Editing Episode 622 (section)

=== Jared Goff and the Flores Defence ===

Arif raised Goff's historical split against the Brian Flores defence — sometimes historically good, sometimes very bad — and asked Jeremy to explain the variance. Jeremy pointed to Frank Ragnow's absence as a plausible partial explanation: Ragnow was the rare centre who could handle the pre-snap identification demands that the Flores scheme places on the offence, and when he was in the building the Lions had considerably more success. He allowed that the Ben Johnson / play-caller variable also played some role, though the fact that Johnson has not yet replicated that success in Chicago suggested it was not the whole story.

On what the Lions would likely do: Jeremy was honest about not knowing. Jared Goff had told him, after Jeremy suggested the Packers' defence as some kind of stepping stone, that the two defences were completely different and that the comparison did not translate. Jeremy agreed. He noted that the last year's approach — essentially having Jameer Gibbs just stand in the A-gaps to block rather than functioning as a pass-game weapon — had not worked, and he doubted they would try it again. Possible adjustments included using 21 personnel more often, deploying Sam LaPorta as a de facto fullback (LaPorta had logged eight snaps in the backfield against the Packers), and simply trusting Goff's quick processing to find answers when the rush arrives.