Detroit Lions wide receivers coach/assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery opened his Thursday press conference with an interesting statement.
“Tremendous amount of respect (for) how we played—the guys played—without the football,” Montgomery said, before praising Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Kalif Raymond, and the entire offensive line for that work.
While it may be unconventional praise, it speaks to the character and identity of this team. The game of football is just as much about the 10 players without the football than it is the one who is carrying the rock.
Montgomery pointed to two salient examples from the Lions’ blowout win over the Chicago Bears, highlighting players away from the football doing the dirty work, helping to execute a pair of explosive plays.
The first was Gibbs’ 42-yard run in the third quarter. Montgomery highlighted the work of Raymond, whose crash into the Bears safety was the key block that sprung Gibbs.
“It was a very detailed play on the Jahmyr run down the right side,” Montgomery said. “Leaf [Raymond] sealed the right safety and Jahmyr was exactly where he’s supposed to be on the run. We wanted him to put pressure on the corner there to make the corner make the play. And because he had to trust in Leaf to get his job done, you can just watch that path, it didn’t deviate.”
Watch the play below:
As you can see, Raymond essentially takes out two defenders. The play-side corner (#29, Tyrique Stevenson) follows him in man-coverage, while Raymond lays a solid block on Bears safety (#9) Jaquan Brisker. That leaves Gibbs to outrun just the backside safety, which he nearly does on his way to a 42-yard gain.
Montgomery then pointed to Gibbs as a player who was also performing well away from the ball. The Lions running back makes a tremendous effort to get downfield and block during Jameson Williams’ 64-yard gain. Despite being behind Williams when he makes the catch, Gibbs nearly catches up to the speedy receiver and gets in the way of a couple of Bears defenders.
“Watch Jahmyr Gibbs, and watch what he did on that play, playing with out the football,” Montogmery said.
Okay, let’s take a look.
When Williams catches the ball, Gibbs is nearly 15 yards behind him. But he shows tremendous effort, running basically from his own 20-yard line down to the Bears’ 10-yard line in the hopes of making a block to spring Williams into the end zone.
“When you do that for your teammate at the running back position, he turns around and does it for you, the perimeter is going to take care of itself,” Montgomery said. “Those are the things that make teams stronger and more connected.”
When everyone is doing their job away from the ball, it certainly makes life easier for the ball-carrier. But it also helps to have the playmakers the Lions do to ensure that every opportunity their teammates provide gets turned into an explosive play.
“When the guys did get an opportunity to make a play—ie: Jamo, St. Brown—our playmakers, they made plays,” Montgomery said.
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