Detroit Lions offensive coordinator John Morton didn't push back against his boss taking over play-calling duties.
Speaking for the first time since Dan Campbell took over offensive play-calling in Week 10's blowout win over the Washington Commanders, Morton struck all the right notes.
"I fully support it," Morton said Thursday, via the Detroit News. "Listen, man. I've been doing this for a while. I've been with head coaches that are offensive guys, play-callers, so I'm used to that. I feel very prideful of things that I was doing. There's some things I've got to learn, no doubt.
"But listen, I want to do whatever it takes to win. I mean, as soon he said (that), I'm like, 'All right, let's go. What do we gotta do?' That's the way I've always been in this business. I've been cut six times (as a player), I've been fired. Man, you just march on, because it's always about the team. It always is."
The Lions put up a season-high 546 total yards, 226 rush yards and 30 first downs in the 44-22 shellacking. Detroit never punted, scoring on all eight of its possessions before the end-of-game kneel downs.
Morton admitted that there seemed to be a better "flow" to the game than in previous outings, in which the offense felt like something was off.
"You saw it last week. For one series, we had all first downs. I talk about CFL football, first, second -- it wasn't even that. I don't even know what it was. Might've been Tecmo," Morton said. "But you can feel it, you know what I'm saying? It's just first down, second down, first down, second down, first down, second down. And we had those moments this year, but it's just like everything was clicking last week."
The change came against a Washington club that has been woeful on defense for the bulk of the season and particularly dreadful of late. Old, slow, penalty-prone and undisciplined aren't a great defensive combination. Dan Quinn took over defensive play-calling after Sunday's loss to the Lions.
How much was the Lions offense looking great Sunday a product of Campbell's play-calling, and how much was the fact that they faced a defense playing JV-level football? We'll have a better idea of how to answer that question after Detroit faces an Eagles defense that shut down the Packers in Week 10.
Campbell said early in the week that he didn't rule out Morton getting back the play-calling duties at some point this season. Like a benched QB who gets a new perspective from a game on the sideline, the hope is that Morton gets a better feel for the Lions' offensive vision.
"That's just like, 'OK, I was a starter. Now I'm not. OK. What do I got to do to become a starter again?'" Morton said. "If someone tells you (that) you're demoted, you're not going to be here anymore, you're going to work for high school games. What are you going to do? You're going to keep fighting, right? That's what we do.
"That's what the Lions do. ... That's the way we tell our players, right? A player loses his starting position, what is he going to do? He's just going to mope around and quit? No, he's not. Because we don't hire guys like that, or we don't draft players like that. We hire guys that are fighters and will do whatever it takes."
The Lions ran play action on 51.4 percent of dropbacks in Week 10, a season high. They'd used PA on 28.0 percent of dropbacks in Weeks 1-9, eighth in NFL (led NFL at 36.8 percent in 2024). Jared Goff has averaged 9.9 pass yards/attempt on play action this season, third in the NFL behind Sam Darnold (14.8) and Lamar Jackson (13.5). Goff led the league with 1,939 pass yards and 14 TDs on play action in 2024.
