The Detroit Lions closed out their spring program with their second and final day of mandatory minicamp on Wednesday. It was a shorter practice, but there was still plenty to take from the session.
Here are my main observations from practice.
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Walkthrough goal line work
Detroit opened with a lot of walkthrough work, per usual, but on Wednesday most of that took place within the red zone. Team rules prevent me from giving away too much strategy here, but I’ll just say that the use of some heavy sets allowed the Lions to move around players into positions they don’t normally play, and I certainly took note of which players they opted to use in those situations. Unfortunately, I’ll have to keep those notes to myself for now.
Once walkthroughs expanded to the full field, I noticed something interesting with the reserves on the field. As they trudged down the field, Penei Sewell—by himself—followed the line of scrimmage from the sidelines, paying close attention to the play. I didn’t get a chance to follow up with Sewell to ask what exactly he was looking at, but it certainly would make sense if he was just observing and analyzing the offensive line play. Earlier this offseason, Sewell talked about the need for him to step up as a leader in a revamped offensive line room.
“It’s just a lot of new faces,” Sewell said. “But again, with all that said, the standard’s the same and I’m the one that’s kinda been here the longest in the room. So, it’s up to me to really hold that and to really show the guys, not just tell them.”
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Sewell wasn’t kidding.
Jack Fox puts on a clinic
A large portion of practice was spent on pinning punts inside the 10-yard line, with gunners fighting through contact, turning to the punt, and trying to stop it before it bounced into the end zone.
Punter Jack Fox must have kicked 20-25 punts (from the opponents’ 45-yard line), and I don’t recall seeing a single one land in the end zone. I would estimate about 90 percent of them bounced between the 0-10 yard lines. It was truly impressive to watch, and it was obviously a big help in running the drill.
As for the gunners, I thought Cedrick Wilson and Keith Abney had the two best reps, saving the ball from bouncing in the end zone in impressive fashion.
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The punt returners in the drill (who were mostly there for show) were Greg Dortch, Tom Kennedy, Isiah Pacheco, and Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Situational drill
The offense was put in a really tough position to close out practice:
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Starting at their own 35-yard line
In essence, the goal was to score a touchdown as quickly as possible while trying to retain all three timeouts to force a three-and-out, get the ball back, and have a chance at a game-winning field goal. Both the first and second-team offenses got a crack at it. Here’s how it went:
First-team:
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On the very first play, Jared Goff went to Amon-Ra St. Brown for a deep shot up the seam but just overshot him. Roger McCreary was in tight coverage and may have gotten away with a late hold, but no penalty was called.
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Second-and-10: Goff hits Jahmyr Gibbs in the flats for an 8-yard gain. The Lions RB gets out of bounds to stop the clock.
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Third-and-2: St. Brown makes a toe-tapping catch on the sidelines for an 11-yard gain.
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First-and-10: Throw away by Goff.
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First-and-10: Jameson Williams makes a bobbling catch for 24 yards. He got up, thinking he was untouched, and went into the end zone and started celebrating. But he was ruled down 6 yards away. The clock was ticking, so he had to eventually stop celebrating and line up.
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First-and-goal: Goff finds St. Brown in the back of the end zone for a 6-yard TD. (Reed in coverage)
At this point, Detroit retained all three timeouts and there were 47 seconds on the clock. So they simulated a three-and-out, giving the offense the ball back with just 22 seconds left, no timeouts, and starting on their 12-yard line down two points.
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The offense didn’t come close to succeeding:
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First-and-10: Goff threw a post route to St. Brown that was easiliy jumped by McCreary, but St. Brown broke up what would have been an easy interception.
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First-and-10: After what appeared to be a defensive penalty for 5 yards, Goff nearly threw another interception on a very similar route. This time Jack Campbell couldn’t come down with it.
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Second-and-10: On the final play, the Lions defense was in a deep prevent. Goff threw it to Williams on a crossing route, and before he could get to the sideline, Aidan Hutchinson—who started the play 20 plays deep on the sideline—tackled him inbounds, bleeding out the rest of the clock.
Second team:
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First-and-10: Bridgewater misses Greg Dortch for a big gain.
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Second-and-10: Lovett for 5 yards (inbounds).
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Third-and-5: Dortch for 7-ish yards (inbounds).
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Second-and-10: Fade attempt to Cedrick Wilson nicely broken up by Ya-Sin.
By then, the offense had just 35 seconds left on the clock with all timeouts intact. It’s unclear exactly what the team simulated next. It was almost like a converted onside kick, but the offense was stripped of their timeouts.
So in order to win, the offense had 30 seconds from their own 45-yard line in order to get a field goal. Here’s how that went:
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First-and-10: Overthrow to Thomas Gordon, nice coverage from Thomas Harper.
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Second-and-10: Bridgewater’s first read isn’t open, throws it away.
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Third-and-10: Cedrick Wilson makes a fantastic diving catch, but only gains 8 yards and is stopped inbounds.
Yes, a spike on fourth down.
Regardless, the Lions opted to give Jake Bates an opportunity to win it anyways with a 64-yard kick, and the third-year kicker drilled it with plenty of room to spare.