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In the third quarter of Sunday’s game in Chicago, the Detroit Lions offense did the following:
3 plays, 7 yards, punt
3 plays, 4 yards, punt
3 plays, -1 yard, punt
2 plays, lost fumble
The Lions’ 13-10 halftime lead went away as quickly as the offense vanished in Soldier Field. Sadly, the third-quarter struggles for Ben Johnson’s offense are not a new development.
Despite the Lions ranking seventh overall in offensive scoring on the season, they’re 24th in third-quarter points. It’s the only quarter when the Lions rank lower than sixth in scoring.
Quarterback Jared Goff acknowledged that the offense is aware of the weirdly awful cratering of productivity coming out of halftime.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating as much as it is for everyone else, it’s very frustrating for us,” Goff said of the third-quarter woes. “And we’re very aware of it and we know we have to continue to be aware of it and continue to try to find ways to be more productive in the third quarter, and that’s everybody.”
Goff himself has been part of the issue. His completion percentage (60.1), yards per attempt (6.9) and TDs (2) are all dramatically lower than his totals across all quarters. He’s also thrown four of his 10 interceptions and lost two of his three fumbles in the third quarter.
“And I wish there was one thing that, again, that you could point to as the reason why, or one thing that fixes it, but there isn’t. It’s just plain execution, it’s plain focus, it’s plain doing our jobs a little bit more consistently in that quarter,” Goff stated.