GREEN BAY – As the old saying goes, there are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Only sometimes statistics actually do paint a truthful picture, even as wild and eye-catching as they may be.
So here's one from the Packers' 27-13 victory over the Lions in Week 1 – Detroit running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery combined to average just 2.7 yards each time they touched the ball.
Two-point-seven. That's barely a first down every four touches.
But to understand just how impactful the Packers' containment of them was, further analysis is needed.
First, the Lions ran 65 total offensive plays, and the Gibbs-Montgomery tandem got the ball 34 times, accounting for more than half their snaps. On those 34 touches, they didn't even gain 100 yards. Just 93 total.
Gibbs ran the ball nine times and caught 10 passes (for just 31 yards, the lowest total in league history by a player with double-digit receptions in a game). Montgomery ran it 11 times and caught four.
Only one other Detroit weapon touched the ball more than four times in the contest. That was tight end Sam LaPorta, who had six receptions for 79 yards. Three of LaPorta's catches came on the Lions' final drive with the game out of reach.
Which brings up another point, that Gibbs got the ball three times and Montgomery none on that 13-play scoring drive to close the game. Meaning before that, Gibbs and Montgomery had touched the ball on 31 of the Lions' first 52 snaps, or more than 60%.
So Gibbs and Montgomery were, for all intents and purposes, Detroit's offense in this game. Because even as they weren't able to generate any explosive gains – they had just one of more than seven yards between them, a 14-yard run by Gibbs in the first quarter – they kept getting the ball.
Which brings up the next piece of the deeper dive. Last year, when the Lions ranked second in the league in total offensive yards, Gibbs and Montgomery collectively averaged 5.8 yards every time they touched the ball in compiling more than 3,000 yards from scrimmage. That's way more than a first down every two plays. For the whole season.
Comparing the 5.8-yard average per touch from last year to Sunday's 2.7, the Packers held them to less than half of their usual impact, on a day they got the ball on more than half of the Lions' snaps.
Want more? The Packers recorded tackles for loss on Gibbs and Montgomery six times for a total of 13 lost yards. That's how their combined total wound up under 100. Without those, the RB duo had 28 touches for 113 yards.
Which was pretty darn good in its own right, because taking away the Packers' six best plays against them, they still averaged just 3.8 yards per touch, two yards below their average last year.
But 2.7 all told? Now that's crazy.
