Detroit Lions film review: Exploring offense's inefficiency in 34-point performance against Browns
Allen Park — After putting up 34 points against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, the Detroit Lions are once again the NFL’s top-scoring offense, tracking a little more than a point per game ahead of the franchise’s record-setting mark from a year ago.
Most weeks, you feel good about scoring 34. Against the Browns, who came into the matchup No. 1 in total defense and topping the charts against the run, both in yards per game and yards per carry allowed, you feel a little better than good.
However, Detroit’s production was atypical. The Lions can thank their defense and special teams for the output and comfortable margin of victory. In fact, the 24-point difference can be fully attributed to either drives that started in Browns territory following turnovers or Kalif Raymond’s touchdown on a punt return.
The Lions lacked their typical up-and-down-the-field explosiveness on Sunday. For the second time this season — the other being the opener against Green Bay — and fifth time in three years, the team managed fewer than 300 yards of offense. And it’s the sixth time during the same stretch they’ve been held under 5.0 yards per play.
For this week’s film review of the offense, we’ll take a deeper dive into the abnormal performance, where you love the final score, but are eager to improve on the path you took to get there.