The Detroit Lions earned their third straight victory on Sunday when they defeated the Cleveland Browns 34-10. But when it came to the chemistry between Jared Goff and Jameson Williams, the Lions are wondering how they could get a little more out of their passing attack.
Goff had a decent day, throwing for 168 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Yet he struggled when he threw the ball to Williams, who finished with two catches for 40 yards. The low statline wasn’t part of a lack of effort as Williams had eight targets on the afternoon, but the Lions are quickly trying to figure out what went wrong.
While Goff gave Williams a message of encouragement after the game, Lions head coach Dan Campbell pulled back the curtain on Monday and assigned some blame to himself.
He noted the team only held a walkthrough this past Wednesday after playing last Monday night, and that prevented proper implementation of some plays Williams was involved in. Campbell took this as a lesson to learn from for the future and admitted they may hold things back in the future if they're practiced fully first.
“I hate to make excuses," Campbell said during his weekly press conference. "We weren’t able to practice on Wednesday [due to the short week]. ... So then you’re trying to grab some reps on Thursday, but yet still get your third down [drills] in."
"It's a reminder, for me, let’s make sure that either we try to find a way to get some reps to where we get a good flow on Wednesday, or maybe we don’t put some things in."
Jameson Williams Remains Lions’s Big Play Threat Despite Drops
For Williams, it was a day he would rather forget. While Williams led the team in targets, he didn’t have much production when the ball came his way. According to Pro Football Focus, Williams had a pair of drops on his eight targets and another target was intercepted when Goff tried to find him. Goff also overthrew Williams on a target that hit the turf, which led to some frustration among fans.
While Williams didn’t look the part, there’s not enough to think this will be a long-term issue. The 24-year-old is coming off the best season of his career with 58 catches for 1,001 yards and seven touchdowns and currently leads the NFL with 21.4 yards per reception after four games. Williams also had 91 targets one year ago and is on pace to have a similar role within the Detroit offense.
There’s also the benefit that Detroit’s passing attack did damage even with Williams struggling. Amon-Ra St. Brown finished the afternoon with seven catches for 70 yards and a pair of touchdowns and the ground game picked up the slack with Jahmyr Gibbs running for 91 yards and a touchdown.
With 13 games to go, it could be an example of “practice makes perfect” for the Lions, who were coming off a Monday night game against the Baltimore Ravens. With more reps and an emphasis on getting more, Williams should be able to rebound and learn from the lessons learned in Sunday’s win over the Browns.