Some interesting thoughts by Nick Wright. I’ve never really agreed with him on much, but I do agree with him about the need for a coaching edge after the culture has been established and our schematic edge went away when Ben walked out the door.
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Nick Wright is a total tool…but he is correct in this case. We’ve had no schematic advantage this year.
I saw a blurb or article about how Dan is the most presictable playcaller in the league. I’m not sure how one can quantify that but it matches what we’ve seen. Ah, found it…
PFSN Analyst Jason Katz says Dan Campbell is the most predictable play caller in the NFL.
Of course, the six turnovers will be the story. But Katz argues that turnovers don’t just happen – they are the product of a number of other factors. Dan Campbell is doing exactly what the defense expects him to every single time, making it too easy.
The running game wasn’t working. He continued to call dives with his most explosive player. Jahmyr Gibbs took a screen pass on the first drive for 10 yards. Campbell never threw him another pass again.
There were no downfield shots. No effort to get the ball to players in space. It was dives up the gut multiple plays in a row. When that inevitably failed, it was straight dropbacks where the Vikings could easily bring pressure, which Jared Goff cannot handle.
Katz says there wasn’t an iota of coaching done by Campbell. His play calling was simply “Do whatever we didn’t do last time.”
And the Vikings sniffed it out easily.
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You can’t take downfield shots when you have 1 second to throw the ball.
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No but theres a chess match to be played between the coordinators and I don’t see Dan callingvplays with the foresight or plan of that play setting the defense up for a similar play later to fool them.
Screen passes are designed to slow a passrush, we ran one. The Vikings were rushing 7 players in some cases, where were the hot routes? Some of this was on Goff as well though, I don’t think he’s been good at recognizing blitzes this year…nor has the O-line though.
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To be honest, I didn’t think we needed exotic scheming to beat this Vikings team. Probably would’ve been tough on a short week anyway. What we needed to do was not turn the ball over 6 times. The only thing I really had a problem with was the way they used Gibbs. Slamming him up the middle and ignoring him in the passing game was just stupidity of the highest level. If we had our starting offensive line from the beginning of the year, then I would’ve been ok occasionally giving the ball to Gibbs and sending him up the middle. He’s had some big runs doing that this year. But I think we’ve learned (at least the fans have) over the last month that it doesn’t work with the OL we have in there now. Just a brutally bad job.
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So what happens with Goff between this year and last then regarding Flores pressure? Last year he had eye popping stats against Flores blitz packages, Toasted and swept them and everyone was hailing how Goff owned Flores with the Vikings
This year he suddenly can’t handle pressure? Is it scheme or personell? Besides our Oline not able to sustain blocks and not having an OC…
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Honestly a handful of simple texas routes would work great with gibbs. So would slants to jamo.
I dont blame dan though. Good coach but cant handle doing both hc and oc. No big deal, few can do that.
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There was a chart I shared a few weeks ago that had him middle of the pack in sequencing and predictability. That same chart, though, relied too much on play action in its grade.
Not sure there is a specific grade we can all agree on, but the 1st week when he started getting Jamo going was positive.
In the end, we miss Ragnow more than anything. We miss him this year like we did the years after Barry’s retirement missed a run game.
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But you SHOULD blame Dan because he’s the one who made the decision to hire Morton. This is squarely on his shoulders.
Dan is not a coordinator. He picks plays off of a sheet that he thinks will work given what he is observing on the field. That isn’t scheming or planning or even a strategy, and he put himself into that position because of a bad hire he made—which is why it’s CRITICAL they get it right this offseason.
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Yeah, him and Brad, and the team in general has blame to go All around
But i think its done with pointing fingers, and now comes the time to fix the issues with the team
I can’t find it now but they kept flashing stat about Dan’s success with explosive plays I believe lions leading the league since Dan took over though might’ve dropped after Vikings game. How does that fit with being predictable or are you just talking the Vikings game ? Or and the Steelers game as recent developments towards sniffing out what Dan is wanting to do ?
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Weird take considering we were 30 minutes and one of the most EPIC SOL meltdowns in history of being in…you know…the Super Bowl.
Only Brady’s comeback vs Atlanta in the actual Super Bowl was bigger than the 49ers comeback against us in the history of the playoffs.
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I think that it’s very possible that Dan is one of the most predictable play callrin the NFL right now… But it’s circumstantial.
Every single thing we do as relying upon the run game working When our run game is not working, nothing else works The playcalling becomes different, when you have extremely lower talent
Going for it on fourth down is probably the most important part of this that people are thinking of. They’re probably correct in saying that it’s predictable When you have several pro bowlers on your offensive line, you can literally point to where the ball is going and still get your first down
The way it is now, we need more element of surprise, but the kicker is that our offensive line doesn’t afford us the time to do things that take time to develop.
The play book is extremely limited when you have the offensive line that we fielded this year
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Sorry, I should have been clearer.I mean, I don’t blame dan for the end.Game issues with calling an offense because he’s too busy being head coach, but I do blame him for poor coordinator hires and that has been his issue his whole time here
He has two former coordinators as HC right now.
He parted ways with Lynn and what’s-his-name at secondary coach.
This didn’t work out due to the best C in our lifetimes retiring and Brad having a stubborn approach to personnel that cost us Zeitler and any type of help on the DL.
Dan has made good decisions and bad. The bad he is quick to move on from. Whatever his faults, I can’t criticize his coaching hires.
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I found this take from a Lions fan on Reddit somewhat interesting:
Okay so earlier this year when Johnny Mo came on he said he wanted to…
“Hunt for explosives”
Mo is from the school of the Air Coryell system. It uses geometry to stretch the field wide and deep.
The issue, to get those chunk plays you need to hold the ball longer.
This season Lions rank #1 in 40+ yard completions.
The Ben Johnson likes the Erhart-Perkins system.
This system is based around simplicity. Where the play call is very short, and the players run the same route just from different formations.
It resulted in short to mid range plays.
The data reveals what happened.
2024 Lions - Average depth to target 7.1 yards.
Goff’s pocket time was 2.3s Pressure to sack 18.2% EPA + 0.22
Shift to this year
2025 Lions - Average depth to target 9.1
Goff’s pocket time was 2.6s Pressure to sack 23.9% EPA + 0.18
What all this means is Goff had to hold onto the ball longer, to allow plays to develop.
Obviously with an interior offensive line made of rookies, 3rd stringers and a journeyman this was a storm waiting to happen.
Another interesting thing, that I noticed was rhythm…
Last year it felt like they’d get into a rhythm, which is a halmark of the Erhart-Perkins system. Shorter plays to get yards to get the team in a rhythm.
Where this year if we got disrupted chasing chunk plays, we got behind in the count and things became disjointed.
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No Ragnow calling out the protections…?
and no Ragnow to not snap the ball sideways 
But yeah. a lot more shotgun this year because of the weak oline. That removes a lot of the game plan and allows linebackers to gain the extra second not having to honor a well done under center play action
That along with interior pressure and losing our top two tight ends…
Teams just bracket Amon and all they have todo is stop the big run plays
remember early in the year when the offense would seem to bog down a little bit, and Goff and Laporta would start connecting to give the offense more dimension. Not only did we lose that entire option of integrating tight ends, but we lost the inherent blocking advantage of starting tight ends, who know the scheme.
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it’s a lot of hot air.
The playbook is still the playbook. The difference is Jamo’s growth and Dan’s intentionality. He wants Jamo lightening the box so Jah can eat. If you’re going to load the box, we’re gonna hit Jamo.
Someone’s always wanting to make it about Cornell, Perkins or WCO. It is what it is, a collaboration of plays from Dan’s time in NO plus what Johnny contributed a couple years ago plus what Ben has bookmarked from past systems.
Nobody talks in those terms anymore because it doesn’t matter anymore.
There is no such thing as windows!