Behind the Steel Curtain
Not many expected the Steelers and Lions to have identical records entering their Week 16 matchup in Detroit. Still, Sunday’s upcoming battle between 8-6 teams has the Lions as a consensus seven-point favorite, despite sitting one spot shy of the playoffs in a competitive NFC.
In this week’s preview, Read & React will be taking a look at why the Lions are still in the conversation of the NFL’s elite – and why they’re also at risk of missing the postseason altogether.
Rushing YPG: 131.1 (5th)
Passing YPG: 248.8 (3rd)
PPG: 30.6 (1st)
RB: The Lions’ record is worse than most expected it would be in Week 16, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this offense is any less dangerous than it was last year when the Lions made it to the NFC Championship.
Detroit has the best scoring offense in the league. They’re top five in both rushing and passing. This is still absolutely an elite unit.
After losing star offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears over the offseason, Detroit did have some hiccups under their new OC, John Morton, but head coach Dan Campbell took over play calling in early November, and the team never looked back.
At quarterback, the Lions are led by Jared Goff, who’s turned into one of the most productive passers in the NFL under Campbell. Is he a dynamic talent on the level of a Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes? No. But he’s still probably a little underrated to the average NFL fan.
In structure, Goff is about as efficient as it gets, with 69.3% completion, 3,672 passing yards, 29 passing touchdowns, and just five interceptions so far this season. He has an arm that can access just about any area of the field, which the Lions’ multi-tiered passing game certainly accesses.
Detroit’s scheme tends to steal a lot of the credit, but it takes a cerebral quarterback to run it at the level Goff has. He’s been surgical this season.
Goff isn’t the smoothest athlete on the run, but his pocket navigation is better than most give him credit for.
Still, he has historically struggled with accuracy and decision-making when under pressure, and that trait of his game hasn’t disappeared completely.
Thanks to a dangerous running game (more on that later), Detroit capitalizes on a lot of play-action concepts, ranking fourth in the NFL with 29.5% usage. That’s opened up the middle of the field and helped out an offensive line that’s been just OK in pass protection this year.
Detroit allows the 14th-highest pressure rate (34.8%) in the NFL, but also the fastest time to pressure (2.49 seconds). On Pittsburgh’s side of things, it’s a rough week to be possibly down both T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig.
Helping out Goff in the passing game is a talented stable of targets. Star tight end Sam La Porta is on injured reserve, but Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams are one...
