Something’s cooking in the Northwest Stadium, and it’s not just the Detroit Lions’ 25-10 lead over the Washington Commanders at halftime. This dominance might have a new architect behind the scenes. It seems like head coach Dan Campbell is calling the plays instead of offensive coordinator John Morton.

“HC Dan Campbell has a play sheet and is doing the talking into the headset between plays,” NFL insider Mike Garafolo noted on X. “Lots of indication of a disconnect between OC John Morton and the players and coaches. Campbell appears to have taken over offensive play calling, which he indicated was possible.”

For the Lions, the offense does look sharp in Week 10. In fact, this disconnect between Morton and the rest of the building has been building up for a while now. The Lions haven’t had a lot of success on their third-downs, averaging just 37.5% even after their dominant result against the Commanders. Coach Campbell had noted a change might be brewing to fix that.

“Part of it could be with the way the game is called. It could be maybe rhythm of how you call it. It could be what you go to,” Campbell said in a presser on Friday, November 7. “I’ve got a million ideas. I believe it’s going to work this week. And if it doesn’t, then I’ve got another idea. I’ve got plenty. We’ll get this thing going.”

That plan now seems to be working out for everyone to see in Week 10. In their win over the Commanders, the Lions’ third-down efficiency was 50% with 5-10. Moreover, their 4th down conversions looked perfect at 2-2. If this continues to work in their favor, Coach Campbell might just be calling the plays for the rest of the season over offensive coordinator Morton.

John Morton at a crossroads with the Detroit Lions?

When facing hurdles, some coaches take the blame for their decisions, and the players follow suit. But that was notably not the case in Morton’s recent presser. When asked about the game, he spoke about how the players were still learning.

“It’s just a matter of some guys getting beat. That’s all it is,” Morton had noted after their struggle with the Vikings. “When you look at it over and over and over, it’s one or two guys that are just breaking down. We’ve got young guys, they’re still learning, and really they shouldn’t be because, man, we’re halfway through the season. Everybody’s a vet. And we’ve addressed it.”

The other coaches, Dan Campbell included, had taken a different approach. They knew there was work to be done, but they noted it was going to be a team effort. Even the players didn’t seem to agree with Morton’s take.

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“It wasn’t as much of guys just one-on-one, man-to-man getting their a** beat. It was more just being on the same page,” said veteran offensive lineman Taylor Decker. “I think everybody can do better and everybody can help themselves and help the team out in those ways.”

While Decker asked for a team effort for improvement, star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown took it a step further. He pointed out exactly what’s been missing from the offense all season.

“For us as an offense, the word that sticks out to me is ‘flow’. I feel like we haven’t been in a flow all year,” Brown said. “I just feel like that’s been missing… rhythm, execution, as a whole.”

All in all, Week 10 told a different story. The rhythm Amon-Ra St. Brown spoke of finally showed up. Jared Goff was dealing dimes across the field, the O-line found its groove, and Dan Campbell’s play-calling had the Commanders’ defense on its heels. The Lions looked like the unit everyone expected them to be.