Detroit Lions

Lions' aggressiveness, offensive balance pay off in dramatic win over Chargers

Updated Nov. 12, 2023 9:38 p.m. ET

Dan Campbell doesn't back down.

On fourth-and-2 with Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers tied at 38 apiece and 1:47 left on the clock, the Detroit Lions head coach decided to go for it instead of kicking a field goal and giving the ball back to the Chargers armed with a timeout and over a minute on the clock.

Every analytics model advocated for kicking the field goal. Going for it wasn't worth the risk.

Clearly, in Campbell's mind, analytics be damned.

"I wanted to finish with the ball in our hands," said Campbell.

Quarterback Jared Goff then delivered a six-yard pass to Sam LaPorta, converting and giving Detroit a first-and-10 at the 20-yard line. They took three knees before Riley Patterson booted the game-winning, last-second 41-yard field goal to win the game 41-38 and move the Lions to 7-2 on the season.

Speaking of the ball…

"[Campbell's] got big balls, and he showed it there," Goff said after the game, apparently on NFL After Dark.

It was a total and complete shootout, with the teams combining for 79 points. Detroit amassed 533 yards of total offense. Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown set a new career high with 156 yards on eight receptions, one of which went for a touchdown. It was his fourth-straight game with 100-plus receiving yards, becoming the first Lions receiver to do so since Calvin Johnson did it in eight straight games in 2012.

Running back David Montgomery rushed for 116 yards on 12 carries in his first game back. Rookie Jahmyr Gibbs added 77 more rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. It was the first time in team history that the offense recorded 325 net passing yards and 200 rushing yards, according to Lions PR.

Every drive included multiple explosive plays — all very different. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was pulling all kinds of plays out of his bag as the Lions found new ways to score. Their longest play of the game came on a 75-yard touchdown run by Montgomery… up the middle. On third-and-2 in the third quarter, they called a pass to St. Brown that he took for 33 yards. To begin their last drive, Goff unleashed the ball 41 yards to Khalif Raymond on the very first play. Detroit's final touchdown came on a play-action fake to tight end Brock Wright where Goff had to go over top of the defense and drop it down in the bucket for his receiver. It worked and Wright wound up with a 25-yard gain.

Wright wasn't the only tight end in the mix. Rookie Sam LaPorta finished with four catches for 40 yards, two of which converted crucial downs to extend drives. Never mind that Detroit lined him up all over the line of scrimmage and asked him to block. LaPorta has produced 35 or more receiving yards in each of his first nine NFL games. He's the first tight end in NFL history to do so, according to Lions PR.

Detroit ran the ball 31 times. They had 200 rushing yards on the dot. They had two running backs with double-digit carries. The Lions finally got to see what their offense was supposed to look like with both Gibbs and Montgomery on the field. Earlier in the year, Gibbs' inexperience showed. Then Montgomery was injured in Week 5 and missed the last four games.

"It took [Gibbs] a little bit to come along but as everybody can see he's come along," said Montgomery. "It's a beautiful thing to have two guys perform at a high level but it also brings some competition for me and [Gibbs] to let me know, "alright, let me step it up a little bit because he's going crazy."

Gibbs' production over the last couple of weeks certainly makes fantasy managers who gambled on him happy. He's just the third Lions back to produce 400 or more scrimmage yards and four touchdowns in a three-game span. That list includes Barry Sanders and Billy Sims. Fantasy managers have to be even happier that there seems to be room in the offense for both Gibbs and Montgomery. If they keep this pace up, it'd be hard to argue that Detroit now has the best running-back tandem in the league — under a guy who knows how to use them.

Johnson's offense can hit defenses from wherever. Heck, in the first half, Johnson decided he was going to run the ball at all costs against the league's sixth-ranked rushing defense, clearly for a good reason, but the Lions paid for it by getting stuffed at the goal line.

But where so many would be deterred, the Lions remained defiant. Confident. Both?

Campbell doesn't back down. And he doesn't get gun-shy.

Campbell's intuition with Johnson's offensive mind and the plethora of weapons the Lions have at their disposal make them one of the league's most well-rounded offenses. The fact that this is the first time we've really seen the offense firing on all cylinders and it should only go up from here means Detroit is also one of the scariest offenses, too.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.