Among the many things the Detroit Lions have done very well in the last two seasons with Ben Johnson as the offensive coordinator: scoring first in games. The Lions are among the best in the league at taking an early lead, and also at parlaying that early lead into a victory.
Only the Eagles and Ravens have scored first in games more frequently than the Lions over the last two seasons, doing so 23 times. Detroit is tied with the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers in that timeframe by scoring first 22 times.
The Lions have capitalized on the early scoring, too. They went 6-5 when scoring first in 2022 and followed that up by going 10-1 in the 2023 regular season when Detroit notched the first points of a game. That 16-6 combined record (73 percent) is above the league standard of winning 64 percent of games when scoring first, per Warren Sharp,
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teams win 64% of games they score first
…AND lose 36% when allowing opponent to score first over the last 10 yrs
# of games a team scored first last 2 yrs:
23 – BAL, PHI
22 – CLE, SF, DET
21 – DAL
20 – LAC
19 – KC, JAX, LV
18 – CHI, CIN, MIA
17 – BUF, TB, PIT, TEN, DEN
16 -…— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 7, 2024
As for the flip side…
The Lions are 5-7 (42 percent wins) when not scoring first, which is also above the league average of 34 percent.