This is not my work, but over at POD. This guy (John Whiticar) sums it up better than I can my frustrations with Morton. Deleted some content for quicker reading.
“Outside of a dominant first drive (largely due to Sam LaPorta), the offense was inept. The Lions under Morton are stubbornly dedicated to running the ball up the middle and executing short passes. Jahmyr Gibbs had three catches for three yards—they refuse to utilize him as anything other than a dump off option. Outside of the first and last drives, the Lions could hardly muster a successful drive. They had four three-and-outs, plus a fifth three-play drive that ended due to a fumble. The Lions offense is better than this.”
Our interior OL is bottom 5 in the league and our QB has no redeeming qualities when everything isn’t just perfect protection wise. This squad is going nowhere fast. Losing Ragnow ended their season, as he left them high and dry with no time to realistically look for a replacement. This is a 9 or so win team, maybe squeak into final wild card and get lambasted in round 1.
Spot on. I’ll give Morton some leeway as Chicago has had good line play (Thuney is a stud, Jackson is average at G), but their LT situation has been a revolving door. Agree with you 100%.
My issue in watching this team since we’ve become good and somewhat successful, is they get into the habit of sniffing their own farts.
and then we have the ‘correction’ game that coach says we needed. And then we play like a chip on our shoulder again.
Problem is everyone keeps saying we’re one of, if not THE top team in the NFC. Impossible for players to not see that.
We played against the vikings like we thought they were not that good (they’re not) but the vikings showed up grittier and tougher than we were.
Our offensive playcalling was.
My problem is, we’ve had 3 of those games already this year. a ‘maybe we needed that’ game.
Is that the issue with the team? If you play at 110% all the time is there a dropoff because you just can’t maintain that energy ALL the time? Little bit of ego seeping in to the players and coaching staff?
Until they correct this mentality and play calling, I can’t see us going deep into the playoffs, if we make it.
Why are you ignoring the difference in the offense, you keep saying the same thing to everyone. Players make plays for sure, but there still is the fact that we’re pretty predictable, and there no setting plays up anymore. Then difference between him and Ben is quit noticeable in all fazes. Yet you don’t see any of it. I’m shocked someone as knowledgeable as you don’t see a difference in the coordinators.
The more and more I think about it. The more I think lions best their selfs. Gave Minnesota great field advantage. KO return, monty fumble, blocked fg. And some how only lost by a fg. Still pissed they lost this game
I get the frustration as it is something we haven’t really done in three years since we emerged from that 1-6 start. We totally beat ourselves with countless backbreaking errors - ST gaffes, the fumble, penalties on both sides of the ball and assignment errors. Vikings played a much cleaner game. Yet one or two small breaks and we could have won it.
We had won 5 straight v the Vikings and they came in salty and ready for a brawl. Reminded me a small bit of the Packers home defeat on thanksgiving back in 2023 after we had given them 3 or 4 beatings. Just too many errors to overcome
Our QB is on pace for 35 Plus TDs, 6 ints and over 4100 yards with a 115 rating…. WITH YOUR BOTTOM 5 RUN BLOCKING OL, thus making us fairly predictable.
I think the zebras helped a bit in the JJ “homecoming” as the Campbell hit took them from 3rd and long and gave them 15 yards and a 1st down. The. Watch the Amik illegal contact at 7 yards downfield, and watch 80% of Ra’s routes where he’s contacted at the top of his route.
The refs gifted two different drives to be extended with weak to awful calls. Then add in the ST blunders, and Monty funble… that’s a wrap
My problem with Morton? He’s calling the game like the other team doesn’t care what happens. He’s still committed to rotating back vs a hot hand approach…. He’s committed to a traditional run game vs using draws, sweeps, reverses etc.
My issue is the Lions have abandoned the element of surprise and willingness to take chances “too much.” They are trying to lineup and call the play they want to call, versus the one they think will expose the defense we are being shown.
They also aren’t disguising their screen game for shit. They setup, telegraph who they are going to dump it off to, and hope 3 guys perfectly time and execute their blocks.
I agree that it’s OK to overreact as this is who the Lions are right now. The Lions achilles heel is the interior of the O-Line and you saw where the Vikings attacked. Blitzing through the middle and stacking the D-line stuffing the run game. With Ragnow retirement and not re-signing Zeitler, they took a gamble going into the season with an again vet at center and two young players at guard, now with Mahogany out, it gets even worse for them. Goff isn’t good with pressure up the middle so it changes the whole game. I wish I was more optimistic - I know it’s one game but if I was game planning against the Lions, the Vikings found the formula and exploited that interior O-line.
Are those PFF rankings? Personally I’d be unwilling to draw sweeping conclusions based off of that.
Also, “scheme” is such an overarching somewhat nebulous term. If it “HAS” to be scheme then what specifically do you mean? Are the plays not drawn up properly with defenders being unaccounted for? Or do you mean scheme in the sense of how we’re putting together and sequencing run efforts? Or something different altogether. From my vantage it seems like ‘scheme” is often a way of people here suggesting it’s not the players fault. And my eyes yesterday saw a lot of offensive lineman getting their butts whooped not being “out-schemed” although the latter is IMO difficult to prove one way or another.
But let’s say it’s run game scheme that is the culprit. What are we going to do about it? We’re not going to demote Hank as run game coordinator. It is my understanding that he was given that title in part to keep him here rather than being poached. So we need to let Hank work through this and grow. Morton as well but it’s my understating that the run game is largely Hank’s baby.
Put my $ where my overreact mouth is, $100 on Vikes to win the Div at +1300. It worked for me re Cleveland winning the Central over the Tigers with similar odds about halfway through the season; when my eyes told me the Tigers have bad trends that were bound to catch up to them, kind of like when my eyes watch the Lions
Yes, pff is what it is, a flawed tool, but it does have some merit (I think it’s best at OL evaluation tbh) based on my eyes vs their rankings.
As far as scheme, in the passing game, I’m talking about route concepts… There were a lot of plays yesterday where guys weren’t even out of their breaks yet before pressure got there. Goff literally had no one to throw to… No outlet receiver… No hot route… No play designed to beat the blitz. If they’re sending 7, SOMEONE has to be open immediately… You’ve gotta help your QB and OL in that situation. And we’ve all agreed that GG is average at best as a run blocker, so WHY do they continue to run directly behind him with Gibbs? It’s like driving a corvette only on residential streets… All through training camp there were videos and talk of Gibbs running actual WR routes, about both RB’s being on the field at the same time to stress the defense… We’ve seen almost none of that. They should be zone blocking and running behind Sewell and Ratledge waaaay more than they are. They should be getting Jamo and Gibbs in space to make plays… Can I get a friggen rub route? How about more than 1 slant a game? I’ve also noticed they really favor plays over the middle of the field, where are the boundary throws? Why is Leaf in the game? He’s a gadget player, great teammate and person be damned, he provides no physical advantage on offense.
There’s a ton they can do to improve the flow of the offense… I feel like they’re being rigid with play calling and waiting for players to “clean up the mistakes” instead of trying to maximize their current strengths
That’s my concern. They got whipped in the trenches in 3 games, KC, Green Bay and Minnesota. There are only a handful of times that’s happened the previous two seasons combined. It’s a definite concern
See I can’t even tell what the route concept is unless it’s in ALl 22 or a specific retail. And I certainly don’t know what Jared’s hot read is on a given play. Are you suggesting that Morton is rolling out plays in which Jared has no hot read? That seems improbable.
