Allen Park — One of the most important moves the Detroit Lions made this offseason was hiring Drew Petzing as the team’s offensive coordinator.
After taking a step back following former coordinator Ben Johnson’s departure, requiring a mid-season play-calling change, Petzing was brought in after three years in Arizona to get things back on track.
With heavy personnel carryover, including the quarterback and talent-rich arsenal, the biggest offseason adjustments were to Detroit’s offensive line.
For our first film review of the regular season, let’s look how the offense operated under Petzing, breaking things down, drive-by-drive.
We’ll cap this lengthy dissection with some bulleted thoughts at the end of the post.
Possession 1: 3 plays, 6 yards, Punt
The Lions opened with a couple of bread-and-butter plays; a duo run for Jahmyr Gibbs that netted 4 yards up the gut and a short out route to Amon-Ra St. Brown for another 5, setting up a third-and-1.
Those aren’t sexy calls, but they were nerve-calming and efficient.
Looking to set an early tone, Detroit went to 13 personnel — three tight ends — for the short-yardage situation, aligning Brock Wright and Sam LaPorta off right tackle, and Tyler Conklin in the backfield as the lead blocker in an I for Gibbs.
Before the snap, LaPorta motioned to the left side and the ball was put in play once he was set, with the run heading that direction. However, before Gibbs could turn the corner, he was met in the backfield by linebacker Pete Werner, who shot the A gap, resulting in a 3-yard loss.
This was a blocking breakdown, which initially looked to be on center Juice Scruggs, who made a late effort to slow Werner, but only managed to shove the defender into Gibbs’ path. However, the end-zone look shows it was guard Christian Mahogany who was at fault.
Working a combination with left tackle Penei Sewell, Mahogany pushed too far to his left, opening the door for Werner without the ability to address the downhill threat. Scruggs, broke off his one-on-one assignment to help, but couldn’t fix his teammates mistake, resulting in the drive-killing stop.