The Detroit Lions wrapped training camp with a scrimmage-style practice that gave the offense a chance to answer back after a month in which the defense had done plenty of the talking. It was a good day for the passing game, a decent one for the run game, and a mixed bag once the depth pieces got involved.
The first-string offense came out sharp and drove 99 yards for a touchdown. Jameson Williams set the tone immediately with a 21-yard back-shoulder grab against Rock Ya-Sin, then later converted a third-and-12 on a screen.
Amon-Ra St. Brown followed with a 22-yard crossing route against Malcolm Rodriguez, and Isaac TeSlaa added a 14-yard catch on a play-action bootleg.
Williams finished the march with a fourth-and-goal catch at the back of the end zone, getting just enough of a knee down with D.J. Reed in coverage.
The run game on that opening possession never really got rolling. The carries went for 5 yards, -2, -1, 2, and 1. Still, the starters on both sides were mostly the names you’d expect, with Levi Onwuzurike, Skyler Gill-Howard, Rodriguez, and Devin White getting some rotational work mixed in.
After that opening touchdown, the offense hit a brief lull. One drive ended in what was described as a debatable three-and-out, and another finished with a 52-yard field goal.
There was also a sequence that clearly bothered Jared Goff: Rodriguez was credited with a sack on third-and-long, but the whistle came very quickly, and Goff had already found a wide-open Sam LaPorta for what looked like a gain of at least 20. Goff was not happy about the whistle.
The next real burst came on just two plays. TeSlaa caught a quick curl, made Jack Campbell miss, and turned it into 12 yards. Then Jahmyr Gibbs took over, following a block from Tate Ratledge on a 59-yard run to the house.
Later, the Lions moved into field-goal range but couldn’t cash in from long distance, missing a 63-yard attempt. On that sequence, Jack Campbell stuffed a second-and-short run for a 2-yard loss, with Tyleik Williams also close to the play. A holding penalty wiped out a third-and-5 conversion, and pressure from Skyler Gill-Howard and DJ Wonnum forced an incompletion on third down.
The passing game kept making noise from there. On one drive starting at the opponent’s 40, Goff hit St.
Brown down the sideline between Ya-Sin and Maddox for 14 yards, then St. Brown converted a third-and-3 bubble screen by stiff-arming D.J.
Reed. The series ended with a 16-yard touchdown to St.
Brown up the seam.
The final first-team drive was the most dramatic. With 1:38 left, down 20-23 and starting at the opponent’s 25 with two timeouts, the Lions leaned on Gibbs again.
He powered through a second-and-long run to help set up third-and-1, and on an end-zone shot, Roger McCreary had tight coverage on St. Brown.
It looked like St. Brown might have hauled it in, but he was ruled out of bounds.
On fourth-and-1, the Lions pitched it to Gibbs with Penei Sewell as the lead blocker, and Gibbs took it to the house with only seconds left.
By the end of the day, the best takeaway was probably the receiver group. Against a sticky secondary, this may have been the wideouts’ best showing of camp.
The run game was solid rather than dominant, though it still produced a couple of explosives. Aidan Hutchinson, meanwhile, was shockingly quiet.
The second-team work had more uneven moments. Starting from their own 1-yard line, the group put together a six-play, 20-yard drive.
Sione Vaki converted a third-and-1 with a 10-yard run up the middle behind blocks from Miles Frazier and Ben Bartch. Gill-Howard forced an incompletion with pressure, Joe Bachie blanketed a crossing route to Tay Martin for a short gain, and Devin White ended the series with a sack on third down.
The next drive produced one of the stranger moments of camp: a missed 71-yard field goal. Luke Altmyer fumbled two snaps from Mason Miller, who was filling in for a missing Seth McLaughlin.
Miller has not played any center in the NFL or in college, and the two spent extra time after practice working on exchanges. Nick Whiteside, who was mostly playing safety again, broke up a third-down slant attempt to Tom Kennedy to end the drive.
The kick from Jake Bates never had a chance, and the wind wasn’t helping.
The second team did finish one possession with points, though. Starting at the opponent’s 40, Trayveon Williams scored on a 31-yard touchdown run.
The third-team offense had one decent flash of life after a rough start. Anthony Lucas recorded a sack that cost the offense 9 yards on the opening drive, but on third-and-19, Josh Dobbs found Dominic Lovett open on a crossing route, and Lovett turned it upfield for a big gain and a first down. Ahmed Hassanein forced an incompletion with pressure on third-and-7, and Eric O’Neill closed the drive with a sack.
The next third-team series ended in a four-and-out.
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