Despite playing awful on defense for the entire game, the Detroit Lions had an opportunity to tie the game up if they could just punch the ball into the endzone on their final offensive play of the game.
Throughout the game, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (26/41, 403 yards, 3 TDs) was dominant as the Lions used their offensive weapons (Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr.) to spread out the Oakland Raiders defense.
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But on the final play of the game, Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell opted for a goal-line formation, which meant that both Golladay and Jones Jr. would watch from the bench.
The call was for a play-action pass to tight end Logan Thomas, but as we know, it did not work and the Lions lost 31-24 to drop to 3-4-1 on the season.
Following the game, Stafford spoke to the media about the final play of the game.
From Sports Illustrated:
On the fourth down and goal play: “Yeah they were in goal line defense and we were in goal line offense. We were a yard away from the end line. It was a play we’ve worked on quite a bit, and they defended it well.”
On why the Lions did not go down swinging with some of the best players on the field: “You know we’re on the one-yard line. That’s the plays that we run in practice all the time from the one and the two. That’s one of them, and it didn’t work. You know we didn’t convert, we didn’t score, we didn’t win the game. So, you can look at it all you want from that perspective. Had we scored there, you know, I wouldn’t be fielding these questions. So, we just got to execute the play better and score.”
On what did Lions specifically see in there defense during the week that made coaches think that that play would work on the goal line: “It’s just, I mean we had a 1-on-1 shot. We had a chance. We had one of our big guys on one of their not so big guys and a chance to go up and make it. You know I got to give him a better chance and a better ball. We got a little stuffed up on the side there. Jesse (James) trying to get out, but Logan (Thomas) did a nice job on the back end line.”
On if he has a say on what play is called in that situation at the goal-line: “No I’m on the field, they’re on the sideline. I was going to get to something you know had they not called the timeout. We had no back in the game so I was going to have to get to a little something there, but they called the timeout. I stayed out there and once he ran the personnel out there. I had a pretty good feeling of what the call was going to be and we just didn’t execute it.”
