Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions (4-1) and Kansas City Chiefs (2-3) will square off in a Week 6 “Sunday Night Football” interconference battle between two of the best in the game. If the Lions want to win their fifth game in a row, they’ll need to follow the keys to victory laid out in this week’s Honolulu Blueprint.
For a detailed look at the opposing scheme, make sure you check out our complementary breakdown piece: Lions Week 6 Preview: Breaking down Chiefs’ offensive and defensive schemes.
If you look at the Lions’ traditional stats for rushing, you might think the Lions are having a down year. They average 134.8 yards per game (7th most in the NFL), but are averaging just 4.4 yards per rushing attempt (14th) with a -0.02 EPA per rush (15th).
Some of the obstacles the Lions have faced this season include overcoming a poor statistical start in Week 1, breaking in a pair of young guards, teams stacking the box against them (32.2%, third most), and facing two top 10 run defenses (Browns first, Packers ninth).
But things aren’t as bad as they may appear, especially when you look at their advanced stats and their performances over the past four weeks—all wins. According to DVOA, the Lions check in with the fourth-best rushing attack in the NFL. And over the past four games, their traditional stats look even better: 157 yards rushing per game (second), 4.8 yards per rushing attempt (ninth), and 0.02 EPA per rush (ninth) over that time period.
This week, they’ll face a Chiefs team that sports the 17th-best run defense in DVOA, are giving up 123.4 rushing yards per game (21st), allowing 4.8 yards per rushing attempt (26th), and 0.09 EPA per rush (30th), plus they only stack the box 18.6% of the time (23rd).
“A lot of teams, they see a loaded box like that, they’re just throwing it,” Lions offensive coordinator John Morton said on Thursday. “But not with our guys. It’s pretty impressive what our wideouts do (blocking in the run game). That’s the reason why we’re one of the tops in the run game, because of what they do. And then it just helps out with everything else, the play action, and then the movement game and stuff. But this is who we are, you know that. I mean, we’re going to pound it no matter what. 10-man box, it doesn’t matter. So, we’ll just keep doing it until they stop it.”
Look for the Lions to fully incorporate a rushing attack game plan that focuses on ball control and taking the home crowd out of the game.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff has been rolling in 2025. Through five weeks, he ranks in the top five in multiple key statistical categories for a quarterback, including completion percentage 75.2% (first), passer rating 120.7 (second), EPA vs. man coverage of 0.72...
