The Detroit Lions have started the 2022 NFL season with an 0-1 mark following their 38-35 loss this past Sunday at Ford Field to the Philadelphia Eagles. The bad news is that they trailed the visiting Eagles by 17 points, and also hurt themselves with a pick-six thrown by quarterback Jared Goff. For 1st-year offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, growing pains are going to be a part of the job.
“I think in hindsight, on my behalf, I need to get on the headset and tell the head coach, ‘Let’s go ahead and call time out here,’” Johnson said on Thursday. “I think that could have helped the whole thing, just how I could have influenced that play. And then there were a number of guys on the field who could have helped fix it as well.
“I could just tell there was more communication coming out of the huddle than what we had seen in practice. I had a feeling something was up.”
The 35 points put on the scoreboard by the Lions were not only good for 3rd most of all NFL teams on the afternoon, but also matched their high from last season. However, Johnson and his offense will be looking to clean up the mistakes that plagued them during the 1st half, including several dropped passes as well as Goff and his receivers often not being on the same page.
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Ben Johnson is holding himself and his offense accountable
“Yeah, I think everyone is kind of accountable to what we put on tape there,” Johnson said. “First and foremost, I look at myself and did I properly prepare everybody as well as we could have been? And so I kind of look there. Then all those players were very accountable as well, whether it was a drop, whether it was maybe a bad read or an off-target throw or something like that. I think they’ve all kind of looked at the tape and taken the criticism, and once again, we’ll look to fix and improve those things here this week.”
The Lions will host the Washington Commanders this Sunday at Ford Field, with television coverage on Fox as well as radio coverage on 97.1 The Ticket.
