Difference Between Ben and Morton

The Den
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People ask this question, so I’ll tell you what I see.

Ben runs the same formations. But he runs different plays out of those formations. Made him unpredictable and kept the defense on it’s toes. Mix in a few trick plays from the same formation, shifts, etc. and you have a confused defense.

Johnny Mo runs the same formations, shifts, etc. But, runs the same plays. Makes him predictable. He’s relying on the players to out play the defense’s players. Meanwhile, the DCs can set up and run counter plays. The defense have players that are being paid too.

Couple all of this with a weakened OL. (Thanks Frank) And this is what you get. No rhythm. No flavor. No problem.

And for God’s sake. Gibbs blocking blitzers has always been a problem. Just look at this and last year’s tape. Also, Gibbs up the middle…regularly, is probably the dumbest playcalling. He (Gibbs) can run between the tackles on occasion. But, not every freaking run! I see less thought on the offensive game plans.

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If this offense wasn’t so talanted I could see Morton really struggling.

I don’t think hes been bad. But I do think the talent has carried Morton more than Morton has generated the scoring.

Bens offense had purpose. Morton is just calling plays. Agree with the OP.

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They are definitely playing below the sum of their parts

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Morton is a lesser coach. Thats it.

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Guess there’s a reason he’s a journeyman coach. And not an up and comer.

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The IOL is a big factor but Morton is not nearly as creative in the run game as Ben was. It really feels like Morton is just calling random plays. Ben was always using things to set up other plays later in the game.

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Doesn’t it feel like Gibbs is getting the runs on plays that best suit Monty? And running Monty on plays that seems like a better fit for Gibbs?

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Ben is good at play calling, taking what the defense gives you.

Morton is a schizophrenic with no clue as to what he’s doing. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his buffoonery was on full display today, he had no idea what Flores does on defense. Not good when an OC doesn’t adjust to what the defense is doing or appear to even have a clue to what the defense is doing.

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The entire NFL should know what Flores does. Blitz, Blitz, and Blitz some more. The Vikings lead the NFL with a 44% blitz rate on defense. Own entire offensive game plan should have been schemed to counter that. There should have been no need to adjust to the Vikings blitzing. It’s what they do.

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To add…

Bears scored 47 albiet against CIN. But they are 5-3.

Ben is proving his worth.

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He’s not fooling anyone except the beat writers.

He let them be less disciplined, and has to sell them on his concepts.

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Lions offensive plays calls this year…

2nd in run attempts per game.

26th in pass attempts per game.

There’s part of your “wheres Jamo” issue. As well as being too predictable.

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People forget it took Ben Johnson a while to get into his playcalling groove. We went to New England and Dallas back to back in his first season and put up a combined 6 points. He got a lot of things wrong in that first season.

I’m not saying I think Morton will turn out to be as good as Johnson, but I would at least afford him the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them like Johnson did.

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If you’re asking, Jared Goff is the difference.

He’s a top 5 QB.

Ben and Johnny have the same record, in spite of Caleb.

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Lions are missing ragnow and Zeitler. The Vikings rushed for 140 plus yards today and we ran for 62??? We definitely weren’t ready for the Vikings pass rush and blitzing. If the Oline struggles this team struggles.

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Hopefully, but while Ben was learning on the fly Morton has a year’s experience.

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Ben was a good coordinator who benefited from good players. Morton is a bad coordinator riding good players.

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We haven’t been consistently good enough on 3rd downs for Morton to layer calls like you are describing.

If this is true can you be sure that the difference in breadth of plays isn’t tied to our OL limitations relative to last year.

To me the biggest difference between Ben and Morton so far has been that under Ben we were more buttoned up. But we had continuity for three years. Give it some time.

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Too early for me to go there. I trust Dan. If that is true then Dan will pull the plug and call plays himself. I don’t believe that will happen.

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Underwhelming is a better word to describe Morton. You hope that somebody could step in to this stable and be excellent. All year its felt like they perform in spite of the OC not because of him.

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