The Detroit Lions may as well propose to the run because they sure are committed to it. On Sunday, against the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit led the league in rush attempts against a stacked box, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
The Lions had not one, but two, running backs to pace the NFL in Week 1 rushes against an eight-man box (or more). Per NGS, they did so on 72.73% of C.J. Anderson's attempts and 56.25% of Kerryon Johnsons. The next highest? Minnesota Vikings' Dalvin Cook, who did so on 47.62% of his attempts.
As predicted, Detroit's insistence on running against a stacked box didn't fair too well on the box score. Johnson finished with 16 attempts for 49 yards (3.1 yards per attempt), while Anderson finished with 11 for 35 (3.2 yards per attempt). Neither scored a touchdown.
However, the runs against a stacked box number are inflated due to the Lions' conservative playcalling in the fourth quarter to ice away the Cardinals when they held a 15-point lead. That didn't end up working as Kyler Murray and the Redbirds stormed back to force overtime, leading to a 27-all tie.
In the fourth quarter alone, the Lions rushed the ball eight times for 27 yards, punting the ball twice after a T.J. Hockenson touchdown from a drive that started in the third quarter.
Despite Detroit's clearly conservative playcalling, Patricia is fine with how he handled the late-end of the game. He said after the game, via USA Today's Jeff Risdon:
“We definitely didn’t back off from a standpoint of play calls or anything like that, not at all.”
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