When John Morton reviewed the Lions' loss last Sunday to the Vikings, the worst part of the film was "the protection," he said.
"We can draw up all these plays we want, it doesn’t matter. Winning our one-on-one matchups, that was big. That set us back, second and long, third and long, we had a lot of third and longs. But when we did things right, we did really well. That was the biggest thing. It’s just clogging the middle up, protection. You can’t do a lot of stuff (without) that. We all had our hand in the game plan, and we’ll do things differently next time," Morton said Thursday.
The Lions offensive coordinator had a slightly different view on things than their head coach, and their two most veteran offensive linemen. Immediately after the game, Dan Campbell was asked about the problems presented by the Vikings' aggressive, blitzing defense and said, "Listen, we did not handle some of the communication well. Not well enough, where we all need to be on the same page. That’s the bottom line."
Campbell reiterated that Monday having watched the film, calling on the coaching staff to do "a better job" at practice "of really making our point about the communication and how it’s going to go down" on the offensive line. He said the Lions have "been pretty good" in that regard this season, but "it caught us a couple of times yesterday."
Goff was sacked five times and pressured a season-high 18 times, while the ground game averaged just 3.3 yards per carry. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs was asked to pass-block a season-high 15 times, per PFF, against various blitzes by the Vikings and was charged with seven pressures and a sack.
The breakdowns in Morton's view were due to one player missing a block here, a receiver running the wrong route there -- and certainly Campbell saw some of those issues, too. Indeed, some of them were glaring. Morton acknowledged the Vikings caused issues with "their movement up front," but said the Lions "had things for it, we had chances." He believes that "when you watch it in detail ... We had a good scheme." All 11 players just didn't execute it in concert frequently enough for the Lions to win.
The identifications of the defense by center Graham Glasgow and Jared Goff "have been good," said Morton. The communication, he said, "has been really good ever since the Green Bay game."
"It’s just a matter of some guys getting beat," Morton said. "That’s all it is, man. I’m just telling you. When you look at it over and over and over, it’s one or two guys that are just breaking down. We’ve got young guys, they’re still learning, and really they shouldn’t be because, man, we’re halfway through the season. Everybody’s a vet. And we’ve addressed it."
There are a pair of 10-year vets on Detroit's offensive line. In Glasgow's view, "I think last week was more about scheme stuff that they did than straight-up actual O-line play," he said. "They did a really good job, they schemed us up pretty good and we’re going to have to make sure that doesn’t happen again the next time we play. But the stuff that they did, we're addressing it now and making sure that it’s something that won’t bite us potentially two weeks in a row."
Likewise, in Decker's view, "it wasn’t as much of guys just one-on-one, man-to-man getting their ass beat. It was more just being on the same page. We dealt with some of that earlier in the season, game one, so I think everybody can do better and everybody can help themselves and help the team out in those ways," he said.
Decker did say, in closer conjunction with Morton, that while the Lions know Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores "can be complicated and multiple and bring pressure from anywhere, they weren’t necessarily doing anything that we weren’t expecting."
"It’s just on execution on our end, and they executed their game plan. So I don’t think it’s something where we’re going to have to go back and simplify (the communication)," he said. "You just have to be on your details and pay a little more attention to that."
Whether the problems were mental or physical against the Vikings -- and it's safe to say they were both -- they won't get any easier to fix with left guard Christian Mahogany out until at least late December with a knee injury and Decker nursing a shoulder injury, though Decker does expect to play Sunday against the Commanders.
Morton reiterated that his main concern with the offense is that if the quarterback doesn't have time to "throw the ball, it doesn’t matter" which plays are on the call sheet.
"We gotta fix this up front and protecting the quarterback, and we will. We’ve addressed it. Working on it yesterday and today. We have to do it, because if you don’t address it, teams are going to keep doing what they've seen on tape. That’s the important thing: make the corrections and make sure that it doesn’t happen again," Morton said. "If it does, then you gotta make some changes."
The Lions aren't considering any such moves at this point, because they believe in what their offensive players have put on film for the bulk of this season -- and because they already have one offensive lineman to replace in Mahogany. They just need more consistent execution up front, and across the board.
"Guys, listen, this is fixable. That’s the beauty of it," Morton said. "This is all fixable."