It is OK okay to disagree.
My one year too late is specifically aimed at putting an offense together that fits what Goff does well. Ben Johnson is hard at work looking at film and building a new offense that works for Goff. It would have been nice to do that last year. That was my point.
When dudes are getting hurt, getting called in off the streets, backups to the backup of the backup…
Which offense could we have employed…while WRs are running the wrong routes that would have worked better for Goff?
p.s.
We are SO lucky to have this coaching staff.
LIke @SchemeTheDream says → total ■■■■■■■ super-hero of a coach.
Dan Campbell is going to create a Steeler-type situation here.
My comment is about Campbell and Lynn’s decisions in early 2021. As Air pointed out; coaches like Patricia talk about coaching to player strengths. Campbell talked about this too. And I LIKE Campbell a lot.
But Dan didn’t do that on offense in 2021. He and Lynn didn’t do what Ben Johnson are doing now. They didn’t craft an offense around what Goff does well. That was a mistake regardless of talent. Crafting an offense around Goff strengths should have been step #1 in 2021…not an exercise in 2022!
And Honestly the defense is changing too. Maybe not huge steps but the defense didn’t seem to fit what Dan wants to do either.
I live Dan. The team played hard for him. But it appears Dan didn’t build a staff that built schemes around player strength year one. Lynn certainly didn’t do this.
Credit to Dan that he is correcting these issues. But damn, getting the big stuff right was Dan’s job and he didn’t coach around player strengths in 2021. He is now. What changed for Dan?
Experience
Health of team
Draftpicks
Different players offer more scheme versatility
Players that have experience can learn more and do more
When you have a hodgepodge of players, that have no continuity, dont’ know the playbook, run the wrong routes, are out of position, etc…how do you play to their strengths.
How do you play to the strengths of players that don’t have strengths?
Feels like you are talking about one person → Goff.
As someone else pointed out, we won 3 games when we were picked to win 0.
Every. Single. Thing…about Coach Dan says low ego, ask questions, no stone unturned, do everythign you can to win, empower staff to make decisions without micro management, etc.
Pure, clean, true, team effort.
Dan is our biggest strength, and the most important guy in the organization by light years.
Dude made a bad hire for OC, and let his OC do the same thing he let all of his other assistants do…have autonomy.
Delegation and empowerment of his staff is a big part of the reason he will have a Bill Cowher-like success.
Sit back and enjoy the show, my brother. It’s coming.
I literally would not trade our coach for any coach in the NFL. I think we have the best coach in the league. Just like any other position in the world, you get better at it with more experience.
Dan’s learning and getting better every year - 
Love it!
Great post.
I can recall saying Lynn was the scapegoat and I think if you could get thumbs down for posts, it would have been up there amongst the leaders.
The fact is that there were so many things correlating with Lynn’s departure, we’ll never know whether it was him or all the other things – ie. the team gelling under Dan, young receivers finally coming around, Decker coming back, Goff coming out of his shell, the competition, the weather, adding Josh Reynods, etc etc. If you look at passer ratings with and without Reynolds on the field, there’s a huge difference.
I do think we’re in a better place now. I’m just thankful it was handled so damn professionally on both sides.
The word on Lynn in SD is that he was a great team guy, players loved him, he was inspirational and a high character person. But he was eventually let go because his game decisions were terrible and his offense was predictable. run run run pass. Every drive.
I think Holmes was drawn more to the person than the talent there. And his experience as a former head coach wasn’t a net positive weighed against his poor game planning
But in Lynn’s defense, at the start of last season how can you build an offense around a team with no WR and injuries all across the Oline. They say Sundays are for prayer. He must have done a lot of that fielding that team
I read a post on Reddit that was more optimistic about our offense.
Before Campbell’s takeover, the Lions were 0-8, scoring 16.25 points per game, and with Goff’s passer rating at 85.3.
After the change, in games Goff played, the Lions were 3-2-1, scoring 22.67 points per game, and with Goff’s passer rating at 101.8
How many of those games for Dan’s offense are games Goff played injured or we were starting a backup QB?
Not trying to argue, and I haven’t checked any stats, but I feel that if you just count the games where Goff is starting the numbers look a little better.
DC is Bill Cowher’s bastard…Dan Snow. Coming for his stint on the Iron Throne.
YES!
The dragons no longer have a mother…they have a lord, and they are commanded by Coach Dan!
Here are some stats I find more valuable than the full game stats.
In 8 games with Lynn… Lions score 49 points in the first half of games.
In 6 games with Goff playing and MCDC calling plays… Lions scored 81 points in the first half of games.
A lot of the “stats” gained under Lynn… the Lions were facing softer coverage in the 2nd half of game they trailed.
Brad + Dan = Bran
I think your seeing what you want to see.
Goff threw 8 TD’s under Lynn with no WR’s and two major injuries on his OL.
Goff threw 9 TD’s under Dan with better weapons all around, and a healthy OL.
Not to mention the defense was considerably better down the stretch. Which I think is a big reason the offense looked better.
If you take away the snow-bowl game which was an abbreviation then Dans offense averaged just 3 points more per game than Lynn’s.
However the defense gave up 30.5 points a game under Lynn and just 24.7 per game under Dan and Dans numbers are skewed by the Seattle game where we gave up 51 points.
The stats don’t support the claim that the offense got better. Especially when you take into consideration Goff had a better OL, WR’s and a considerably better defense down the stretch yet that offense could only muster 3 points more per game on average?
The defensive play is why we won and why we looked like a better team. Not the offense.
Didn’t Goff score 11 TDs under Dan? That’s the stat I keep seeing
selectively picking stats is happening by all here…
but I mainly and basing my opinion on what I watched and the fact that the Lions moved the ball in the 1st hapf of games late in the season…. while they looked incompetent under Lynn until they were trailing and playing softer coverages.
Having Decker back, adding Reynolds, and the development of ARSB all helped… so there is not one thing to give all the credit.
The Lions scored 20+ points or more only 1 time in 8 games with Lynn… but scored 29+ points in 3 of the last 4 games Goff played… and even scored 29 points with Tim Freaking Boyle under center.
Biggest thing I learned in statistics class in college…you can use them to prove anything you want, regardless of position…it’s part of why I don’t give a shit about stats.
Sniff test → Players had MORE fire and passion, felt more invested, and won games.
That stat supports that they got better.
Well I also took statistics and advanced statistics in college it was necessary to get my degree.
I will tell you statistics do not lie but you can lie with statistics.
They are only as good as the data that you use and the context you use them in. Range and mean also matter.
Your HC Dan and GM Holmes are huge on analytics. Does that make them fools? Is the information useless or is it meaningful?
If stats lie and are meaningless then why do coaches use them constantly in the NFL? …. Why … because they provide insight. But context is everything.
For example if I made the claim that speed matters at CB a poster could easily find a number of slow CB’s who succeeded in the NFL. But that doesn’t really disclaim the original comment. Speed does matter and that is why so many teams want speed at CB. It’s a clear benefit but not a end all be all. Context matters
But if I charted all the best CB’s in the NFL I’d find that there’s a minimum speed range needed to succeed and an average mean that’s ideal.
Fact is that stats don’t support the claim that the offense was better under Dan. They averaged just 3 more points a game, had more weapons, a better defense and a healthy OL.
I think fans want to believe that because we played so poorly in the middle of the season that we saw improvement down the stretch. We won some games and the defense also played better down the stretch. I would be willing to bet had Lynn stayed OC that the team would have finished much the same.
But I digress…. lol
True
Interesting choice of words. Where did that come from? Certainly not my creation.
Depends on how you use it.
More as “tendencies” and “rules of thumb”…not absolute.
Why do they consider things other than stats? Like…
-Level of competition
-Energy/Dawg in them
-Love of game, etc
Is it possible to love football and suck at it? I know I did both. LOL
it’s not as black and white as the “proof” that the presenters try to display it with…almost ever.
Unless you consider Wins and losses a stat.
Efficiency stats would also support it.
Lots of truth here too.
Some ppl have massive issues seeing how 2 truths can mutually exist. It’s not as black and white as most think. Almost nothing in life is.
I really think Goff improved down the stretch, as well as health of the team.
Possibly…and that would still be a reflection of Dan’s coaching, IMO.
No part of me feels Lynn was a scapegoat, as Dan is not a scapegoat type of coach. Zero chance. If that were the case, it would mean Dan is a fraud.
-He had no reason to scapegoat anyone, because he had immunity this year.
I promise you Dan had a reason to fire him, and that Brad agreed with that reason. I could say with a fair degree of certainty it has to do with alignment of the team in some way.
They handled it with class, and we will never know…and I LIKE that.
Like I said they had a difference in philosophy and direction and were not seeing eye to eye.
FYI he did want him. He tried to keep him on his staff and Lynn decided it was best to move on.
Dan didn’t fire him. He demoted him, wanted to keep him but Lynn chose to move on because he got more opportunities elsewhere.
I haven’t seen that anywhere. That’s how I came to that conclusion (totally based on assumption).
From what I read he wasn’t demoted, but they took away his play calling duties. My memory isn’t the best tho, curious what he was demoted to.