Lions 3rd drive was 18 plays, went 98 yards and took 10:48 off the clock.
This is the type of offense I wanted us to run in the playoffs vs Washington last year but oddly we wanted to have a shoot-out with them.
I firmly believe this is the type of offense Dan wants to run. He specifically has mentioned he liked Morton as a grinder.
This got me thinking …. Just how good is this drive?
So I did some digging. The longest recorded drive in NFL history was by the Tennessee Oilers — at Dallas — Nov 27, 1997 — 13:27 — 21 plays — Field goal
It’s not unprecedented but most all of the drives over 11min were from 35 years or more ago. I wanted to know how good is it in the modern NFL.
Well here’s where it ranked.
This drive by the Lions was the 5th longest drive in the last 25 years and the 4th longest that ended in a TD.
I think a lot of people knew we were going to come out a little flat in that first game because that seems to be the trend the last few years. This year we just happened to be paired with a team that was decent. If anything we got things together a little quicker this year as I was fully expecting it to take until at least week 3(our game last night) before we started clicking. Again this is just based off how we’ve started the last couple of years. Joint practices are one thing during the preseason, but I still don’t think(nor ever will) that they replace snaps in the preseason against other starters. Injuries happen, as we’re very familiar with. Whether that’s a preseason game, or the 3rd snap of the regular season. That’s what your front office is there for. I’d also argue that it’s far easier to find a replacement in the preseason than in the regular season.
Andy Reid runs a “long drive drill” every training camp. Its 14 plays of offense vs defense…quick snaps…very few substitutions. Its 14 straight plays regardless of the outcome of each play. Line up and do it again!
