Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson: Blame me for offensive struggles in Week 1
Owners of one of the NFL's most explosive offenses last season, the Detroit Lions struggled to move the ball at times in their season-opening win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said he was to blame for the unit's sluggish play.
"I put that on me more than anything," Johnson said Thursday. "(The lack of tempo) and some of those procedure issues we had, I take a lot of pride in that and I think that’s a reflection of me probably biting off more than we could chew with some of the play calls got a little wordy, we were a little bit slow getting the substitutions in there. I have to do a better job getting the play to the quarterback."
The Lions drove 91 yards for a touchdown on their second offensive series, after converting a fake punt to keep from going three-and-out, then didn't score another point offensively until midway through the fourth quarter on David Montgomery's 8-yard run.
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On their six offensive possessions between touchdowns, the Lions had seven first downs, one turnover and three three-and-outs. They crossed midfield on just two of those drives, and nearly had a second turnover when center Frank Ragnow snapped the ball prematurely and it hit tight end Brock Wright as he went in motion behind the line of scrimmage.
In retrospect, Lions coach Dan Campbell said the offense probably tried to do "a little much" for a Week 1 game in a hostile road environment.
The Lions worked often out of a silent count last week to try and negate the crowd noise at Arrowhead Stadium, and some of their issues were due to communication problems stemming from being caught in the middle of trying to keep things "simple enough to where you’re not putting a lot of strain on your offense" but having "enough ammo" to keep pace with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs' high-flying offense, Campbell said.
"It wasn’t necessarily our best stuff offensively," Johnson said. "More than anything the procedure stuff is the stuff that we got to get cleaned up. We had some pre-snap issues whether it was snapping the ball early on the motion that resulted in the fumble there on our third drive. But that’s kind of, it’s first time with silent cadence, playing on the road, loud environment and we will learn and we’ll grow from that."
The Lions did mount three nine-plus-play drives against the Chiefs, including one that results in the go-ahead touchdown, and Johnson said he was pleased with the team's four-minute offense. Montgomery ran for 5, 3 and 2 yards on the Lions' final drive to pick up a first down and allow Jared Goff to kneel out the final 1:42 on the clock.
"With who we have in that room, we’ve taken a lot of pride in finishing the game with the football and so it was good to see us convert the first down when we needed to and not give the ball back to a good player that it becomes a crapshoot at that point," Johnson said. "So those are two encouraging things that came out of that game."
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Touchback talk
More than three quarters of all kickoffs resulted in touchbacks last week, the highest percentage of touchbacks (77.6%) in a single week in NFL history since at least 2000, according to ESPN.
Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said he believes that was more a byproduct of the success teams had returning kicks last season than it was the NFL's new kickoff rules, which allow fair catches on most balls in the field of play to be placed at the 25-yard line.
The Los Angeles Rams made the only fair catch outside of the end zone last week in their game against the Seattle Seahawks.
"The touchback rate was going to go up no matter what, just because the average drive start on kickoff return from a year ago was past the 25-yard line," Fipp said. "So for most teams, when they look at the analytics or the data, they’re going to say, ‘Hey, we kicked a ball for them to return and they returned it. They got past the 25, why don’t we just kick it in the end zone?' And you give it to them at the 25 instead and that would be better for us."
The Lions did not have any returns against the Chiefs, and all four of Jack Fox's kickoffs went for touchbacks. But Fipp said Fox actually was trying to force returns on three of his kickoffs and the ball just carried too far into the end zone.
"We feel good about our coverage group and I think there’s more to it than just looking at the average drive start on all the kicks in the league," he said. "Some of it’s who are you, who are they, what’s the hang time on the kick? Where’s the location of it? And I think that it's, too, I think I did say to you guys that if you kick the ball to the 10-yard line, then the odds say it should come out past the 25, so you’re not trying to give them a good returnable kick either. You’re trying to put some pressure on them."
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Of the NFL's new kickoff rule, Fipp said, "I wish when I was in grade school man, they would’ve let me just go like that and wave my hand over my head and given me a B. I didn’t have to take a test. Just give them the ball at the 25, we don’t even have to play the play. No, but, we’ll see how it goes. We’re excited. Hopefully we get a chance to return some kicks this week and hopefully, they get a chance to return some, too."
More Fipp
Fipp said he "love(s)" playing against the Seahawks because of the respect he has for coach Pete Carroll and the team's special teams units.
Fipp said he's a big fan of ex-Lion Nick Bellore, one of Seattle's best special teams players; Seahawks special teams coordinator Larry Izzo was one of the NFL's best special-teamers when Fipp broke into the league as an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers in 2008; and Carroll was winning national championships at USC when Fipp was bouncing around the small college ranks on the west coast.
"Dude, I could go on forever," he said. "But I’ll tell you this, for real: OK, so, No. 1, 1998 I was a coach at Holy Cross college and I went to like my first NFL practice and it’s Pete Carroll and he’s the head coach of the Patriots. So I’m going down there, I park in the parking lot and I get out, I’m walking to the practice. They had let us come in cause we’re a local college team and they’re going to let us on the field and all that stuff. And so we go out there on the field and as we’re walking to the field, there’s this guy riding this beach cruiser, this bike, and he’s like, ‘You guys ready for some football!' And I look up, it’s Pete Carroll.
"They’re going to go play fast and give you all they got. It’s like, I mean, this is why you do it."
Briefly
Left tackle Taylor Decker (ankle), cornerback Emmanuel Moseley (hamstring/knee) and cornerback Khalil Dorsey (illness) did not practice Thursday after being listed as non-participants on the Lions' estimated practice report Wednesday. Moseley and Dorsey watched the open portion of practice from the sideline. If Decker can't play Sunday, Penei Sewell likely will move from right to left tackle and Matt Nelson will start at right tackle.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson: Blame me for offensive woes in Week 1
