LOS ANGELES – One of the most important plays from the Detroit Lions’ win over the Chargers only happened because the offense accidentally had the wrong players on the field.
Sunday’s 41-38 shootout between the Lions and Chargers featured very little defense, and the Lions needed every single point to leave Los Angeles with a win. Perhaps the biggest play of the game came from David Montgomery, who returned from a rib injury that cost him nearly three full games.
It was late in the second quarter, with the Lions leading 17-10. The Chargers had just scored their first touchdown, and the Lions’ offense needed to respond.
Well, it sure didn’t take long.
Montgomery took a handoff on the very first play and sprinted 75 yards for a touchdown. The play was blocked so well that Montgomery wasn’t even touched at the line of scrimmage, and Jameson Williams got a huge block downfield for the finishing touch.
But it turns out, that wasn’t originally going to be the play call at all.
“On that run that David had, that 75-yard touchdown, we were in the wrong personnel,” Amon-Ra St. Brown said after the game. “It was supposed to be 12, and we were in 11, so we called the play, and I was, like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing on this play. I’m not supposed to be in.’”
When St. Brown says the team was supposed to be in “12,” he means a formation with one running back and two tight ends on the field. That would leave two wide receivers, as opposed to three wide receivers in an “11″ formation (one running back and one tight end).
“So I look at Jared (Goff),” St. Brown said. “He checks it. He’s like, ‘You know what, let’s just check it to a run. Everyone relax.’ He checks it, and David goes for 75 yards.”
It was that type of day for the Detroit offense. Not much went wrong, as the team put up 533 yards and averaged 8.3 yards per snap. Even when they made a mistake, the Lions couldn’t be stopped.
“It was a completely different play to start the play,” St. Brown said. “We were in the wrong personnel, so I was, like, ‘I don’t know what to do on this play,’ because it was supposed to be a tight end. But we were in 11, so I was the third receiver. He’s, like, ‘We’ll just check it to a run that we do all the time.’ One of our just base runs, and it ended up popping for 75.
“That’s really why I was super excited. For us to do that in that situation, just to check to a regular run and score. That was huge.”
Goff was asked about the play when he took the podium after St. Brown. He laughed and told a similar tale.
“Every once in awhile it happens where we end up with the wrong personnel on the field, and the certain play we called, we really can’t run out of that personnel,” Goff said. “I knew it was wrong when we broke the huddle. I should have realized it before, in the huddle. But once we broke the huddle and got lined up, I realized it was wrong. Ben (Johnson) in my headset, (said), ‘Hey, hey, hey, get to the --’ and it was a run we ended up getting to.
“We were laughing about it. You do all this planning over the week, Monday to Saturday, for what you want to do and make everything perfect. Then we basically mess it up, and it’s a 75-yard touchdown play.”
It was a happy flight home for the Lions, especially for an offense that scored five touchdowns and perfectly set up the game-winning 41-yard field goal. As good as they were, it’s ironic that the longest play happened because of a rare mistake.