Lions Tight End Oh Sh*t Play Game Winner
The Tight End Oh Sh*t play has been around football for a long time. Throughout the years it has been coached where the tight end actually falls down on the ground before getting up to slip out the other side of the formation. You don’t see that very much anymore, but you definitely see this play show up a lot, particularly in the red zone.
You had to be happy for Dan Campbell and the Lions on Sunday. They won the football game on this very well designed play. We have to also understand that Campbell himself played tight end back in the day at Texas A&M and in the NFL. His sense of pride had to be enormous as he watched his old position score the game winner. His tight end was rambling down the field to score the decisive TD right when he needed it most.
This play had a lot of sidebars to it as well. For starters the ball was on the 50 yard line and not in the red zone, where it normally shows up. There is a part of me that believes the Lions reached into their red zone plays for this one. After all, it was like a 2 point play. It was 4th and inches on the 50 yard line with 2:00 remaining on the clock. If you are a defensive coach, you always have to be ready for something sneaky after the 2 minute warning break.
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Here’s the part we liked best about this play. Yes, the Jets were playing for the quarterback sneak and they loaded up the A and B gaps. It was also pretty obvious that they were in some sort of man coverage as #30 ran with the Lions motion. This motion did something more important than reveal the coverage though.
This motion actually made the tight end #89 number four in a 4×1 distribution when the ball was snapped. Every offensive and defensive coordinator knows that when this happens your backside linebacker is going to need to push his coverage to the strong side. That New York Jets defender was #57 in this moment.
The Lions Staff Did A Lot Of Clever Things To Get The Tight End Open On This Play
Because #30 had traveled with the motion, #57 was in charge of the #4 eligible receiver. That’s right, that just happened to be the tight end, #89 Brock Wright. The Lions didn’t stop there. They faked the run at the four man side and even had short routes over there. These routes were conveniently jumped by the Jets. This allowed the tight end, Brock Wright to fake a block down inside before leaking out the other side.
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Goff found him in stride. It was a beautiful 50 yard trip to the end zone if you were the Lions or a Lions fan. So hats off to old tight end and tight end coach Dan Campbell. His offense executed this All 22 play to perfection and improved to 7-7 on the season. Also, congrats to the excellent play call by the Lions offensive staff at just the right time yesterday.
