Allen Park — Jared Goff, Josh Reynolds and Nate Sudfeld played him in a Super Bowl. Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson coached against him as a divisional rival with the Miami Dolphins.
But no matter the background, anybody who’s played offense against Bill Belichick knows one thing: Expect the unexpected.
“Whenever you think they’re going to zig, they zag. I mean, it’s hard,” Johnson, the Lions’ offensive coordinator, said. “… I think every week, they show something that they haven’t shown that year.”
Detroit ranks first in both points (35.0) and yards (436.8) per game through four weeks. That’s impressive on its own, but even more impressive when considering that the Lions’ season best in each category both came in Sunday’s loss to Seattle, when the unit was missing top receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and DJ Chark and top running back D’Andre Swift.
At the same time, Goff knows a thing or two about getting a proficient offense shut down by Belichick and Co. When Goff was in Los Angeles, the Rams in 2018 finished with the No. 13-ranked scoring offense — in NFL history. But in Super Bowl LIII, the Patriots held the Rams to 3 points, as Goff went 19-for-38 passing for 229 yards, no touchdowns, four sacks and a quarterback rating of 57.9.
“He’s, by all accounts, the best, if not one of the best. And I’ve had my experiences against him and it’s always been a tough game and he’ll always having something for us,” Goff said. “We’ll see what it is, but we’ll be ready.”
In the next meeting between Goff and Belichick after Super Bowl LIII, in Week 14 of the 2020 season, the Rams beat the Patriots, 24-3. Both Goff and Johnson stressed the importance of being ready to make in-game adjustments.
“You always have to be ready to adjust,” Goff said. “He’s as good as there’s ever been and sometimes, he’ll do what he does, and sometimes he won’t. That’s why he was so good.”
While Detroit is certainly expecting a few curveballs, Campbell said there are two other tropes that have long been associated with the Patriots: They’re going to try to take the ball away and stop what the other team does best. This week, that likely means they’ll try to stop the Lions’ top-ranked ground game in order to disrupt Goff’s ability in play-action.
“They’re never going to let the best player beat you on either side of the ball. That’s what — that is 100% — whatever you do well is what they’re going to try to take away, first and foremost,” Campbell said. “Then, OK, he’s playing the odds. So, he’s always been that way. I know his defenses are always … opportunistic, man.
“… They’re going to make you beat yourself. They’ll play the long game here and make you make a mistake, and then capitalize on it. I mean, that’s what they did last week.”
Perhaps surprisingly, the Patriots rank near the bottom of the league — 29th, to be exact — in turnover differential (minus-3) through the first four weeks. But that doesn’t make it any less important for Detroit to take care of the ball, especially when a pick-6 by Goff has been the difference in what were otherwise strong offensive performances, in losses to Seattle and Philadelphia, and the Lions’ defense has forced just three all season.
And while there’s much ado about the big, bad Patriots defense, the Lions aren’t forgetting that their offense is a bit of a bogeyman in and of itself through this point in the season. New England has to be ready to hit the curveball, too.
“We’ve got obviously (former Lions coach Matt Patricia) was here, so we have an idea how they like to develop their gameplan on defense,” Johnson said. “So, with that being said, we did look hard at us. What have we put on tape the first four games?
“And we’ll kind of work off of that, but there’s no way there’s a lot of thought that goes into this week, because coach Belichick is one of the best and his staff, they do a phenomenal job of taking away what we do best.”
Twitter: @nolanbianchi
nbianchi@detroitnews.com