The Lions finally got off their Thanksgiving day schneid. That and more in this week’s look at advanced key statistics from Lions-Bears.
Third Fourth time’s a charm! Dan Campbell finally got his first Thanksgiving day victory as head coach of the Detroit Lions, and the team moved to 11-1 on the season.
As we’ll do every week throughout the season for this Detroit Lions team, we have some data we can comb through courtesy of various outlets that better help 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 Chicago Bears.
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13.6% pass rush win rate
Dan Campbell gave out just one game ball after this win over the Bears and it was to one of the newcomers to Detroit this year: DJ Reader. Reader was a force along the interior, racking up four total pressures, two tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, and three quarterback hits. His 13.6% pass rush win rate on Thursday was a splash performance when the Lions needed it, outperforming his 8.0% pass rush win rate over his first ten games of 2024.
19.4% pass rush win rate
Speaking of newcomers, Za’Darius Smith gutted it out through injury yesterday—leaving the field on two separate occasions—but still playing a season-high 55 snaps. Smith tied another season-high yesterday with nine pressures, matching his output from Week 9, and posted a 19.4% pass rush win rate across 43 pass rush snaps. Give it up to Rob Lohman, the Lions Director of Pro Scouting, and his team for nailing it with the additions of both Reader and Smith.
39.6 passer rating allowed
A week after missing his first NFL bit of action with a groin injury, Terrion Arnold returned to the lineup and had one of his better games of his young career—even without veteran Carlton Davis lining up opposite of him. Arnold was targeted eight times in coverage, but only surrendered two catches for 20 yards, and notching a pass breakup as well. Arnold recorded a 39.6 passer rating against, the best of any Lions defender in coverage with at least one target.
17 pressures without blitzing
Somehow, Aaron Glenn and the rest of his position coaches on defense are still not receiving enough credit for the work they’re doing given the circumstances. According to Next Gen Stats, Detroit’s defense was able to pressure Caleb Williams, the Bears rookie quarterback who couldn’t have looked any more like a rookie yesterday, on 17 of his dropbacks without blitzing. Surprisingly enough, that’s the most non-blitz pressures in a game for the Lions since Glenn has took over as defensive coordinator in 2021.
44.4% of rushing attempts for 10+ yards
Jahmyr Gibbs continues to be a big-play machine, and he was especially explosive on Thursday. Gibbs didn’t get many chances to tote the rock, but made the most of his opportunities, rushing for 87 yards on just nine carries (9.7 yards per carry). But what’s even more impressive is that 44.4% of his rushing attempts went for 10+ yards—including a long of 28.
-0.1 yards before contact
On a day where the Lions gained 194 rushing yards on 33 carries, they ran the ball both efficiently and effectively… for the most part. In the red zone, Detroit’s offense struggled to move the ball on the ground, generating just –0.1 yards before contact per carry. Of the Lions’ seven rushing attempts down there, Detroit running backs were contacted behind the line of scrimmage 57.1% of the time. Outside of those red zone attempts, Detroit averaged 2.5 yards before contact per carry and were met behind the line of scrimmage on only 30.4% of carries.
