The Lions Successfully Pulled Off Two Fake Punts And An Onside Kick Against The Rams

The Detroit Lions came into Sunday as the NFL’s lone winless team after seeing the Jaguars pick up a win last week in London. As two-touchdown underdogs in L.A. against the Rams, few expected them to put something up in the win column this week, but the Lions came out fighting and dug deep in their playbook to do everything they could to take down the Rams.

Dan Campbell has made it clear this season that he will not be playing just to lose by a little, but will take big swings to try and win games. It’s almost worked twice, as Detroit’s been close in games on a couple of occasions only to see opponents hit late field goals swipe away a victory, and Campbell upped the ante against the Rams by going all out with the special teams guile against Los Angeles.

After scoring a touchdown on their opening drive, the Lions sprung a surprise onside kick on the Rams and stole another possession with it.

That drive didn’t go far, but rather than punt the ball away, Detroit dialed up a fake punt pass that caught the Rams off guard.

Surely at this point the Rams would be locked in on special teams looking for any kind of fake or shenanigans, but in the third quarter, the Lions got another fake punt to succeed, this time on a direct snap to the upback who took it for a big gain to set up a go-ahead field goal.

While I can’t be certain of this, I feel pretty confident saying this is probably the first time any team has managed this feat in one game, and kudos to Campbell for absolutely going for it at 0-6. You need to steal every possible advantage you can if you’re the Lions to get a win, and punting the ball away isn’t going to help you do that.