The hot topic of tonight’s game seems to be trying to figure out what Lions pass catcher takes the increase in volume with no Sam LaPorta, Brock Wright, Kalif Raymond, and (likely) Amon-Ra St. Brown. Plenty of Jamo, Teslaa, Kennedy, and Dwelley on the feed which makes sense. We saw the Lions have to rely on some of those other options for downfield yardage against Green Bay last week after St. Brown went down. 

But that wasn’t plan A. They fed Jahmyr Gibbs on the ground as much as they could, but the matchup was too much to overcome. The Packers are one of eight teams in the NFL allowing less than 100 rushing yards per game. And even with the Cowboys recent resurgence defensively as they get healthier, they still are the 20th ranked rush defense in the league. Plus, their numbers could be even worse if they had faced a rushing attack with a pulse in the last few weeks. 

In the month of November the Cowboys faced the 15th, 22nd, 24th, and 32nd ranked rushing attacks in football. And that #15 is the team with Patrick Mahomes by the way. Not to mention the strength of the Cowboys d-line is definitely on the interior, while Gibbs may be the most dangerous man in the league on the outside. To me this screams a spam Gibbs game, but not just running the football.

In my  Thanksgiving writeup I told you that I thought David Montgomery was a much better value in the pass game than Gibbs, and the fact that it played out like that burned a lot of people. Today we have a Cowboys defense that has done a fantastic job mixing up their coverages as of late, should be getting pressure on Goff a good bit, and ranks as one of the worst offenses in football defending RBs out of the backfield in the pass game. Gibbs’ involvement in the pass game shouldn’t be just a fall back when everything breaks down, it’s an integral part of the gameplan.

I do think Gibbs gets in the endzone too, and for what its worth, he has been incredibly boom or bust as of late with touchdown production. For the last seven weeks he has alternated between games with no touchdown and games with multiple. That’s not to say it’s impossible for him to only score one, but more to illustrate that when the right matchup is there Gibbs gets fed big time. Between the matchup on the ground and what I think is the necessary role in the receiving game, there’s potential for a nuclear Gibbs game. So we take the fantasy score to encompass it all.