Of the many issues that the Lions offense can present for an opponent, the Indianapolis Colts have to be prepared for Detroit’s usage and effectiveness off of play-action.
This element makes up a big part of the Lions’ offense. According to Pro Football Reference, Detroit’s 116 pass attempts off play-action are the most in football. Second on that list are the Colts with 99. Then as I’m sure you can imagine, the Lions’ 1,272 passing yards off play-action is the most as well, is 322 yards more than the second-place Chargers.
Getting to these play-action opportunities begins with the Detroit run game, which features two very dynamic backs in Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. Combined the duo forms one of the most productive backfields in football with Detroit, as a team, averaging 5.0 yards per rush this season.
With a steady running game to lean on, the Lions often find themselves in shorter down-and-distance situations. This can force the defense to play on its heels a bit as they have to be prepared for both the run and passing games with essentially the entire playbook open to the offense.
Since Detroit does have so much success on the ground, naturally, that is going to garner quite a bit of attention from the defense, and all it takes is a split second of hesitation or half a step forward by a linebacker or safety thinking it’s a run for a passing lane to open up off play-action.
This not only can create easier pitch and catch opportunities for the offense, but explosive plays as well.
The Lions’ have utilized play-action on almost 40 percent of Jared Goff’s dropbacks this season with him completing a whopping 77 percent of those throws at 11.7 yards per attempt with nine touchdowns to three interceptions.
This obviously falls into the ‘easier said than done’ category since really no opponents have been able to do this for a sustained amount of time, but how do you slow play-action? You slow the run game.
The run-action component of it loses some juice when in a second and third-and-long situation, where the defense doesn’t have to be as concerned about the offense running the ball.
