Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell took matters into his own hands when it came to offensive play calling for Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders.
Turns out, it was the right decision to take the reins from offensive coordinator John Morton.
In recent weeks, the Lions offense has been unable to crack a 25 point plateau. Until this week.
Under Campbell’s direction, the Lions blew out Washington by a score of 44-22.
After rumors suggested the change in play calling without confirmation, Campbell revealed that he did in fact take over.
‘It’s just a changeup,’ he told Fox NFL reporter Megan Olivi at halftime. ‘We wanted to mix things up.’
Lions head coach Dan Campbell took over offensive play calling duties and saw great success
The Lions cracked over 500 yards of offense en route to a 44-22 victory over Washington
The Lions scored on nearly every single drive they had – with the only exception being the drive where the team ran out the clock.
Detroit even managed to score three straight touchdowns to open up the game.
Jahmyr Gibbs opened the day with a touchdown catch, Amon-Ra St. Brown followed suit, and then Gibbs rushed in from 13-yards out to claim a 22-3 lead.
All told, the Lions walked out with 546 yards of total offense – 320 passing yards from quarterback Jared Goff and 226 rushing yards from Gibbs (142), David Montgomery (71) and more.
After the game, Campbell said he made the decision after a loss to the Minnesota Vikings last week and stressed that Morton is still crucial to the team.
“I know what I want to do, I know how I want to do it,” Campbell told reporters.
“Now that being said, this is a collaborative effort now. I was taking input from John Morton that whole time, and the other coaches … I just wanted to change it up a little bit.
‘Let’s just see if maybe a different play-caller can maybe get us a little rhythm. That’s all. It’s honestly nothing more than that.’
