3 Things Robert Prince Can Do To Be Different than Darrell Bevell
On Saturday, the Lions will have their third different head coach of 2020, when Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to town for a Week 16 contest.
No, interim head man Darrell Bevell hasn't been fired.
But, he has been ruled out for Saturday, because he was determined to be a high-risk, close contact of a team employee that tested positive for the coronavirus earlier in the week.
Wide receivers coach Robert Prince will serve as the acting head coach in his place.
Prince, who has been the Lions' receivers coach since 2014, has never been a head coach before.
Here are three things he can do to make the most of his opportunity and be different than Bevell.
Be ultra aggressive on fourth down
Just because the Lions are now officially eliminated from postseason contention, it doesn't mean that they should just be going through the motions in the final two weeks of the season.
If anything, it means that the team should be playing with an even more loose and free mentality than the one they already have been playing with since Bevell took over for Matt Patricia in Week 13 against the Chicago Bears.
So, on Saturday whenever a fourth-and-5-or-less situation arises, Prince should make sure that his offense goes for it.
With nothing meaningful on the line, this is the time to especially be ultra aggressive on fourth down. And I'm not saying going for a fake punt, as now ex-Detroit special teams coordinator had drawn up last week against the Tennessee Titans without Bevell's approval, ultimately resulting in Coombs' dismissal from the franchise.
Instead, leave the offense on the field on fourth-and-short-type plays, and see what it can muster up for you. It might just earn Prince some brownie points with the Detroit fanbase along the way, too.
Let Matthew Stafford cook
With Bevell, Detroit's offensive play-caller, sidelined for the contest and quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan having to call the team's plays in Bevell's absence, there's never been a better time to allow Stafford to have free rein of the offense and to sling the pigskin around as much as he pleases.
Andrew Nelles, Tennessean.com, Imagn Content Services, LLC
If he wants to air it out 40-50 times, let him do so.
He might need to do so anyways, because the Lions will likely be playing from behind against Brady and the Buccaneers' high-powered offensive attack.
Reduce Adrian Peterson's role even more
If the Lions are going to run it 25 times Saturday, I want to see rookie back D'Andre Swift get at least 20 carries.
It'd be a career-high number of rush attempts for the first-year pro. But, it'd be well worth it, as he's by far the team's most explosive runner at this point.
It subsequently minimizes Peterson's role in the rushing game even further (he only had six carries last week).
I don't think it would hurt the overall productivity of Detroit's ground attack, though.
And, it'd be a rather bold move from Prince and give him a chance to stand out in his head coaching debut.
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