"They didn't look like Ben Johnson's Lions": Colin Cowherd makes feelings known on Jared Goff and Co.'s upset win vs. Ravens on MNF

Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions put on a primetime show on Monday night to beat Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens 38-30. Coach Dan Campbell's men are picking up the pace after their Week 1 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

They beat the brakes off the Chicago Bears in Week 2 and took the vaunted Ravens to task on Monday Night Football. However, NFL analyst Colin Cowherd made some unique observations regarding the Lions' play.

Bears head coach Ben Johnson ran Detroit's offense last season as offensive coordinator. However, Chicago hired him this past offseason, and the Lions replaced him with John Morton.

Cowherd spoke on the effect of Morton's appointment on Monday's episode of "The Colin Cowherd Podcast."

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"Johnny Morton, tonight, I don't know if he'll call [this] a better game," he said [8:59 - 9:54]. "Sometimes, coordinators, offensive coordinators, say they want to run the ball. But they get too clever. They get too cute. Even Sean McVay sometimes can get a little bit cute. Johnny Morton, tonight, he just kept going back to the run. "It didn't look like the Ben Johnson Lions. There was no cute... Every time I remember Detroit running it, they've run it well. I think I've seen them run it a couple different times. They didn't outthink the room."

As Cowherd highlighted, the Lions' run game was on point against the Ravens. The committee backfield of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery was a hard one to stop for Baltimore. Gibbs, as the leading back, rushed for 67 yards and two touchdowns. Montgomery, on the other hand, broke out with 151 yards and two touchdowns.

Comparing "Ben Johnson's Lions" with John Morton's Lions

Similar to this campaign, the Lions were off to a flying start, offensively, last year. Just like John Morton in 2025, Ben Johnson cooked up big-yardage games in 2024.

Under Johnson, after three weeks of play, Detroit had totaled 1,199 yards on offense. Interestingly, the Lions only lagged 16 yards behind this season under Morton, with 1,183.

However, Morton has been running the highest-scoring offense compared to Johnson last year. While Johnson's Lions had totaled 62 points by Week 3, Morton ran away with that category, as Detroit stands at 62 points this season.

The Bears head coach's impact on the Lions was indeed remarkable, but Detroit's top brass has done a brilliant job of replacing his services to continue the momentum in Motown.

Edited by Nicolaas Ackermann