Even the most creative play callers will struggle to find something new sometimes. Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is absolutely that kind of creative play caller, and he put what we now know as the "stumble bum" into his playbook.
Early in the third quarter on Sunday against the Bears, Jared Goff retreated from center and stumbled, and running back Jahmyr Gibbs fell in concert with his quarterback. Chicago's defense froze long enough for tight end Sam LaPorta to break free for a touchdown catch that for all intents and purposes put the game away.
It looked like it was by design, and indeed it was. In the clip above, you can hear players yelling "ball, ball, ball") to fully sell that the ball was loose (when it really wasn't). It could've gone very wrong, but it worked perfectly all the way around.
After the game, Goff explained how the play can work well against the Bears' defensive scheme, while also crediting how good their linebackers are at diagnosing things. Goff then went further to explain how Johnson first brought the play to him.
"The genesis was that's a good play for that scheme," Goff said. "But they're in tune with it on defense that ... it's hard to get that on them because those linebackers are so dang good at seeing it develop."
"At first it started on Monday with Ben asking me if he thought I could actually fumble on purpose and pick it back up", Goff said, "and I was like, 'I don't know about that,' and we kind of got off that pretty quickly,"
Goff said he proposed pretending to fall, and how Gibbs also doing so really sells the play. It had been run three or four times during practice last week, and head coach Dan Campbell called the game day execution of it "better than practice."
As much as offenses want to operate with rhythm and timing, another goal is to throw the defense off rhythm. Sometimes it happens by accident or circumstance, more than design.
ESPN reported how the 'stumble bum" was born from a play Johnson saw on tape from a Packers-Bears game last season. Packers quarterback Jordan Love accidentally dropped the snap, then hit tight end Luke Musgrave for a 37-yard completion.
The Packers' play coming against the Bears explains why Johnson only unveiled the concept for the play to Goff a week ago. If Johnson had his way initially, Goff would have intentionally dropped the ball.
The "All-22" angle of the play reveals just how much a few Bears' defenders froze due to the fake falls by Goff and Gibbs.
We've seen there's very little, or quite possibly nothing, Johnson won't try when it comes to trick plays. Goff talked him out of an intentional fumble for Sunday's trickery, but the orchestration of two players falling seemed to work better than Goff just dropping the ball and picking it back up.