The Detroit Lions’ offense has the unenviable task of trying to score points on the mighty Minnesota Vikings defense in their Week 8 matchup. Minnesota’s defense might not be historic, but it is very, very good with Brian Flores calling the shots in a blitz-heavy scheme. Minnesota is the only undefeated team in the league entering the week at 6-0, but the offense is so uninspiring that there are currently 11 teams ahead of them in FanDuel’s NFL championship odds.

The Lions’ offense has been really good even after losing former OC Ben Johnson a couple seasons ago to the Chicago Bears. Detroit is still coming up with some really interesting passing concepts to complement Jamir Gibbs in the running game, and they used one of them to convert a long 3rd-and-8 in the third quarter against Minnesota.

Detroit pulled a play straight out of the CFL by lining up star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown 15-yards behind the line of scrimmage, then letting him get a running start to catch a screen pass and convert the first down. The Lions would score a touchdown on the next play, and go on to beat the Vikings, 19-15, to give Minnesota its first loss of the year. Watch the critical third down conversion here:

You see this type of play often in the CFL, where it’s legal for eligible receivers off the line to be in continuous motion in any direction at the snap of the ball. The NFL restricts motion to a single player moving horizontally or backward, but this play is legal because St. Brown doesn’t actually move until the snap.

The Lions put Goff in a shotgun so he could build up speed and hit the flat as soon as he was ready to throw. As long St. Brown reports as eligible and the Lions have the required amount of players on the line of scrimmage, the play is legal. Detroit had a TE in the los on the left side of the formation to fulfill the line requirement

Jahmyr Gibbs busted a 30-yard touchdown run on the next play to give Detroit the lead. The Lions improved to 5-2 with the win, but the focus will be on the status of injured linebacker Jack Campbell who was carted off after lying motionless on the field.

This was a cool play for the Lions in a great win. Let’s just hope Campbell is okay.