Dan Campbell loved how Jahmyr Gibbs finished the Lions' Week 3 win over the Falcons. He didn't love the way the rookie started it. To Campbell's eye, Gibbs left a lot of yards behind by misreading a few runs. Campbell admitted there "were a couple things, man, I wish he had read a little different."
"We ran a lot of outside zone, and (he has to) hit that cut a little earlier and cut it upfield," Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "There were a number of things in there where we felt we were really going to get some explosive runs, and that’s why you run them. You know it may take a minute to get them, but we expected to pop more than we got. We weren’t real clean all the way through the game like we really should be."
Starting in place of the injured David Montgomery, Gibbs ran nine times for just 25 yards in the first half. Six of his first eight carries between the tackles went for two yards or less. An outside zone scheme puts responsibility on the running back to find the right lanes. Whether the blocking or the reads were to blame, or both, Gibbs kept running into a wall up front.
He slowly break through it in the second half. He took his first carry for four yards behind the right tackle, his next for 13 yards up the middle (albeit on 3rd and 20). He really came to life on the fourth quarter touchdown drive that put the game away. On three straight carries behind the left tackle, Gibbs went for four yards, 12 yards and 21 yards. By the end of the Lions' 20-6 win, he had churned out 80 yards on 17 carries, a healthy 4.7 average.
"What fired me up more than anything was two of the last runs, he hit a 12-yarder and then a 21-yarder," said Campbell. "And that’s in the fourth quarter after getting a bit of a load. I felt like, OK, here we go, he’s starting to find his way and get a little rhythm here. That was really encouraging for me.
"Because I think this kid’s pretty tough and I do think he’s got vision and he’s only going to get better with time. When this lightbulb really, really comes on, I think it’s going to be something special. We’ll just keep coaching him up."
Gibbs, for his part, acknowledged Monday that Lions "started off slow" on the ground, "but the more we stayed true to our rules, we got it going." Most of his chunk plays the first two weeks had come around the edge. Asked about his comfort running between the tackles, he said, "I’m comfortable any way I get the ball."
"If that’s between the tackles, outside, catching the ball, it really doesn’t matter to me, I just like getting the ball," said Gibbs. "So whatever they need me to do, I’m willing to do it."
Gibbs didn't get as much action in the passing game as he expected, just one catch for two yards on two targets. That was partly because the Falcons were using a defensive end to disrupt his routes of the backfield, said Gibbs, "so it was kind of hard to get me catches when they’re doing that." He'll get more targets from Goff moving forward, especially when Montgomery returns from his thigh injury, which could be as soon as Thursday against the Packers.
Goff said Tuesday that Gibbs "just continues to keep getting better, both in the run and pass." The arrow remains up on the No. 12 pick.
"He is so freaking talented and so dang good, but when a guy continues to get better, that’s the exciting part, especially as a rookie," Goff said on 97.1 The Ticket. "You see it every day, he's working hard and getting himself prepared to do everything. Yeah man, the sky’s the limit for that kid. He’s doing a hell of a job."