Tag: Jahmyr Gibbs

Five things to watch as the Lions face the Jaguars, look to extend win streak

The Detroit LIons continue to demolish the franchise record books with their 8-1 start to the season. A win over the lowly Jaguars (2-8) on Sunday would give them the best start to the season since 1934 and their eighth straight win.

With the talent and expectations, nothing about the season so far is surprising. Key injuries haven’t stopped them – the only flaw was a bad game against the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Coach Dan Campbell said the team’s love for one another plays into the success.

“It’s a huge part of it because it’s – there’s so much that goes into it. There’s an unselfishness in a selfish business. It’s hard, and I’m talking about not just players, I’m talking about coaches too,’’ Campbell said. “That’s the nature of this game, man. This is type-A personalities and very confident, especially if you’re competing at the highest level.

“But to be able to put your ego aside for the guy next to you and you say you care about him, will you care about him enough to do everything it takes to get on the field and do your job and produce, and it should break your heart when you don’t finish for a player next to you, you don’t finish a block or you don’t chase the ball down and it turned into something bigger than it needed to be or you’re not in the gap you’re supposed to be in. Those should drive you and motivate you not to let the guy next to you – and that’s the common thread in all great teams, man. That’s how they function, that’s how they work, it’s how they practice, and they hold each other accountable,’’ Campbell added.

Five things to watch against the Jaguars:

ONE: Jared Goff is fully expected to bounce back to his old self after throwing five interceptions in the win at the Texans. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has gotten to know Goff well and said he handled the game at Houston as well as he could. “I mean, on the sideline, we’re talking through what he’s seeing and he’s seeing it all great and as much as I can, I’m trying to reassure him, it’s on me as much as anything else because what we saw on tape and what we said was going to happen didn’t quite turn out the way that we wanted,’’ Johnson said. “So, just telling him that I’m as responsible as he is for those interceptions and he certainly showed up there, like I said, in the fourth quarter, he came out and was still firing that ball. A lot of guys would clam up and be afraid to make a mistake and he did not do that.”

TWO: Za’Darius Smith gets first action with the Lions after the trade 10 days ago. While he was inactive at Houston, he was on the sidelines helping to coach the defensive line. Left tackle Taylor Decker has faced Smith through the years. “ Incredibly violent hands, powerful guy, I think one thing he’s able to line up all across the field,’’ Decker said. ‘You’ve seen him over center, over guards and and then tons of times you’ll see him one-on-one with offensive tackles. He’s got some of that swagger, that confidence.’’

THREE: Quarterback Trevor Lawrence will sit out with an injured non-throwing shoulder. The Jags have a bye week coming up so it will add to his rest time. Mac Jones will get his second straight start. In the 12-7 loss to the Vikings last week, Jones was 14 of 22 for 111 yards, zero interceptions and a pair of interceptions.

FOUR: The Jaguars defense has struggled, giving up 261.2 passing yards and 129.4 rushing yards per game makes them the NFL’s worst defense. Five Jags are tied with one interception each while the Lions have a total of 13 — Kerby Joseph with 6 and Brian Branch with 4. Sounds like a good time for Joseph and Branch to step up again.

FIVE: Jameson Williams, after a two-game suspension, was thrown back into the fire. He had two key third-down catches including one where he was sandwiched between two defenders.  “He’s really coming on and showing up,’’ Johnson said. “ When you challenge him on the sidelines, he typically responds in a positive way and we knew, particularly with the turnovers, our margin for error had gone down, so he needed to make that play for us at that time and he did. But the level of confidence in him and his hands and his detail continues to rise.”

LIONS INJURY REPORT: TE Sam LaPorta (shoulder), DT Bodric Martin (knee). S Ifeatu Melifonwu (ankle/finger) and CB Emmanuel Moseley (pectoral) are out; LB Ben Niemann (ankle) is questionable.

JAGUARS INJURY REPORT: QB Trevor Lawrence and RB Tank Bigsby are out; OL Ezra Cleveland, DT Maason Smith and RB Keilan Robinson are questionable.

PREDICTION: Lions 42, Jaguars 6

Five reasons the Lions roared back in second half to top the Texans, 26-23

Lions kicker Jake Bates answered the bell and kicked two 50-yard plus field goals in the fourth quarter on Sunday night, including the 52-yard game winner.

With his leg, Bates led the Lions to a 26-23 win over the Texans in Houston. The Lions won their seventh straight game and improved to 8-1 while the Texans fell to 6-4.

The Lions were down 23-7 at the half and it wasn’t looking good from the outside. Inside the locker room they made adjustments at halftime, came out and played a gritty second half. It worked.

“Every team gets punched in the mouth and the good ones respond. We responded,’’ said quarterback Jared Goff who threw five interceptions and a pair of touchdowns.

Houston was coming off a loss to the Jets and was fired up in front of their home crowd which included many Detroit fans.

“We had to fight our way back in there. I’m proud of the guys. There are things that obviously we have to clean up, but our guys wouldn’t go away. For our defense to play the way they played, I thought our defense played good early, we just had one play here or one play there that hurt us,’’ Campbell said.

“Second half you come out it’s four punts, two picks and a missed field goal. That’s huge. We talked about it at halftime, we needed to get our takeaways. I knew we’d wake up on offense, it was just a matter of time,’’ the coach added. “Once we were able to pull within one score you felt now we’re starting to find our way.”

Campbell said after nine games he feels really good about his team. “They haven’t done anything that would surprise me negatively,’’ Campbell said.

Five main reasons why the Lions won:

ONE: Jake Bates, a hometown Houston kid, got a well-deserved game ball. Both of his long field goals were good by inches. Hey, they all count the same. Campbell was confident in Bates in part because at the end of practice Thursday they went through an end-of-game drill and Bates hit that field goal outdoors in the wind. “I felt he was going to make it,’’ Campbell said.

TWO: Jared Goff proved once again he has ice flowing through his veins. Despite the five interceptions (he had four in the first eight games), the quarterback hung in there. Credit the Texans’ defense for pressure on Goff. He led the Lions to score 19 unanswered points in the second half. “I honestly didn’t feel like I was playing all that bad, I was seeing things well, I was throwing it well. I had some unfortunate things happen early,’’ Goff said. “I’ve been through a whole lot worse than that. I’ve been to the bottom mentally, some unlucky plays aren’t going to throw me off my game.’’

THREE: It was a sloppy game for both sides. The Lions had five giveaways and just two takeaways. A minus-3 ratio in turnovers doesn’t often lead to wins in the NFL. Carlton Davis III had both of the Lions interceptions, his first career two-interception game. 

FOUR: While WR Amon-Ra St. Brown was double-covered most of the game, he had six catches for 60 yards and a touchdown. The biggest reception was on third-and-6 on the last possession when he caught a 11-yarder for the first down. Three plays later Bates kicked the game-winner. 

FIVE: It was a total team defense. Campbell said he challenged the defensive line during the week to step up and help the secondary which has been playing solid football. They held the quarterback C.J. Stroud and the Texans scoreless in the second half, after allowing 23 points in the first half. Detroit’s defense had seven tackles for loss including two sacks in the first half so they weren’t playing horribly to start, just a few big plays including a 41-yard pass interference penalty hurt them. Alim McNeill, Josh Paschal and Pat O’Connor each sacked C.J. Stroud. Safety Brian Branch finished with two pass defenses, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit and a team-high 10 tackles.

BONUS: A close, sloppy win like this can pay dividends down the road and perhaps in the playoffs. In the second half, the Lions dug deep and found what kind of team they were. 

NEXT UP: Jacksonville Jaguars (2-8) at Lions (8-1), 1 p.m. on Sunday at Ford Field.

Five things to watch as Lions face Texans; plus injury reports, prediction

While much has been made of the Detroit Lions’ red-hot offense over eight games, the defense has overcome the loss of eight significant players to injury.

And yet, they keep on fighting and winning key battles.

The next test comes in the nationally televised game on Sunday night when the Lions (7-1) face the Texans (6-3) at Houston.  The Texans coming off a loss to N.J. Jets while Lions rolled over the Packers, 24-14, at Green Bay.

Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn doesn’t usually get much screen time, but in the pouring rain at Green Bay, he just stood and called plays as if it was a sunny day while his glasses were covered in rain drops.

“At one point, and I don’t know – we were in the heat of battle there and I just remember – I said something, ‘AG, we got to be ready for this and wipe your glasses off.’ He’s like, ‘I got you.’ Yeah, that was pretty good. He doesn’t need eyes to coach,’’ Campbell said.

Glenn was just thinking of the next play call and how to put the guys in position to be successful.

“He doesn’t have bad days, he’s not one of these guys. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t get – he can get pissed off, believe me, he’s a fiery guy, but he just doesn’t live like that. Everything is, ‘Hey, you tell me what it is, you tell me what we’ve got and we’re going to make it work and we’re going to make the most of it and we’ll be good,’’’ Campbell said. “And it’s – he’s just positive, upbeat, grinder. I can’t say enough great words about him. Everybody respects him and those guys play – they play hard for him.”

Five things to watch:

ONE: Once again, Jared Goff and offense face another tough defense in the Texans who have the NFL’s second-rated defense. Goff has gone five games without throwing a touchdown and obviously the Lions have won all of them. He’s on a roll that shows no sign of slowing down. He said he does have to filter out some of the noise. “You’re just trying to find a way to stack Ws and I think you get caught up in sometimes not only the bad stuff but the good stuff at times. It can be dangerous,’’ Goff said. “So yeah, you just try to keep stacking wins, people are going to keep telling us how good we are now and then if something were to go wrong, they tell us how bad we are. So, it’s how it goes and just try to keep doing the work, put your head down and go in a hole and keep stacking Ws.”

TWO: Running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs could likely each be a starter on any other team. Halfway through the season and they haven’t  had a bad game yet. It could be because they don’t get tired.”It’’s so hard for a defense when you get a fresh one of them, it seems, every other drive. A lot of these guys that are carrying the ball 25, 30 times, they aren’t fresh the whole game,’’ Goff said. “These guys are coming in the third quarter and they’re fresh. It’s Gibbs then it’s Montgomery, then it’s Gibbs and then it’s back and forth and it’s tough. It’s tough for a defense and I think they kind of get pigeonholed at times like, ‘Gibbs is the fast one, D-Mo is the tough one.’ It’s like no, they both kind of do it all. They both can run away from you, they both can catch the ball, they both can run you over and that’s really hard for any defense.”

THREE: Houston’s C.J. Stroud hasn’t thrown an interception in three straight games but he hasn’t faced the Lions secondary. Safety Kerby Joseph returned an interception for a touchdown in Green Bay, it was his sixth pick of the season. Brian Branch has four. Stroud will present a challenge. “ He’s a big man, he has quick release, he’s effective when he gets outside the pocket of making plays. He’s not a true runner per se, but he can run to create plays,” Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said. “So, the thing that we’ve got to be careful of is, man, these receivers that he has and the running backs that he has, of not allowing him to be able to just dice us up, getting the ball out to these guys, because they can really make some plays..”

FOUR: Za’Darius Smith, who paid Broc Wright to give up No. 99,  could ease his way onto his new team. He’s 32, an NFL veteran, so making a transition shouldn’t be too tough. He’s not a replacement for Aidan Hutchinson but will help against the run and can pass rush. Campbell is confident he will be a good fit. “We’ve got enough people that speak highly of him that I know, players and coaches, and they all say the same thing about him. Team guy, hard worker, tough, loves the game, and then you watch the film, and it backs it up,’’ Campbell said. “So, I can’t imagine that all of those guys would lie to me.”

FIVE:  The Lions have proven themselves to be road warriors by winning all their games away from Ford Field so far. Their only loss was to the Bucs at home. Oddly enough, wining on the road is what could lead to more home playoff games. “If you want to make that happen then you have to win a lot of games and we’re only about halfway there but we’ve done a good job to this point and if we want to find a way to have it come through Detroit, we have to keep winning,’’ Goff said.

LIONS INJURY REPORT: LT Taylor Decker (shoulder), DL Brodric Martin (knee), LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin (neck), S Ifeatu Melifonwu (ankle), CB Emmanuel Moseley (pectoral) and LB Malcolm Rodriguez (ankle) are out; Za’Darius Smith is questionable.

TEXANS INJURY REPORT: DE Will Anderson (ankle) and RB Dameon Pierce (groin) are out; WR Nico Collins (hamstring). WR Tank Dell (back), DT Folorunso Fatukasi (groin/shoulder), LB Jake Hansen (ankle), DE Jerry Hughes (hip) and CB Jeff Okudah (quad) are questionable.

PREDICTION: Lions 35, Texans 28