Evan Silva’s Matchups: Lions at Rams

Editor’s Note: This Matchup was written by John Daigle, with input from Evan Silva.

Detroit @ L.A. Rams

Team Totals: Lions 24.5, Rams 30.5

The last time Detroit squared off with DC Chris Shula (in their 2024 season opener), he simply sat L.A.’s defense in Cover 3 (with five blitzes all afternoon) and told Jared Goff to beat them; the veteran ultimately fell short for 6.0 yards per attempt and one pick when kept clean. With Dan Campbell calling plays the last five games, however, Goff’s stacked 9.1 YPA (first) from a clean pocket. The Rams recently suffocated Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Jacoby Brissett for a combined seven turnovers and 5.5 YPA, but this environment is volatile enough to consider Goff a boom-bust QB1. I don’t expect the Lions to punt given the magnitude of this game. … Only Christian McCaffrey has spiked as many top-three finishes as Jahmyr Gibbs (3) in their last five games, being targeted on 34% of his routes with Campbell calling plays (compared to his 24% rate under OC John Morton). Any negative game script logically increases Gibbs’ outs. David Montgomery, on the other hand, remains a TD-or-bust RB3 with 6 > 5 > 8 > and 6 carries since Week 11. (L.A. has permitted 1.8 yards before contact per run (second), easily stuffing his between-the-tackles skill set.)