| The Detroit News
In recent years, the best NFL offenses have converted third downs at a clip between 45-49%. Currently, with offensive production up across the league, six teams have been successful a shade better than 50% of the time through four games, led by the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs at 53.9%.
On Sunday, the Detroit Lions allowed the New Orleans Saints to convert on 10 of their 14 third-down tries. Add in a successful fourth-down play and the Saints keep the chains moving 73.3% of the time.
That’s staggering inefficiency for a defensive unit that came into the contest allowing a success rate of 35.3%. And while you can point to several factors in the loss, none was bigger than the defense’s inability to get off the field.
With that in mind, let’s go back to the film and figure out what happened on all 15 of those plays.
8:33 FIRST QUARTER, THIRD-AND-1 AT 50-YARD LINE
In a show of force, the Saints lined up with three tight ends off right tackle and 230-pound Latavius Murray as the single back. The Lions countered by packing eight defenders along the line, with their three biggest defensive tackles on the interior.
New Orleans ran jet motion play-action at the snap, presumably to hold cornerback Desmond Trufant from crashing the edge before handing the ball to Murray. Rookie defensive tackle John Penisini, lined up directly over right guard, played with good technique to stand up and quickly shed his blocker, but Nick Williams was blown off the line by a double-team, giving Murray all the room he needed to gain 2 yards for the conversion.
7:10 FIRST QUARTER, THIRD-AND-3 AT DET 41
The Saints came out with quarterback Drew Brees in the shotgun, along with three wide receivers and tight end Josh Hill split outside, forcing Detroit to counter with personnel to defend the pass.
New Orleans snapped the ball with Hill in motion, coming left to right, where he immediately transitioned into an inside blocker on the handoff to Alvin Kamara. The ball carrier attacked the A gap, which was widened when linebacker Reggie Ragland was jarred out of his gap by a brief double-team by guard Cesar Ruiz.
That was all the lightning-quick Kamara needed for a 5-yard gain.
3:13 FIRST QUARTER, THIRD-AND-GOAL AT DET 3
Again, the Saints tested Detroit with their personnel grouping, taking the field with two receivers, two backs and a tight end in a relatively tight formation. By using Kamara as a decoy on right-to-left jet motion, it caused a slight hesitation in linebacker Jamie Collins’ reaction, allowing Murray to plunge across the goal line for the touchdown.
The other key factor on the successful run was center Erik McCoy’s ability to get initial push on defensive tackle Danny Shelton, giving Murray a bigger hole to hit on the scoring play.
12:44 SECOND QUARTER, THIRD-AND-12 AT NO 49
Finally, a third-and-long scenario, and the Lions defense functioned well on the play. Rushing only three, defensive end Romeo Okwara beat right tackle Ryan Ramczyk and nearly sacked Brees. If he does, the threat is ended. Instead, the quarterback slips the defender’s grasp and dumps the ball off to Taysom Hill, who is quickly dropped by safety Tracy Walker after an 8-yard gain.
12:01 SECOND QUARTER, FOURTH-AND-4 AT DET 43
Following the analytics, the Saints opt to go for it on fourth down in Detroit territory. The offense shows no intention of running with fullback Michael Burton alone in the backfield and three receiving options to the right.
Kamara is in the near slot to that side and the Lions choose to put cornerback Amani Oruwariye in man coverage. That’s about as aggressive as you can get from an assignment perspective, but it still proves to not be good enough.
Kamara gets almost instant separation on a wheel route. The two outside receivers to the right side run in-breaking routes, clearing out traffic along the sideline. Brees drops a perfect ball into the back’s breadbasket for a 29-yard gain.
7:04 SECOND QUARTER, THIRD-AND-1 AT NO 29
The Saints show run with Murray in an offset I-formation behind Burton and a tight end off tackle to the same side as the fullback. The Lions crowd the line, but linebackers Christian Jones and Collins quickly drop into zone coverage after a halfhearted play-action sell by Brees.
Still, that initial alignment was enough to put the Lions out of position as Emmanuel Sanders found a soft spot between the layers of Detroit’s Cover-3 look for a 25-yard pickup.
The pass-rush on the play was predictably nonexistent.
0:56 SECOND QUARTER, THIRD-AND-9 AT DET 48
For the down-and-distance, New Orleans’ personnel choice was what you’d expect with Brees in the shotgun, Kamara in the backfield and three receivers. The Lions chose to rush four on the play, with the trio of Trey Flowers, Julian Okwara and Ragland working a three-man stunt on the right side of the defensive formation.
The rush was largely ineffective. Flowers did manage to squirt past the blocking while stumbling to the ground and the defensive end ended up hitting Brees below the knees, which is an automatic penalty.
From the coverage perspective, the Lions ran a well-disguised Cover-1 robber, but Brees was able to find Tre’Quan Smith, who shook Trufant by breaking his route toward the sideline at a depth of 15 yards.
With the penalty, the Saints netted 28 yards, setting up a touchdown on the next play. It also capped a half where the Lions couldn’t get off the field once in third- and fourth-down situations.
11:06 THIRD QUARTER, THIRD-AND-6 AT DET 21
Once again, the Saints put Brees in the gun with Karama offset in the backfield. The Lions also once again brought pressure with four, including three loaded to the right side of the front. The result, no pressure.
The Lions took away the initial read and clogged the passing lane on a shallow cross, leaving Brees to quickly dump the ball off to Sanders, who was given a 7-yard cushion at the snap by Trufant.
The Lions had an opportunity to stop Sanders short of the sticks and force the Saints to settle for a field goal, but Trufant badly missed the tackle in the open field, resulting in a 12-yard gain and a fresh set of downs.
8:58 THIRD QUARTER, THIRD-AND-GOAL AT DET 6
In an game full of embarrassing defensive plays, this one might take the cake. The fact New Orleans ran the ball in this situation showed what they thought of Detroit’s defense. With Brees in the gun and Murray in the backfield, the Saints used jet motion with Kamara to draw Collins out of the box pre-snap.
Brees handed the ball off to Murray, who took it up the gut behind an excellent double-team seal of Flowers by the center and left guard. Josh Hill pulled from the right side and led through the hole, getting a body on Collins as he tried to recover. Murray did the rest, dragging Ragland the final 2 yards across the goal line.
1:35 THIRD QUARTER, THIRD-AND-1 AT NO 44
From the Power I, the Saints handed the ball to the lead back Burton. There was a stalemate in the trenches, with the Lions’ defensive line preventing push, but the fullback was able to bounce around the left side of his line where Kamara’s presence briefly froze Ragland and Collins.
The end result, 4 yards and a first down.
13:39 FOURTH QUARTER, THIRD-AND-13 AT DET 40
It took until the fourth quarter before the Lions finally got a stop to force a punt.
Thanks to a pair of tackles for loss on first and second down, the Saints faced third-and-long. The Lions rushed four on the play, and minimal pressure by Flowers up the middle was enough to force an off-platform throw by Brees.
In the back end, Detroit played Cover-2 man and the outside coverage was sticky across the board. Oruwariye did an excellent job playing to his safety help, undercutting a post pattern by Sanders and nearly intercepting Brees’ throw.
8:51 FOURTH QUARTER, THIRD-AND-12 AT NO 22
With the Lions back within two scores, another run stop for a loss set up a second third-and-long in the quarter. And this time, it was the pass-rush getting home.
Taking advantage of backup offensive tackle Ethan Greenidge guessing wrong, Ragland blasted through the Saints’ line essentially untouched and got to the quarterback in under 2.5 seconds. Brees never had a chance.
3:25 FOURTH QUARTER, THIRD-AND-5 AT NO 27
With a chance to get the offense the ball back to complete an improbable comeback, the defense couldn’t couldn’t get the job done, but it wasn’t from a lack of execution on this particular play.
Detroit stuck with its plan and rushed four, but the front brought it. Ragland got free up the middle, getting pressure in Brees’ face, while Romeo Okwara appeared to get a hand on the quarterback’s arm as it was coming forward.
The throw was simply remarkable, all factors considered. The ball managed to just get over the outstretched arm of Walker, who was a robber on the call, and through the arm of cornerback Jeff Okudah, who had closed on the intended target, Smith, after early separation on the crossing pattern.
The Saints simply made the better play.
2:00 FOURTH QUARTER, THIRD-AND-3 AT DET 47
Not surprisingly, the Saints salted away the victory on the ground. Needing one more first down, they put the ball in the hands of their best player and pitched it to Kamara, running left.
Much of the credit belongs to receivers Bennie Fowler and Smith, who blocked Ragland and cornerback Darryl Roberts to give Kamara the edge for the 5-yard pickup.
0:37 FOURTH QUARTER, THIRD-AND-12 AT DET 44
The Lions get credit on the stat sheet, but this play was Brees kneeling to run out the clock.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers