It wasn’t exactly David vs. Goliath, but Lions head coach Dan Campbell decided to reach into his bag for a few tricks on Sunday. While it made for some exciting football, the winless Lions couldn’t quite topple the Rams. There is quite a bit to unpack here, so let’s look at each key decision by the Lions and how some of these aggressive moves impacted the game.
With respect to the onside kick and fake punts, we show the required (conservative) success rate and the gain in GWC from the actual execution of the play. In every situation we reveal the model’s pre-snap recommendation as analyzed by an extensive custom simulation.