explosive unit, in a general sense," Johnson said. "But that's what we want to bring to the table each and every week. We want our physicality to show up. Obviously the easiest way to do that is in the run game, but we have perimeter players that are gonna block downfield. We have players that don't have the ball in their hands but they're finding a way to finish around the football. That's our definition of finishing and being a physical football team."

The running backs room have benefitted from a wide receivers unit that is more than willing to block downfield, led by wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown.

"I think coach (Antwaan) Randle El does a phenomenal job of instilling that in those guys and when your lead dog, (Amon-Ra) St. Brown, does what he does, everyone follows suit in that room," Johnson said. "We have a lot of guys that are willing, a lot of guys that are unselfish and it's a combination of Saint and Randle El leading the charge there."

Through their first four games, the Lions rank seventh in points per game and third in yards per game.

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