Lions Chargers Analysis: How the Lions Offense and Ben Johnson Exploited the Chargers Defense

The Lions played the Chargers week 10 and the Lions exploited the Chargers defense in numerous ways. They took advantage of them in both the run game and pass game. They threw the ball to the middle of the field and ran the ball extremely well on the perimeter. Jared Goff threw for 333 yards and 2 td. St. Brown had 8 catches for 156 yards and Montgomery and Gibbs combined for 193 yards on the ground.

The Lions did a great job by formation making Bosa and Mack OLB and when they did they had a great advantage. It took 2 dominant pass rushers and made them mediocre football players. When Bosa is a standup player he is very average and the Lions exploited this nd often forced Mack and Bosa into coverage. They really had some great play calls when the Chargers put thes 2 great players at OLB in their 3-4 or 6-1 scheme.

The game plan was phenomenal as they forced Mack and Bosa to play in space by formation and personnel groupings.

Run Game Schemes

Chargers 3-4

Ran away from Bosa and made him a cutback player. He was very uncomfortable playing cutback and they exploited him a few times. Here is an example on toss. Bosa is in poor position to play the cutback and looks awkward in the process.

The play starts with the TE out wide in 12 P then motioned and shifted back inside. From there they run escort motion and toss the ball. They get great movement up front and this forces Bosa to play the cutback. He is out of position and the play takes off for a big gain.

The same play run at Bosa from a different set. Same 3-4 defense and they run it for 7 yards.

Chargers 6-1

They take advantage of the 6-1 front with Tuli and Mack as an OLB here. They run pin and pull and crack on Tuli, Whether it was Bosa, Tuli or Mack, they wanted to attack the perimeter when this grouping was in the game.

Playing the DE wide vs condensed formation. Interesting decision by the Chargers to play their DE outside St Brown, creating a huge cutback lane on the weakside on wide zone. Again. the Lions forcing and getting what they want offensively by formation.

Pass Game

Here the Chargers are playing a 3-4. The Lions come out and put St. Brown at the #3 position and run him on a post concept. They have a dig route on the other side which occupies the safety.

The Chargers are in a 3-4 with Bosa and Mack walked wa out as OLB. No threat to rush as they drop them into coverage. They get absolutely no pass rush and the Lions hit the easy post route down field.

They created a very soft pass rush by formation.

Example #2 of Forcing Bosa and Mack into coverage. The Lions go play action and they block back on Bosa with the TE off their wide zone play action. Again, Bosa is an OLB which is an advantage for the offense.

Again a shift motion by Johnson, which opens up the pass game.

In the 3rd example, the Chargers spread them out and they force Bosa andMack into coverage again. The Chargers send 3 in the red zone but again Johnson forces the issue by putting the 2 Te out wide in 12 personnel. This allows St Brown to work in the slot for an effective gain. Not bad coverage, but no rush whatsoever.

Another example where the Chargers go 3-4 but send the CB instead of mack. The Tackle is going to work towards Mack anyway because no one is going to leave Mack 1x1 with a rb so the tackle just takes the cb. They run St Brown on the dig and hit him for an easy completion.

The Lions take advantage of the huge mismatch as the Chargers try to run the cb fire.

Screens

The Lions are a great screen team. Often running screens off their run action. They run it off counter blocking below.

These are just some of the ways Johnson exploited the Chargers defense and had a great day offensively.

Thanks for reading my posts!