Post by D6 on Oct 19, 2020 2:31:23 GMT -5
Thoughts in ****
www.mlive.com/lions/2020/10/quick-observations-lions-pound-jaguars-with-best-all-around-game-in-a-very-long-time.html
Quick observations: Lions pound Jaguars with best all-around game in a very long time
The Lions flew to Northeast Florida looking for a win to help save this regime.
Quick observations: Lions pound Jaguars with best all-around game in a very long time
Updated Oct 18, 2020; Posted Oct 18, 2020
Week 6: Detroit Lions vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
By Kyle Meinke | kmeinke@mlive.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- They ran the football and stopped the run. They created turnovers and converted them into touchdowns. By God, they even rushed the passer.
**** The Lions didn't score after forcing either of the two Jaguars Turnovers. Matt Prater's missed 57 yard FG followed Duron Harmon's interception. Late in the 2nd QTR, the Lions didn't capitalize on very good field position following the strip fumble of Gardner Minshew II, by Trey Flowers, which Romeo Okwara recovered. Strong all around performance by the Lions. Yet, the lack of points off the two takeaways illustrates corrections / teaching points in practice/ meetings are necessary. ****
They even -- and I swear this is true -- they even protected a double-digit lead.
The Lions flew to Jacksonville needing a win to save this regime, and pounded the Jaguars 34-16 on Sunday in the sort of all-around bloodbath that has rarely been seen during the Matt Patricia era. Of course, the Lions are still only 2-3 on the season and 11-25-1 during the Patricia era, so the temperature remains turned up on the embattled coach. But string together a few more performances like this one in a slate of winnable games to come, and Patricia just might give himself a chance of seeing out the season.
**** This game was an even better performance by the Lions than the one at Miami following the Lions 2018 bye.****
Quarterback Matthew Stafford wasn’t even particularly good against the Jaguars. He did hit Kenny Golladay with a 48-yard bomb to set up one score and found T.J. Hockenson with a 1-yard touchdown pass -- giving him at least one scoring pass against every other team in the league -- so it’s not like he was bad either. But he just didn’t do much.
**** Matthew Stafford was definitely the better QB in this game and a major reason why the Lions won. ****
But for the first time in a long time, he didn’t have to e good because of Detroit’s dominance in every other part of the game. (That’s still weird to say.) They just made an inferior opponent look inferior and put away the game early. (Again, still weird to say.)
**** It's a substantial step in the right direction for the Lions. ****
Rookie running back D’Andre Swift was one of the big heroes of the day, ripping a 54-yard run on his first touch and never looking back. He finished with 116 yards on just 14 carries an average of 8.3 yards per carry. That’ll do, Swift. That’ll do.
He also scored two touchdowns. That’ll do too, especially for a rookie who faced withering criticism after dropping that would-be game-winning pass in the opener against Chicago. He makes that catch, and the Lions are 3-2 right now and the cusp of the playoff field. That’s a very different season than the one that has unfolded, and put Patricia on the league’s hottest seat.
But the Lions never wavered in their support of the second-round pick, and rightfully so. Because the former Georgia star remains super talented. He just missed so much of camp with a hip injury, and didn’t do much until Week 1. That curbed what the Lions could do with him early in the season, and the team leaned heavily on Adrian Peterson instead.
Detroit will continue to lean on Peterson too, because Peterson still has some tread on those tires. But for the first time, Swift showed why he deserves to share the backfield with the future Hall-of-Famer. He was clocked at 20.7 mph on that 54-yard run, making him the fastest player of the week according to NextGenStats. He became the first Lions back to hit 100 yards since Kerryon Johnson in the Week 4 loss against Kansas City last year.
**** D'Andre Swift did a great job in his collective carries and on a pass protection on a play the Jaguars blitzed. The only negative was for the 2nd tine this season, he didn't turn for the ball on a pass route. ****
The Lions ran the ball so well in Jacksonville. They also stopped the run, believe it or not, holding the Jaguars to just 44 yards on 16 carries. Last week, it was 164 yards. They hadn’t held anyone below 109 yards all season. They hadn’t held anyone below 5.6 yards per carry either. It was a joke, to be honest with you, especially considering Matt Patricia was brought here expressly because of his defense. And three years in, his defense was stopping the run worse than everyone else in the league.
In Jacksonville, we finally saw a version of the total package. Their best player had his worst game of the season, and they still ran Jacksonville off the field. They ran the football and stopped the run. Heck, they even rushed the passer, pressuring Gardner Minshew with a slew of blitzes all day. Trey Flowers got home for a strip-sack, and Jahlani Tavai pressured him into a bad pass that Duron Harmon picked off in the back end.
It was just one game against a bad team. Hard to get too worked up over that kind of thing. Then again, the Lions have another bad team next week in Atlanta, and a bunch of them after that. If they keep playing like this, Matt Patricia just might survive the season after all.
**** The vastly improved Lions run Defense was a huge part of a much better pass rush. Great job by the coaches mixing the coverages. Like in Arizona, the Lions played much more zone coverage than usual.
Atlanta is coming off a one sided win at Minnesota. They easily could be 3-3 instead of 1-5. ****
Here are some more quick observations:
-- The pressure was really something. We haven’t seen the Lions come after the passer with this many bodies in a long time, and it was wildly successful. Flowers had the strip-sack, while Tavai had the interception-inducing hit. Danny Shelton, Jamie Collins and Romeo Okwara (twice) all hit Minshew too. That really helped the cornerbacks stick in their coverages, and Minshew had an awful day, completing just 25 of his 44 passes for 243 yards, one touchdown and the one pick. He led a field goal drive early, then never really threatened again until Detroit had built a 24-3 lead.
**** It gets back to a very strong performance against the run. This gave the Lions much more flexibility against the pass. ****
-- When was the last time the Lions won a game without Matthew Stafford at his best? He completed just one pass for 3 yards on the game’s opening drive, yet led the Lions for a 10-play drive that went 50 yards and ended with Adrian Peterson standing in the end zone. He finished 19 of 31 passing overall for 223 yards, one touchdown and one pick. Pretty pedestrian stuff. But he contributed in other ways, including a 17-yard scramble on third down, a successful sneak on fourth down in the red zone, finding Kenny Golladay with a 48-yard bomb on a free play in the red zone, and adding a 1-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Hockenson. That gives him a touchdown pass against all 31 opponents. As he said this past week, put it on his tombstone.
**** Matthew Stafford contributed heavily to the win. He has plenty of glowing stats from losses. He wasn't perfect by any means in this game. But I'll gladly take his performance in the context of the overall Lions team performance. ****
-- Matthew Stafford, Florida man? It’s true. Before he became the leading passer in Detroit history, before he became a No. 1 draft pick at Georgia, before he became the No. 1 pocket passer in the country in Texas, Stafford was born in the Tampa area. And he’s been very, very good in his home(ish) state. Stafford is now 5-0 in games played in Florida, and 8-1 overall against teams based in Florida.
**** Maybe the Lions are in the wrong division. LOL. ****
-- The win snaps the Lions' six-game losing streak in games they led by double-digits, an NFL record.
**** This streak was like a football noose around the Lions neck. Snapping the dubious streak was necessary and long overdue. ****
-- Guard Joe Dahl was activated from injured reserve on Friday, but did not return to the starting lineup. Detroit opted to continue rolling out its lineup from the last two games, with rookie Jonah Jackson at left guard, Halapoulivaati Vaitai at right guard and Tyrell Crosby at right tackle. It’s still kind of hard to understand what the Lions are doing with Vaitai. They let Graham Glasgow walk last offseason because they didn’t want to pay big money to a guard, then spent $45 million to bring in Vaitai to play right tackle and moved him to guard.
-- Dahl wasn’t on the bench for long, entering the game in the second quarter at left guard. That’s not all. Oday Aboushi entered the game at the same time too, replacing Vaitai at right guard. So after rolling with an unusual three-man guard rotation that drew plenty of scrutiny last year, Detroit rolled with a four-man guard rotation on Sunday -- a rotation that sent its best rookie and highest-priced free agent to the bench. Maybe I’m dumb (entirely possible), but that just doesn’t make a lot sense, especially when you consider Detroit scored touchdowns on its first two drives and averaged more than 7 yards per carry on the ground. That offense rolled to a 14-3 lead. Then they sent 40% of their offensive line to the bench, and their next series died with a missed 57-yard field goal.
-- Of course, Crosby went on to leave the game in the second quarter due to dehydration, then Vaitai followed him. So, maybe the Lions were rolling with the rotation to give the big boys a breather. Then again, why were the Lions struggling with dehydration at all? It was humid, yes, but only 80 degrees with a 17-mph wind. There’s not really much of an excuse for an NFL offensive linemen to have to leave under those conditions, much less two of them. As former Lions offensive lineman T.J. Lang said on Twitter: “Dehydration is pretty unacceptable as a player. It’s the one single ailment that you can control 100%.”
**** In the cases of Joe Dahl and Big V, they both had early season injuries, missing multiple games each. I detest a Guard rotation when injuries / conditioning isn't a significant factor. I think in this game, the situation with each Lions Offensive player that came out of the game needs to be looked at individually as part of the evaluation and decision processes. ****,
-- Adrian Peterson earned a third straight start at running back and scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to open the scoring. He’s now rushed for a touchdown in 82 career games, passing Hall of Famer Walter Payton (81) for fourth on the all-time list.
**** Tremendous accomplishment by A.P. ****
-- Seven Lions players continue to kneel for the anthem: Matthew Stafford, Adrian Peterson, D’Andre Swift, Jonah Jackson, Jason Cabinda, Tracy Walker and Da’Shawn Hand. Some players continue to stand, while many others are watching from the tunnel. No Jaguars players were on the field for the anthem.
**** The kneeling regarding the National Anthem will never be acceptable to me and many other people that have supported the NFL over the years. Being that Jacksonville is one of the largest military cities in the U.S., it's that much more a slap in the face to many, many people that have served or are currently serving in the U.S. Military. ****
....,,,,
This thread is a continuation of the following thread:
Lions at Jaguars preview: Game # 5 ( 2020 )
detroit-lions-forum.proboards.com/thread/785/lions-jaguars-preview-game-2020?page=1&scrollTo=3658
www.mlive.com/lions/2020/10/quick-observations-lions-pound-jaguars-with-best-all-around-game-in-a-very-long-time.html
Quick observations: Lions pound Jaguars with best all-around game in a very long time
The Lions flew to Northeast Florida looking for a win to help save this regime.
Quick observations: Lions pound Jaguars with best all-around game in a very long time
Updated Oct 18, 2020; Posted Oct 18, 2020
Week 6: Detroit Lions vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
By Kyle Meinke | kmeinke@mlive.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- They ran the football and stopped the run. They created turnovers and converted them into touchdowns. By God, they even rushed the passer.
**** The Lions didn't score after forcing either of the two Jaguars Turnovers. Matt Prater's missed 57 yard FG followed Duron Harmon's interception. Late in the 2nd QTR, the Lions didn't capitalize on very good field position following the strip fumble of Gardner Minshew II, by Trey Flowers, which Romeo Okwara recovered. Strong all around performance by the Lions. Yet, the lack of points off the two takeaways illustrates corrections / teaching points in practice/ meetings are necessary. ****
They even -- and I swear this is true -- they even protected a double-digit lead.
The Lions flew to Jacksonville needing a win to save this regime, and pounded the Jaguars 34-16 on Sunday in the sort of all-around bloodbath that has rarely been seen during the Matt Patricia era. Of course, the Lions are still only 2-3 on the season and 11-25-1 during the Patricia era, so the temperature remains turned up on the embattled coach. But string together a few more performances like this one in a slate of winnable games to come, and Patricia just might give himself a chance of seeing out the season.
**** This game was an even better performance by the Lions than the one at Miami following the Lions 2018 bye.****
Quarterback Matthew Stafford wasn’t even particularly good against the Jaguars. He did hit Kenny Golladay with a 48-yard bomb to set up one score and found T.J. Hockenson with a 1-yard touchdown pass -- giving him at least one scoring pass against every other team in the league -- so it’s not like he was bad either. But he just didn’t do much.
**** Matthew Stafford was definitely the better QB in this game and a major reason why the Lions won. ****
But for the first time in a long time, he didn’t have to e good because of Detroit’s dominance in every other part of the game. (That’s still weird to say.) They just made an inferior opponent look inferior and put away the game early. (Again, still weird to say.)
**** It's a substantial step in the right direction for the Lions. ****
Rookie running back D’Andre Swift was one of the big heroes of the day, ripping a 54-yard run on his first touch and never looking back. He finished with 116 yards on just 14 carries an average of 8.3 yards per carry. That’ll do, Swift. That’ll do.
He also scored two touchdowns. That’ll do too, especially for a rookie who faced withering criticism after dropping that would-be game-winning pass in the opener against Chicago. He makes that catch, and the Lions are 3-2 right now and the cusp of the playoff field. That’s a very different season than the one that has unfolded, and put Patricia on the league’s hottest seat.
But the Lions never wavered in their support of the second-round pick, and rightfully so. Because the former Georgia star remains super talented. He just missed so much of camp with a hip injury, and didn’t do much until Week 1. That curbed what the Lions could do with him early in the season, and the team leaned heavily on Adrian Peterson instead.
Detroit will continue to lean on Peterson too, because Peterson still has some tread on those tires. But for the first time, Swift showed why he deserves to share the backfield with the future Hall-of-Famer. He was clocked at 20.7 mph on that 54-yard run, making him the fastest player of the week according to NextGenStats. He became the first Lions back to hit 100 yards since Kerryon Johnson in the Week 4 loss against Kansas City last year.
**** D'Andre Swift did a great job in his collective carries and on a pass protection on a play the Jaguars blitzed. The only negative was for the 2nd tine this season, he didn't turn for the ball on a pass route. ****
The Lions ran the ball so well in Jacksonville. They also stopped the run, believe it or not, holding the Jaguars to just 44 yards on 16 carries. Last week, it was 164 yards. They hadn’t held anyone below 109 yards all season. They hadn’t held anyone below 5.6 yards per carry either. It was a joke, to be honest with you, especially considering Matt Patricia was brought here expressly because of his defense. And three years in, his defense was stopping the run worse than everyone else in the league.
In Jacksonville, we finally saw a version of the total package. Their best player had his worst game of the season, and they still ran Jacksonville off the field. They ran the football and stopped the run. Heck, they even rushed the passer, pressuring Gardner Minshew with a slew of blitzes all day. Trey Flowers got home for a strip-sack, and Jahlani Tavai pressured him into a bad pass that Duron Harmon picked off in the back end.
It was just one game against a bad team. Hard to get too worked up over that kind of thing. Then again, the Lions have another bad team next week in Atlanta, and a bunch of them after that. If they keep playing like this, Matt Patricia just might survive the season after all.
**** The vastly improved Lions run Defense was a huge part of a much better pass rush. Great job by the coaches mixing the coverages. Like in Arizona, the Lions played much more zone coverage than usual.
Atlanta is coming off a one sided win at Minnesota. They easily could be 3-3 instead of 1-5. ****
Here are some more quick observations:
-- The pressure was really something. We haven’t seen the Lions come after the passer with this many bodies in a long time, and it was wildly successful. Flowers had the strip-sack, while Tavai had the interception-inducing hit. Danny Shelton, Jamie Collins and Romeo Okwara (twice) all hit Minshew too. That really helped the cornerbacks stick in their coverages, and Minshew had an awful day, completing just 25 of his 44 passes for 243 yards, one touchdown and the one pick. He led a field goal drive early, then never really threatened again until Detroit had built a 24-3 lead.
**** It gets back to a very strong performance against the run. This gave the Lions much more flexibility against the pass. ****
-- When was the last time the Lions won a game without Matthew Stafford at his best? He completed just one pass for 3 yards on the game’s opening drive, yet led the Lions for a 10-play drive that went 50 yards and ended with Adrian Peterson standing in the end zone. He finished 19 of 31 passing overall for 223 yards, one touchdown and one pick. Pretty pedestrian stuff. But he contributed in other ways, including a 17-yard scramble on third down, a successful sneak on fourth down in the red zone, finding Kenny Golladay with a 48-yard bomb on a free play in the red zone, and adding a 1-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Hockenson. That gives him a touchdown pass against all 31 opponents. As he said this past week, put it on his tombstone.
**** Matthew Stafford contributed heavily to the win. He has plenty of glowing stats from losses. He wasn't perfect by any means in this game. But I'll gladly take his performance in the context of the overall Lions team performance. ****
-- Matthew Stafford, Florida man? It’s true. Before he became the leading passer in Detroit history, before he became a No. 1 draft pick at Georgia, before he became the No. 1 pocket passer in the country in Texas, Stafford was born in the Tampa area. And he’s been very, very good in his home(ish) state. Stafford is now 5-0 in games played in Florida, and 8-1 overall against teams based in Florida.
**** Maybe the Lions are in the wrong division. LOL. ****
-- The win snaps the Lions' six-game losing streak in games they led by double-digits, an NFL record.
**** This streak was like a football noose around the Lions neck. Snapping the dubious streak was necessary and long overdue. ****
-- Guard Joe Dahl was activated from injured reserve on Friday, but did not return to the starting lineup. Detroit opted to continue rolling out its lineup from the last two games, with rookie Jonah Jackson at left guard, Halapoulivaati Vaitai at right guard and Tyrell Crosby at right tackle. It’s still kind of hard to understand what the Lions are doing with Vaitai. They let Graham Glasgow walk last offseason because they didn’t want to pay big money to a guard, then spent $45 million to bring in Vaitai to play right tackle and moved him to guard.
-- Dahl wasn’t on the bench for long, entering the game in the second quarter at left guard. That’s not all. Oday Aboushi entered the game at the same time too, replacing Vaitai at right guard. So after rolling with an unusual three-man guard rotation that drew plenty of scrutiny last year, Detroit rolled with a four-man guard rotation on Sunday -- a rotation that sent its best rookie and highest-priced free agent to the bench. Maybe I’m dumb (entirely possible), but that just doesn’t make a lot sense, especially when you consider Detroit scored touchdowns on its first two drives and averaged more than 7 yards per carry on the ground. That offense rolled to a 14-3 lead. Then they sent 40% of their offensive line to the bench, and their next series died with a missed 57-yard field goal.
-- Of course, Crosby went on to leave the game in the second quarter due to dehydration, then Vaitai followed him. So, maybe the Lions were rolling with the rotation to give the big boys a breather. Then again, why were the Lions struggling with dehydration at all? It was humid, yes, but only 80 degrees with a 17-mph wind. There’s not really much of an excuse for an NFL offensive linemen to have to leave under those conditions, much less two of them. As former Lions offensive lineman T.J. Lang said on Twitter: “Dehydration is pretty unacceptable as a player. It’s the one single ailment that you can control 100%.”
**** In the cases of Joe Dahl and Big V, they both had early season injuries, missing multiple games each. I detest a Guard rotation when injuries / conditioning isn't a significant factor. I think in this game, the situation with each Lions Offensive player that came out of the game needs to be looked at individually as part of the evaluation and decision processes. ****,
-- Adrian Peterson earned a third straight start at running back and scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to open the scoring. He’s now rushed for a touchdown in 82 career games, passing Hall of Famer Walter Payton (81) for fourth on the all-time list.
**** Tremendous accomplishment by A.P. ****
-- Seven Lions players continue to kneel for the anthem: Matthew Stafford, Adrian Peterson, D’Andre Swift, Jonah Jackson, Jason Cabinda, Tracy Walker and Da’Shawn Hand. Some players continue to stand, while many others are watching from the tunnel. No Jaguars players were on the field for the anthem.
**** The kneeling regarding the National Anthem will never be acceptable to me and many other people that have supported the NFL over the years. Being that Jacksonville is one of the largest military cities in the U.S., it's that much more a slap in the face to many, many people that have served or are currently serving in the U.S. Military. ****
....,,,,
This thread is a continuation of the following thread:
Lions at Jaguars preview: Game # 5 ( 2020 )
detroit-lions-forum.proboards.com/thread/785/lions-jaguars-preview-game-2020?page=1&scrollTo=3658