Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell quickly acknowledged what everyone noticed.
His team’s 52-14 win over the Tennessee Titans was quite unusual.
The Lions gained 225 yards of offense, which is 185 yards less than their usual average, yet they scored 52 points. Jared Goff threw three touchdown passes but only had 85 passing yards, with his average completion being just over a yard.
Goff has completed 88 of 106 passes (83%) in the last five games, setting a new record by breaking Peyton Manning’s mark of 80.2% for a five-game stretch with at least 100 attempts.
“I can’t really think of a game quite like that one,” Campbell said Monday. “At least not on the winning side. That was unbelievable.”
The offense didn’t play badly — scoring 52 points shows that. They simply didn’t have to cover much ground. Kalif Raymond averaged 38 yards on five punt returns, including a 90-yard touchdown, and Khalil Dorsey had a 72-yard kickoff return.
The defense also played a role, forcing four turnovers, and Jack Fox averaged 61.0 yards on his five punts.
“Obviously, you’d love to have that kind of production from your special teams, but that’s not realistic,” Campbell said. “When you do get that kind of performance, it takes a huge strain off the rest of the team.”
The offense didn’t need to rack up 400 yards but did what was necessary, going 5 for 5 in the red zone.
“(Jahmyr) Gibbs was explosive — his only bad play was in pass protection — and he did some really good things,” Campbell said. “David (Montgomery) and (Sam) LaPorta also really stood out.”
