Roughly 24 hours after their Week 9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Detroit Lions are still trying to figure out what happened and how they can be a better team moving forward. The Vikings came in and exposed many of the issues the Lions were able to sweep under the rug in their first seven games, and one issue that has begun to come to the surface is the troubles of first-year offensive coordinator John Morton.
Morton’s first season in Detroit hasn’t been a bust, but there have been bumps in the road. Head coach Dan Campbell also saw some of those concerns sprout after Sunday’s game, telling Mike Payton of A to Z Sports that he would have liked to see Morton get wideout Jameson Williams and running back Jahmyr Gibbs out in space against the Vikings.
“Any time you can get Gibbs in space, that’s pretty good for us,” Campbell said during Monday’s press conference. “We had a couple of things, and then the timing of it wasn’t good enough. We had a couple of screens for Gibbs; it was like the worst-case scenario happens... But yeah, I mean, the more times you can get Jamo and Gibbs in space, it’s good for our offense.”
Campbell also pointed out that Gibbs was in pass protection more than he would like to have seen in Sunday’s game, with the star running back logging a season-high 15 snaps against the Vikings, according to Pride of Detroit’s Jeremy Reisman.
“There’s some things you can do,” Campbell said. “There’s things that we can do better and that we can get to. We don’t want to have Gibby do a full game of (pass protection)... But we don’t want him having to go hammerhead for 12 plays... I don’t want either of those backs having to do that, but that was the plan to keep him in.”
Dan Campbell’s Concerns Growing as Lions’ Offense Struggles Under John Morton
Both of Campbell’s observations are the latest developments that have missed a beat in the switch from Ben Johnson to Morton. After Johnson’s departure to become head coach of the Chicago Bears, Morton’s first season in the role has been inconsistent, with fans willing to sound the alarm after a 27-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the season opener.
Things have calmed down for a while, with the Lions scoring 30 or more points in four straight games after the loss. But the heat has been turned back up as Detroit has failed to score more than 24 points in each of its past three games.
Among the issues has been a misuse of RB David Montgomery, who scored his first touchdown since Oct. 5 and led Detroit with 11 carries but was often on the sidelines while Gibbs was forced into pass protection situations.
The Lions have also had issues getting Williams involved. While the Lions did get Williams' four catches for 66 yards and a touchdown in the loss to the Vikings, 37 of those yards came on one play, and it never felt like he was consistently involved in the game despite logging six targets.
With the offensive line being exposed and the issues on third down continuing in Sunday’s game, it creates a laundry list of items that need to be fixed. It is also even more concerning, considering the Lions were coming off their bye week last Sunday.
Midway through the season, the Lions need to figure out a way to solve some of their problems. But Morton doesn’t seem to be heading in the right direction, which could have the Lions running at less than full speed going into the most important time of the year.