Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson not worried about saving trick plays: 'The well is deep'

The Detroit Lions weren't worried about saving any trick plays in last week's win over the Dallas Cowboys . Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said they have plenty of them.

"The well is deep," Johnson said Thursday. "Each and every week we stock up. That’s been constant, it just so happens last week we wanted to unload them."

The Lions ran three trick plays in last week's 47-9 win over the Cowboys.

Sam LaPorta caught a touchdown on reverse flea-flicker from Jared Goff. Left tackle Taylor Decker was the intended target on a goal-line pass out of the Lions' jumbo package. And right tackle Penei Sewell nearly scored on a hook-and-lateral that was nullified by a penalty.

Goff's pass to Decker came with the Lions leading comfortably, 34-9, and Sewell's hook-and-lateral play came one series later after the Lions had tacked on another field goal.

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Lions coach Dan Campbell told players he planned to "unload the clip" before the game, and he said Monday he never considered saving any of those calls for a different situation or a closer game later in the season.

"We were playing football and we were pedal to the metal," Campbell said. "That was the whole mindset. And then our job is to every week come back up with something more creative and find a way to continue to push the limits here. Ben does a great job and the offensive staff. And so, now it’s, ‘Let’s go find something else.’”

Johnson attributed the Lions' success on trick plays Thursday to the attention to detail of his players, and he's said coming up with ideas for plays is a group effort.

Lions special assistant Chris Spielman frequently gives Johnson index cards with unique plays he finds in college games, an official once handed Johnson an idea for a play that Johnson kept on his desk, and former Lions quarterback David Blough helped bring the reverse flea-flicker to the Lions' playbook last season for a game against the Carolina Panthers.

"This game’s been around for a long time and our challenge as a coaching staff, and I say it to the offensive staff quite a bit is, we can run a million different types of plays and because of that I don’t like to run the same one twice," Johnson said. "I don’t like to do it within a game, I don’t like to do it within a season. We certainly do have some staples that I will repeat at times, but we’re charged with, let’s have a little creativity.

"Defenses, they’re doing their film study, they’re looking at things, they’re finding, 'Hey, out of this formation they’re doing this, that and the other,' and we try to mix it up. So from that regard, I’m not worried about putting things on tape. If anything else, it’s just going to help set up the next thing down the road."

Dave Birkett will sign copies of his new book, " Detroit Lions : An Illustrated Timeline" at 2 p.m. CDT Saturday at La Dona Cerveceria in Minneapolis. Order your copy here.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson not worried about saving trick plays: 'The well is deep'