The Detroit Lions are coming off an ugly 16-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night where the offense couldn’t get anything going.
Jared Goff played what may have been his worst game in a Lions uniform since 2021, and the Lions rushed for just 74 yards on 21 attempts.
It was a rock-bottom showing for an offense that has not lived up to preseason expectations. The Lions are 6-4 and currently out of the playoff picture after looking like the class of the NFC just one short month ago. The NFL moves fast.
Lions run game can get work done vs. Giants in Week 12
Detroit’s rushing attack has long been the team’s lifeblood, though the unit has been average this year. Their raw rushing numbers of 130.1 yards per game and 4.6 yards per carry both barely crack the NFL top 10, but Detroit is just 21st in estimated points added (EPA) per rush with -0.04.
EPA is a statistic that attempts to measure the value of a play in terms of how it increases or decreases a team’s chances of scoring. It takes contextual factors like down, distance and field position into consideration.
So while Detroit’s raw rushing numbers have been fine, the ground game is still underperforming in terms of actually helping the team win. (Or at least according to this stat)
Some have questioned David Montgomery’s relative lack of utilization as Jahmyr Gibbs dominates the touches. Gibbs got the ball 17 times on Sunday night compared to seven from Montgomery, and Dan Campbell said this week that he’d “always like to get David more carries”.
It’s tough to say how much the flow of the game plays into that lack of usage for Montgomery, but there’s plenty of reason to believe the Lions can get him going this Sunday.
That’s because the 2-9 New York Giants, who have yet to win on the road this year, are coming to Ford Field. The Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll on November 10.
New York has been bad just about everywhere this year, but especially against the run. They allow the third-most rushing yards per game in the NFL at 149.9, the most yards per carry at 5.5., and the second-most rushing touchdowns with 15.
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And unlike Detroit, the EPA numbers line up with that too. The Giants allow the highest EPA per rush in the league at 0.16.
There is talent on the Giants’ defensive front. Dexter Lawrence is arguably the NFL’s best interior rusher. Edge Brian Burns who is second in the NFL in sacks with 15 and rookie No. 3 overall pick Abdul Carter has been impressive as a rookie. But New York specializes in rushing the passer. They’ve been terrible against the run.
This could be the Lions’ chance to get “Sonic and Knuckles” back to being the offensive engines that they are capable of being. But Detroit has had injuries on the interior offensive line and is really feeling the retirement of Frank Ragnow.
If the Lions can dominate this subpar run defense like they’re capable of doing, it’ll be a sigh of relief. If they don’t, then maybe it’s a sign that not all of these issues plaguing Campbell’s offense are that “fixable”.
“We’ve had some great games where we’ve had record setting days and we’ve had some bad games like last week,” Goff said. “You want to try and find consistency there and be on the right side of that more often.”