Sidecar? 13? How tricky formations helped Lions bust up Viking
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This is a formation the Lions showed just once in the first half, but once the second half began, it became their bread and butter.
Detroit used “13” personnel on its first four plays of the second half: the first a play-action completion to LaPorta, the second having Wright and Conklin each motioning to the right off the line of scrimmage into the sidecar and the third a play-action pass that eventually found Gibbs in space for a 13-yard completion. And though the drive ended with zero points soon after the Lions went back to a more traditional formation (with kicker Jake Bates doinking a field goal attempt), it showed the variations of Detroit’s three-TE sets Minnesota had to account for.
Defenses normally don’t focus much on fullbacks in the backfield, as they’re often there to block and occasionally serve as a check-down option. But with someone as dynamic as LaPorta lining up in the backfield, the Vikings had to prepare for the variations of him as a blocker, a receiver, a decoy or a ball-carrier. And since the Lions hadn’t put this formation on film before this week, Minnesota’s defense had to adjust in real time.
As Yahoo’s Nate Tice pointed out on X on Sunday, the sidecar formation brought effective results for the Lions run game in the second half.
