Lions Week 11 snap counts: Heavy front deployed vs. Eagles rushing attack

Exploring how and why the Detroit Lions used their personnel in Week 11 vs. the Philadelphia Eagles.

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What is the story about?

The Detroit Lions had a wonderful defensive game plan against the Philadelphia Eagles in week 11, but unfortunately, their offensive decision-making and execution were ineffective, leading to Detroit’s fourth loss of the season.

Let’s take a look at how the Lions utilized their personnel and explore why their defense was so good against the defending Super Bowl Champions.

Quarterbacks:

Jared Goff: 59 snaps (100%)

Kyle Allen: 0 (0%)

It was a night to forget for Goff, who entered the game with a league-leading 74% completion percentage, but only managed to complete

37.8% of his passes against the Eagles.

Running backs:

Jahmyr Gibbs: 43 (73%)
David Montgomery: 23 (39%)
Jacob Saylors: 1 (2%) — 19 special teams snaps (73%)
Sione Vaki: 0 (0%) — 19 (73%)
Craig Reynolds: Inactive

The Lions got creative with their 2RB sets in the first half, including running Montgomery out of the Wildcat, but the snaps ended up heavily favoring Gibbs, as he was one of the only effective skill players in the second half for the Lions.

Wide receivers:

Amon-Ra St. Brown: 57 (97%)
Jameson Williams: 56 (95%)
Kalif Raymond: 38 (64%) — 12 (46%)
Isaac TeSlaa: 20 (34%) — 5 (19%)
Dominic Lovett: 1 (2%) — 0 (0%)
Tom Kennedy: Inactive

One of the primary reasons for Goff’s disappointing night was his inability to get on the same page as St. Brown. Goff targeted his All-Pro receiver 12 times in this game, but the pair only connected on two passes. Williams continues to produce, but he only managed to haul in four of his seven targets. Even more disappointing was the fact that beyond St. Brown and Williams, only one other receiver was targeted in this game: a contested pass to TeSlaa.

Tight ends:

Brock Wright: 49 (83%) — 2 (8%)
Ross Dwelley: 1 (2%) — 12 (46%)
Jackson Meeks: 1 (2%) — 14 (54%)

With no Sam LaPorta, the Lions dramatically shifted their tight end usage. Entering this game, the Lions ran 12 personnel on nearly 33% of their offensive snaps, but only used that package once in this game. Not only was the Lions’ TE2 role heavily reduced, but its TE3 role was nearly nonexistent. Meeks, a rookie WR-X, gave the Lions one inline snap in this game, which could qualify as a rep at tight end.

Offensive line:

Graham Glasgow: 59 (100%) — 2 (8%)
Kayode Awosika: 59 (100%) — 2 (8%)
Penei Sewell: 59 (100%)
Taylor Decker: 59 (100%)
Tate Ratledge: 52 (88%) — 2 (8%)
Trystan Colon: 7 (12%) — 2 (8%)
Dan Skipper: 5 (8%) — 2 (8%)
Michael Niese: 0 (0%) — 2 (8%)

The offensive line continues to work through injuries. For the third week in a row, Sewell suffered a different injury; this time, he appeared to have injured his ankle. But in typical Sewell fashion, he got it taped up and didn’t miss a snap. Ratledge did miss a handful of snaps, leaving the game twice to tend to an injury. He was able to return and finish the game, but he was hampered. Colon stepped in at right guard on the seven snaps when Ratledge was unable to play. Skipper found the field as a sixth offensive lineman, something we’ve seen return over the last few weeks.

Defensive end:

Aidan Hutchinson: 66 (92%)
Al-Quadin Muhammad: 22 (31%)
Tyler Lacy: 19 (26%) — 4 (15%)
Tyrus Wheat: 7 (10%) — 7 (27%)

If you’re doing some quick math here, you’ll notice that while Hutchinson took his normal allotment of snaps, the EDGE spot opposite him saw Muhammad and Lacy only saw the field for 57% of defensive snaps. That’s a pretty significant drop from most weeks.

So who got those snaps? Alim McNeill.

Defensive tackle:

Alim McNeill: 67 (93%) — 5 (19%)
Tyleik Williams: 36 (50%) — 1 (4%)
DJ Reader: 34 (47%)
Roy Lopez: 28 (39%) — 5 (19%)
Mekhi Wingo: Inactive
Quinton Jefferson: Inactive

The Lions entered this matchup with a game plan to lean on their big bodies to stop the run, gain advantages in short-yardage situations, and force Jalen Hurts into having to throw into tight windows. For the most part, things worked well. While they did allow the Eagles to pile up rushing yards, they had to do it at a slow pace, and Saquon Barkley was held to just 3.2 yards per carry. They stopped the Eagles’ Tush Push on five of the six times they ran it (two were false starts), as well as a third-and-one run from Barkley. Hurts only completed half his passes (14 of 28) for 135 yards and a passer rating of 63.8 for the game.

In order to get three defensive tackles on the field at the same time, they deployed DJ Reader at the nose, rookie Tyleik Williams at the 3T, and Alim McNeill at the 4i. While having McNeill on the edge is very non-traditional, the Lions wanted to use the 4i to execute this game plan, and they opted to use McNeill in that role 44% of the time and Lacy just 26%. McNeill spent his remaining time inside, in more traditional sets.

This new wrinkle for McNeill was an attempt to get both he and Williams on the field at the same time, along with a powerful nose tackle in Reader, and it came at the expense of Lacy.

Linebacker:

Jack Campbell: 72 (100%) — 4 (15%)
Derrick Barnes: 68 (94%)
Alex Anzalone: 63 (88%) — 10 (38%)
Trevor Nowaske: 4 (6%) — 24 (92%)
Grant Stuard: 0 (0%) — 23 (88%)
Ty Summers: 0 (0%) — 16 (62%)

The Lions scaled back their linebacker usage a tick in this game. A few of the extra reps went to Nowaske, while the majority were picked up by the secondary in subpackage sets. The Lions still deploy three linebacker sets at a very high rate, and continue to be creative with their usage; lining them up off-the-ball, over a guard, or even on the edge against the Tush Push.

Cornerback:

Amik Robertson: 72 (100%) — 1 (4%)
Rock Ya-Sin: 71 (99%) — 10 (38%)
Arthur Maulet: 18 (25%) — 13 (50%)
Nick Whiteside: 1 (1%) — 11 (42%)
Terrion Arnold: Inactive (injury)

Robertson and Ya-Sin were very good against the Eagles’ receivers and were a big reason why the Lions were still in this game late. Ya-Sin’s pass interference call late was very suspect, and he ended up having one of his best games as a Lion.

Ya-Sin missed one snap and was replaced by Whitehead, but he returned to the field very quickly. Maulet found the field in subpackages, as the Lions only ran nickel a quarter of their defensive snaps.

Safety:

Thomas Harper: 72 (100%) — 2 (8%)
Brian Branch: 71 (99%) — 4 (15%)
Avonte Maddox: 1 (1%) — 9 (35%)
Daniels Thomas: 0 (0%) — 23 (88%)
Erick Hallett: 0 (0%) — 0 (0%)
Kerby Joseph: Inactive (injury)

Branch was forced from the game with what appeared to be a cramping issue. Maddox replaced him for one play before Branch returned for the remainder of the game. Harper compelted hsi fourth straight game where he’s started n place of Kerby Joseph.