Ben Johnson impresses in Lions playoff win over Rams

Evaluating how head coach candidate Ben Johnson performed in the Lions wildcard victory over the Rams

As the Commanders head coaching search enters another week, I thought we could look at how some of the candidates have performed in the playoffs. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has been most heavily linked to Washington, so I thought we’d start with him. The Lions put up an impressive performance against the Buccaneers last night to progress through to a matchup against the 49ers in the NFC Championship game next week, but as I wait for the All-22 of that game to be released, let’s go back a week to the Lions first playoff win in 32 years. 

The Lions went blow for blow with a Rams offense led by Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay. Johnson called an excellent game that saw his team open the game with three consecutive 75-yard touchdown drives. They leaned heavily on their principals of establishing the run and building the offense around that. What stood out was the sheer volume of different run schemes.

This clip shows the diversity of run schemes that Johnson and the Lions use on a regular basis. The first play of the clip is a counter run scheme, with the left guard pulling to the right side of the line to kick out the edge defender while the tight end follows behind him and wraps around for the linebacker. This is a staple run for the Lions, nobody in the league runs counter more than them, but it’s far from their only run scheme. The second play of the clip is the natural complement to counter: power. Power is very much the same style of run, with the guard pulling, but on power, the guard pulls and wraps around for the linebacker, instead of kicking out the edge defender. 

On the third run of the clip, we see a wide zone run scheme, but with a twist. The Lions have receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown motion across the formation as if he’s running a jet sweep, but then he bends that run up and becomes an extra blocker, helping secure the tight end’s inside shoulder and kick out the edge defender. That little twist for a zone scheme isn’t overly important in the context of the diversity of run schemes, but we’ll circle back to it later in this post. 

Next we have the Jahmyr Gibbs touchdown run on what’s known as a tackle-trap run scheme. It works a lot like counter, with a lineman pulling from one side of the line to the other to kick out the edge defender, but instead of using a guard, the Lions use their stud right tackle Penei Sewell. With the right tackle lining up further outside, it takes him a bit longer to get across than it would for a pulling guard, so for the edge defender, this feels more like a trap play. They aren’t blocked anywhere near as quickly, so they start to work their way down the line before suddenly Sewell appears to block them. This also enables the left tackle and left guard to get a strong double team and create the lane for Gibbs to run into. 

Then we see a scheme with the tight end motioning across the formation before the snap and then kicking out the edge defender, again allowing the left tackle and left guard to work a double team on the defensive tackle inside. The Rams linebacker is left trying to cover multiple gaps and the Rams pick up five yards on the play. 

Finally, we end on an edge run that some call G Lead. The wide receiver motions short and works inside to crack down and pin the defense inside, enabling the tight end and left guard to pull to the edge. The guard pulls outside and leads the way for the back, kicking out the edge defender and opening up a nice lane for the running back to bounce his run to the edge and get down the sideline. 

This is far from everything in the Lions playbook when it comes to running schemes, but it shows just how many things they can do up front and how hard it is to defend them all. Just about any lineman can pull in either direction and it makes it very hard for the defensive lineman to know who’s actually blocking them and even tougher for the linebackers to work out exactly where they’re meant to fit the run. 

But what Johnson did so well in this game is marry his passing game with his run game via play-action. With such a diverse set of run schemes, he knew the Rams would be looking to attack the line of scrimmage to try and stop the run, which would open up passing lanes behind them. So Johnson smartly built in play-action passes on nearly all of his different run schemes to help sell those fakes.

The first play of this clip is the counter run scheme that the Lions opened the game with, which we saw in the clip above. But the key here is to notice that they started the game with this run, pulling the guard across the formation to kick out the edge defender, which is a very strong run key for defenders. Later in the game, Johnson shows a counter run again, this time to the left, but instead of handing the ball off, he uses it as a play-action fake. In the second play of this clip, we can see the right guard pulling across to the left side of the line, getting the linebacker to that side to bite up heavily. That linebacker then can’t sink back far enough into the throwing lane and Jared Goff fires a strike over his head on a dagger concept for a nice gain. 

This was far from the only time Johnson layered his concepts like this. 

I mentioned earlier we’d circle back to the wide zone run with the receiver motioning in to help block. This is why. Johnson likes to set up his play-action game by repeating the same look to make the defense believe it’s getting the same play, only to suddenly surprise them with a twist. The first play of this clip is that wide zone run we saw earlier with St. Brown motioning across the formation and joining the blocking scheme by helping secure the inside shoulder of the tight end on the edge. 

On the second play of the clip, we see the exact same look pre-snap, just flipped in the other direction. St. Brown again aligns in the slot and motions across the formation before joining the blocking scheme. To the defense, this all looks exactly the same, so naturally the entire unit thinks it's a run and attacks the line of scrimmage to stop it. However, Goff fakes the toss to the running back and suddenly pulls up, throwing a slant on the back side that very nearly results in a touchdown. 

Here’s one more example. 

The first play of this clip is a run we saw from the first clip with the tight end motioning across the formation before setting and then kicking out the edge defender on a run inside. The second play of the clip is the play-action pass that Johnson has tied to it. We see the same motion from the tight end, just flipped, and he does stay in to block as he acts like he’s executing the same run play. But instead, the Lions have another dagger concept called, along with a shallow cross underneath to fully stretch three different layers of the defense. I think Goff misses a chance to hit the deep dig route on the dagger concept here, but I don’t hate him taking the shallow cross underneath, he just misses the throw.

Now while layering concepts on top of each other like this is a huge part of what has made Johnson and the Lions so successful this season, it’s not the only way he attacks a defense. Johnson has various methods to help put his offense in positions to be successful. One of those methods that he used in this game, and really throughout the season, is the use of tempo and varied snap counts. 

On this play, the Lions face a very tough third and 15 situation. There isn’t much a play-caller has on his playsheet to call in this kind of spot and a lot of them will just default to screens, draws or four verticals. Here, Johnson calls a pylon sail concept, which Jay Gruden used to call cruise. With a sail concept, typically you have a deep go or post route to clear the deepest defender, a flat route underneath to occupy underneath coverage and then the sail route attacking in between them. The only difference here is that the deep go/post route is changed into a deep pylon corner route, meaning the receiver works inside initially before breaking outside towards the pylon in the corner of the end zone. 

That concept itself isn’t revolutionary, but what makes it work so well here is the use of tempo. Johnson and the Lions love to use a quick snap to help catch the defense off-guard. Typically when an offense gets to the line of scrimmage, they want to take as much time as possible reading the defensive alignment, making sure they understand everything they possibly can, maybe sending receivers in motion to help uncover things. But here, the Lions line up as quickly as possible and have the center snap the ball as soon as he touches it. 

The impact of that quick snap is clear to see. The Rams are not ready for the snap at all. The defensive lineman are late off the snap and that impacts their ability to rush while the defensive backs are all still communicating who is responsible for which route. This causes the defenders to run into each other and leaves the sail route wide open for a big gain and a huge first down conversion on third and 15. 

Now obviously this isn’t something to do every snap because that will stop it being quite so effective, but Johnson has shown a great feel for knowing when to change up the snap count and catch defenses sleeping a big, which is a great credit to him. One final method Johnson uses to attack defenses that stood out in this game is the use of heavy personnel to pass. Traditionally in the NFL, if you see a team use multiple tight ends, you’re thinking a run is likely coming. With a team like the Lions so committed to running the ball too, it feels even more likely. But that’s exactly what Johnson wants the opposing defense to believe. 

This is the fourth and goal play from the one yard line. Johnson sends on an extremely run-heavy package with a sixth offensive lineman on the field, three tight ends, one running back and zero wide receivers. They initially line up in an I formation, but with a twist. Two of the three tight ends align as backs, while the actually running back lines up as a tight end outside the sixth offensive lineman. After showing this run look, the Lions then shift to an entirely different formation. Goff drops back to the shotgun, the running back shifts to the backfield and the three tight ends all motion to the right of the formation to make a bunch set outside. 

With such a run-heavy package on the field, the Rams bring on their own goal line package, anticipating a run. This means when the Rams shift formation and have three tight ends align in a bunch, the Rams have extremely poor matchups in coverage. Two linebackers work outside over two of the tight ends, but edge rusher Michael Hoecht, number 97, is also forced outside over the Lions best receiving tight end, rookie Sam LaPorta. 

At this point, it’s almost stealing. The Rams have used Hoecht to drop out into coverage a lot this season as part of their simulated pressure packages, but it’s almost always into zone coverage when he does that. To have him here try to matchup man to man on LaPorta is an incredibly tough ask for any linebacker or safety, let alone an edge rusher. The Lions run a slight pick play, which Hoecht does his best to work around, but LaPorta is just too quick for him and ends up open in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. 

It was a really impressive performance by both Ben Johnson as a play-caller and the Lions as an offense executing that system. They didn’t shy away from the occasion or change what their offensive identity was and Johnson came away with a very impressive display of coaching to take into the round of interviews he had this past week. 

Be sure to check back later this week to see how Johnson fared against the Bucs, which I’ll be breaking down as soon as I get access to the All-22. I’m also planning to look at how Mike MacDonald’s Ravens shut down Bobby Slowik’s Texans, so keep an eye out for that one this week too.