Darrell Bevell: We’ll always be about running the football

[Roary]

Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell has seen high-powered passing games come into vogue around the NFL, but that’s not influencing his approach to putting together the offense in his first season with Detroit.

Bevell said “it kind of gives you a little bit of an edge” to have a more physical approach against defenses that are used to seeing teams that spread out and throw the ball on a regular basis.

“We’ll always be about running the football,” Bevell said, via the Detroit Free Press. “We want to be a tough, hard-nosed, physical football team. We want to be able to exert our will on our opponents.”

Some will likely recall that Bevell’s former team passed on running the ball in a big spot against Lions head coach Matt Patricia’s Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, but the Seahawks were generally a strong running team throughout Bevell’s tenure in Seattle. The Lions have not been as strong in that department, but it seems likely that they’ll be trying to take a step in that direction this season.