There has been a statistical anomaly for the Detroit Lions’ offense for the past two years that almost seems inexplicable. So far this season, they are the only team that has not drawn a defensive pass interference penalty from the opponents. The league average is 5.7 pass interference penalties drawn. And this doesn’t appear to be a one-year outlier, because last year the Lions drew just one pass interference penalty, while the next-lowest team drew five.
Lions coach Dan Campbell admitted he knew about this and had talked about it with some inside the building, but he didn’t have a good explanation for why. His best guess: it’s hard to disrupt Detroit’s powerful receivers, like Amon-Ra St. Brown.
“Saint’s so freaking strong that he can pull himself out of being held pretty good,” Campbell said.
Lions receivers coach Scottie Montgomery had a more picturesque way to describe St. Brown’s strength.
“You hit him, and it’s like throwing a rock at a truck,” Montgomery said. “You can hear it, you can see it, but it’s not going to slow him down. He’s just going to run right through it.”
I asked both coaches if there was anything they could teach to draw the flags more often, and both immediately shut down that option. Campbell joked that if they taught their players to fall down, the media would get on them when a pass inevitably gets intercepted.
“Just flop and fall down,” Campbell joked. “And then if the ball gets picked because you fell down, then you guys are like, ‘Why did he fall down? Why didn’t he try to go for the ball?’”
Montgomery bluntly said the obvious: we don’t flop.
“We’re not a flop team, man,” Montgomery said. “We’re more old-school basketball, late 80s, early 90s, Bad Boys. You take your shot, you get up, you hit the free throws.”
There are some other theories out there. The kind of players who typically draw those penalties are big, physical receivers like JaMarr Chase (eight PIs drawn) and CeeDee Lamb (seven). The Lions don’t really have that type of receiver in their passing game right now. Additionally, some believe that because Jared Goff doesn’t throw into traffic often, the opportunity for a flag doesn’t arise as much.
Regardless, Montgomery doesn’t want his players thinking about it. He’d rather they focus on creating separation and making a play on the ball.
“We really coach against any kind of flopping or any of that. If we get the call, we want to get the call, but we want to make a play, and the way that I coach that is we play with physicality,” Montgomery said.
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