Lions OC Explains What Disappointed Him about Offense against Jets

Even though the Detroit Lions are not taking anything away from their seventh victory of the 2022 season, certain issues came up offensively that could have ended up being more costly.

Even though the offensive line has been receiving praise all season, the majority of the starters still express that the running game has not reached its full potential so far in the season.

This past Sunday, on too many occasions, the running game put the Lions behind the sticks early in drives, forcing additional pressure on the passing game.

"We've made probably some similar mistakes, and they haven't haven't beaten us quite as hard," Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said. "I first point at the red zone, we were 0-for-3 in the red zone. And, if we do what we've been doing all season there, I think it's a completely different game."

On the first drive, the Lions were able to move the football down the field. But, the Jets were able to stop the Lions on fourth down, stuffing running back Jamaal Williams.

"The penalties, that's something that we can't allow to be a chronic problem for us going forward," Johnson expressed. "And then, the third time, we had some miscommunication with some of our run game, and it kind of put us there long. So, that happened. The red zone, we have to be better.

"As I talked about last week, some of those bread-and-butter plays that we kind of rely on, we didn't execute," Johnson continued. "And, that to me was the most disappointing thing out of the whole game, was some of the things in the run game we've been doing all year. We had mental errors or targeting issues that really hadn't happened. It was more self-inflicted than a product of what New York was doing. We knew they were going to play hard and where they were going to be. But, we simply didn't, in key moments, execute as well as we're capable of."

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