Lions-Seahawks key stats: Detroit’s dynamic playmakers, o-line lead offensive resurgence

After a slow start by their standards, Detroit’s offense finally hit its stride on Monday night. That and more in this week’s look at advanced key statistics from Lions-Seahawks.

For the second consecutive primetime game for the Detroit Lions, they came out victorious over an NFC West opponent. This time, the Lions handed the Seattle Seahawks their first loss of the Mike Macdonald era, putting up 42 points on an undermanned defense. Points are points though, and after failing to produce more than 20 points in a game through the first three weeks of the season, Detroit’s offense looked revitalized and, more importantly, consistent.

As we’ll do every week throughout the season for this Lions team, we have some data we can comb through courtesy of Pro Football Focus that better helps us understand the football the Lions have played thus far—and what to look forward to in the coming weeks. Let’s take a closer look at the Lions by the numbers after their win over the Seahawks.

Pro Football Focus’ premium statistics are an invaluable data point for football fans to better understand the game. Consider subscribing to PFF to have full access to a plethora of stats and grades to keep you informed about the NFL—and college football, too. Also, NFL Pro is supplying some innovative and illustrative advanced statistics of their own that are worth checking out for the price of admission.

+0.32 Expected Rushing Yards Per Carry (EPA/Att)

Detroit’s rushing attack perfectly complemented their approach in the passing game, resulting in one of the best games offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has called in recent memory. Both Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery combined for 26 carries and 118 yards (4.5 YPC) on the ground, the kind of stat line that would be impressive for a single ballcarrier, but Detroit’s luxury comes in its ability to spread the workload evenly between two guys.

Usually, the Lions deploy Montgomery as their goal line back to power the ball into the end zone, but Gibbs scored on runs from one and three yards out respectively against the Seahawks. Turning those short runs into touchdowns boosted his expected points added figure, and Gibbs ranked fifth among running backs in Week 4 with a +0.32 EPA/Att.

40.1%, 24.2%, 21.3%, 20.6% Catch Rate Over Expected (CROE)

The Lions pass catchers were another incredibly valuable component to their offense getting to the next gear. Detroit was responsible for four of the top-19 pass catchers in catch rate over expected during Week 4—no other team had more than three in the top 25.

Next Gen Stats’ catch rate over expected (CROE) metric, which measures the difficulty of completion using a number of factors, takes into account separation from the nearest defender, depth of target, and speed. The players who qualify for this list, and boast higher CROEs, have consistently made difficult, unlikely catches. Detroit’s four players who finished in the top 20 included: Jameson Williams (40.1%), Amon-Ra St. Brown (24.2%), Sam LaPorta (21.3%), and Tim Patrick (20.6%), who all recorded big plays in timely spots. In fact, of all wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs with at least two targets last week, Jameson Williams ranked first in yards after catch per reception (27.5), while Tim Patrick (15.0) and Sam LaPorta (14.5) finished sixth and seventh respectively.

Goff’s perfect day taking snaps from Graham Glasgow gave Lions receivers a chance to showcase their play after the catch, and good things happen when the ball’s in the right spot at the right time—just ask Goff after that dime from Amon-Ra St. Brown.

3.11 Time to Throw, 4 Pressures Allowed, 100.0 Pass Blocking Efficiency

When the Lions have been without Frank Ragnow, historically, Detroit has struggled to keep the pressure off of their quarterback. Last year, against the Chicago Bears in Week 14, the Lions surrendered 15 pressures and 4.0 sacks without their All-Pro center. In Week 2 of 2022 against the Washington Commanders, Detroit finished 27th in quarterback pressure rate allowed (43.2%), t-21st in sack rate allowed (8.1%), and t-18th in time to throw (2.69).

Frank being sidelined with a partially torn pectoral—that he wanted to play through according to Dan Campbell—didn’t spell disaster the way it had happened in the past against the Seahawks. Kayode Awosika assumed the left guard spot left vacant from Glasgow’s shift to center, and across 24 pass-blocking snaps, the Lions offense line allowed just four quarterback pressures, and gave Goff an average of 3.11 seconds to throw, the fourth-best mark for an offensive line in Week 4.

The veteran Kevin Zeitler allowed two pressures, Awosika allowed just a single pressure, as did left tackle Taylor Decker. Both Glasgow and Penei Sewell allowed zero pressures and boasted perfect 100.0 pass blocking efficiency—a PFF Signature Stat measuring pressure allowed on a per-snap basis with weighting toward sacks allowed. Of 165 qualifying offensive linemen, Glasgow and Sewell were two of 39 o-linemen to finish with a perfect pass blocking efficiency mark in Week 4.

15 quarterback pressures

The defense didn’t have their best game of the year against the Seahawks, but the floor for that offense barring injuries is a top-10 unit at season’s end. Seattle has a group of wide receivers that would give any other room in the league a run for their money, and add in Kenneth Walker III to the run game—something that found traction when Seattle ran outside the tackles—and that’s one helluva group for Geno Smith to lead.

The problem is that the Lions pass rush is real, and Aidan Hutchinson can only be stopped by the refs when they blow a play dead on account of his “being injured.”

Hutchinson led defenders in pressures according to both PFF (15) and NFL Next Gen Stats (10), and we’re running out of ways to describe his dominant start to this season. He’s seriously in a class by himself a month into the season, posting 40 pressures and the next closest to him is the Denver Broncos’ Zach Allen with 23. Look at where you can find Aidan Hutchinson’s name on this chart—hint: it’s in another stratosphere.

Good thing Brad Holmes drafted that guy.