PITTSBURGH — Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell stood on the sideline, scanning a play sheet and glancing at his offense.
He reached to his hip and flicked a button on the pack attached to his headset. He covered his mouth with the sheet — a familiar pose for any coach trying to avoid lip readers — and started talking.
Did he take over play calling duties?
It sure looked that way, and it worked wonderfully. Suddenly, the Lions have an identity. Suddenly, they can run the ball.
It was the biggest positive to come out of this game for the Lions, as they tied the Steelers, 16-16.
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Other than not losing, which is progress to be sure.
Campbell said he was going to become more involved with the offense after the bye week. He said he was going to study the offense to try to find some solutions to an anemic attack. Now, it’s clear he came to this conclusion: Run the dang ball!
Over and over and over.
“I think everybody needs some nuggets,” Campbell said on Wednesday. “And so we’ll see if we can drop some nuggets and see how these guys respond a little bit, give them a little air and a little confidence.”
Now we know who got those nuggets.
D’Andre Swift got 13 of them in the first half alone, accumulating 73 yards by halftime.
Jermar Jefferson got three nuggets, turning one into a 28-yard touchdown run before he was carted off with an ankle injury.
So Godwin Igwebuike came game into the game. The third-string back then weaved his way to a 42-yard TD run.
Campbell — or whoever was calling the plays — kept dialing up runs.
This was big boy football. There was no reason to be cute and fancy. No reason to pass. And no reason to change anything.
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Maybe quarterback Jared Goff was hurt. He had just 11 yards passing in the first half.
Maybe that forced this run-heavy approach.
But it didn’t matter.
The run was working and gave the Lions a chance to win this game. Or, ahem, not lose.
This is what the Lions envisioned when they drafted offensive tackle Penei Sewell at No. 7 overall in the spring. Once left tackle Taylor Decker returned from injury, the Lions were able to move Sewell back to the right side.
That allowed the Lions to unveil some interesting wrinkles, using tackle Matt Nelson as a tight end.
A few times, Nelson went in motion, creating an overload. Other times, he simply lined up as an added tackle.
It was all beef. All power. Six linemen and two tight ends.
The Steelers entered the game giving up just 109 yards <rushing per game. Not great. But not horrible. Basically, the middle of the pack in the NFL.
But the Lions abused the Steelers’ run defense on Sunday, running for 229 yards.
Granted, you could consider this a wasted opportunity, considering the Steelers played this game without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Saturday night.
And, considering Lions kicker Ryan Santoso badly missed a 48-yard field goal that would have won it, there were some opportunities wasted.
But we’ve seen wasted opportunities before; they all felt the same.
But this running game? This is something you can build on.
After all the losses, this was finally a sliver of hope.
They didn’t win. They didn’t lose.
But they finally found something that worked.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.