In a game against the Bears in September of last season, Packers QB Jordan Love fumbled a snap, recovered it and found his tight end wide open down the left sideline for a big gain against a scrambling defense. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson filed it away, apparently waiting for the right time to use it to his advantage. 15 months later, the time was right.
"We just made it into a real play," said Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
When Johnson first brought the idea to Jared Goff this week, he asked if Goff could fumble the ball on purpose and then pick it back up. Goff didn't love the sound of that, so they went with a staged stumble and fake fumble instead. Gibbs would then dive to the ground as if recovering the fumble, to draw the linebackers in the middle of the Bears defense toward the line of scrimmage and allow Sam LaPorta to run free down the field.
"The same thing happened (for the Packers)," said Gibbs. "Their tight end ran the same thing Sam ran, exact same thing."
The Lions ran the play three or four times in practice leading up to Sunday's game against the Bears, knowing that "it's a good play for that scheme," said Goff. "It’s hard to get that on them because those linebackers are so dang good at seeing it develop." But when they saw Goff lose his footing and Gibbs hit the turf, they took the bait and neglected to cover LaPorta.
21 yards later, LaPorta caught an uncontested pass from Goff in the end zone after slipping down the left sideline and the Lions were in front 34-14 in their wire-to-wire win over the Bears.
"I think the part where Gibbs dives really sells the play," said Goff. "I’m only doing half of it, but it worked. It worked like a charm."
Johnson had actually called the play earlier in the game, but Goff killed it when the Lions didn't get the right look from the Bears' defense. Amon-Ra St. Brown smiled and said, "Knowing Ben, I knew he was going to come back to it."
"Ben always got something up his sleeve," said Jameson Williams. "So it was just one of those to catch the crowd. I was actually running the deep route and I heard the crowd go, 'Ohhhhh!' It threw me off a little bit, but once I turned around and saw Sam running open, I knew it would work."
St. Brown heard the same thing. And as soon as he did, "I’m like, 'Perfect. Everyone’s thinking he probably fumbled it.' And then I look back and it’s a touchdown."
In a season where Johnson has dialed up plays like a double-reverse flea-flicker, a hook-and-ladder to Penei Sewell, a touchdown catch by Dan Skipper and touchdown passes from St. Brown to Goff and from David Montgomery to LaPorta, this might have been his most diabolical work yet.
"The stuff he comes up with every game is just crazy," said Gibbs. "You don’t see stuff like that unless you’re in college."
Asked if he's ever surprised at Johnson's inspiration for certain plays, Gibbs said, "Sh*t, now I'm not. I used to be. Now it's just like, I expect something every week."
Lions cornerback Amik Robertson was incredulous on the sideline Sunday. He was still wide-eyed in disbelief in the locker room. When he saw the stumble-fumble work to perfection, "I asked about seven people, like, 'Did he do that on purpose?'" said Robertson.
"Ben, that sh*t was crazy, excuse my language," said Robertson, confirming that he's never seen anything like it before. "There’s a lot of things they keep surprising me with. This team is crazy, man, that OC is crazy."
Sunday marked the Lions' eighth time this season putting up 30-plus points. They've suffered numerous losses on defense, but still have legitimate Super Bowl aspirations with Johnson in charge of the top scoring offense in the NFL.
"We think every play is going to work that he has," said St. Brown. "Obviously, Ben’s smart. He’s watching tape, tendencies, things that work, things that can work, so almost all the plays that he draws up, there’s a reason behind it and intent behind it, and we understand that. Any play that he draws up for us, we’re trying to execute."