Category: Lions News

NFL Power Rankings Week 7: Lions see a small jump after victory over Jaguars

Examing where the Detroit Lions stand in the Week 7 NFL Power Rankings Week 7, after their victory over Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Detroit Lions secured their second win of the 2020 season with a Week 6, 34-16 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars and they have seen the national stock rise a slight amount.

Let’s take a closer look at where the Lions stand in the national eye and what the experts are saying.

USA Today: 17 (Previous 23)

“After losing a league-record six consecutive games when they had a double-digit lead, they hung on to beat Jacksonville by 18. Keep a close eye on Detroit, which plays one team with a winning record (Colts) over next six weeks.” — Nate Davis

Touchdown Wire: 26 (Previous: 29)

“(The Lions) have won two of their last three games, with victories over Arizona and now the Jacksonville Jaguars… So, signs of improvement from Detroit. String a few more of these together, and they’ll be climbing higher up boards like this one.” — Mark Schofield

NFL: 22 (Previous: 25)

“The Lions finally put together a complete effort on Sunday and were rewarded with a rarity for Detroit: the blowout victory. On defense, it was the revival of the pass rush, which consistently got after Gardner Minshew and forced the mustachioed Jaguars passer into hurried throws and mistakes. On offense, we saw a breakout performance from D’Andre Swift, the rookie running back who went off for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Swift became the first Lions rookie with 100 rushing yards and two scores in a game since Barry Sanders in 1989. The performance should lead to a more prominent role for Swift, who has been splitting work with Adrian Peterson, a future Hall of Famer who has — to borrow a Parcells-ism — reached the “progress-stopper” stage of his career.” — Dan Hanzus

ESPN: 23 (Previous: 25)

“Most impactful injury: CB Desmond Trufant, This is largely because it has exposed some of the issues Detroit has in its secondary. The Lions might have played Jeff Okudah early anyway in place of Amani Oruwariye, but Trufant’s hamstring injuries have forced a starting group of Oruwariye and Okudah. Oruwariye has thrived, showing real growth in his second year. Okudah, the rookie, has struggled, but he can’t be replaced until Trufant returns. Being able to watch for a little while after getting used to the NFL speed did wonders for Darius Slay as a rookie. It could do the same for Okudah.” — Michael Rothstein

CBS Sports: 23 (Previous 23)

“They have won two consecutive games and dominated a bad Jaguars team. DeAndre Swift looks like the real deal at running back.” — Pete Prisco

Sports Illustrated: 24 (Previous: 23)

“It was nice to see D’Andre Swift have his first big game as a pro during a get-right win against the Jaguars. The Lions are good enough to escape the league’s bottom tier but I have a hard time believing they’re going to win enough games to keep the Matt Patricia era going into 2021.” — Mitch Goldich

Sporting News: 22 (Previous: 25)

“The Lions needed a win badly coming out of the bye for Matt Patricia and their defense, passing game and dynamic rookie D’Andre Swift all were key in taking care of a lesser Jaguars team. Don’t sleep on them getting back in the NFC wild-card race with a favorable schedule ahead.” — Vinnie Iyer

PFF grades the Lions with the best run blocking through Week 6

Taylor Decker and the Lions run blocking has been better than the RBs they’re blocking for

Through the first six weeks of the 2020 NFL season, no offensive line has done a better job of run blocking than the Detroit Lions. They’re simply the best, better than all the rest, as Tina Turner would warble.

The Lions do indeed have the top run blocking grade from Pro Football Focus through the Week 6 games. Detroit’s line has earned a run block grade of 80.3 from PFF. That edges out Cleveland and Green Bay for the top honor.

New offensive line coach Hank Fraley has molded a powerful, assertive unit that is doing a great job at creating run creases and sustaining blocks without getting called for holding. Center Frank Ragnow and left tackle Taylor Decker both grade out as elite in run blocking at their positions, as does WR Danny Amendola.

The analysts at Pro Football Focus see the blame for the oft-sputtering Lions ground game not on the line but rather the running backs themselves. Detroit’s runners are ranked 31st with a lowly 62.3 grade.

The pass protection has also been solid. Detroit has earned a grade of 73.5, which ranks 12th.

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Matt Patricia proud of Matt Nelson’s transformation from DE to OT

Matt Nelson was a defensive lineman at Iowa two years ago

Matt Nelson played 46 snaps at offensive tackle for the Detroit Lions on Sunday. Many fans wondered, “who’s that guy?”

That guy is former Iowa defensive end Matt Nelson, wearing No. 67 in his second season in Detroit. At 6-foot-8, he’s pretty easy to spot. And there he was in Jacksonville, taking over at right tackle for a dehydrated Tyrell Crosby — and looking like he belonged there the whole time.

Lions head coach Matt Patricia proudly talked about Nelson and his transformation from playing pass rusher at Iowa to stopping pass rushers in the NFL.

“Just give him all the credit in the world,” Patricia said Monday in his Zoom session with reporters. “It’s obviously pretty hard to believe he was playing defensive line a couple years ago.”

Patricia continued,

“I think you’ve really seen a guy who took last year to transform his body from a defensive lineman into an offensive lineman, with some of just the weightlifting and the strength and conditioning program that we did with him. It was very specific, and I thought he did a phenomenal job of that. It’s been a huge learning curve for him to switch sides of the ball, and I think he’s done an outstanding job with that. Some of the athleticism that shows up as – defensive lineman sometimes are a little bit more athletic – you can see some of that transfer over, but I thought his bend, his ability to bend and move the line of scrimmage has been good.”

Nelson was a bit of an afterthought to even make the final 53-man roster. Now he’s taken snaps at both tackle positions during the regular season and looks like a keeper as a reserve offensive lineman.

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Detroit Lions Matthew Stafford has now thrown a TD pass against all 31 NFL opponents

Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford has now thrown a touchdown pass against all 31 teams in the NFL.

It took until his twelfth season, and three different games against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford has now thrown a touchdown pass against all 31 opponents in the NFL.

Earlier this week in a virtual interview, Stafford was told that despite being 2-0 in his career against the Jaguars, they were the only team in the NFL that he had not thrown a touchdown pass on.

When asked if that provided any extra motivation for him to find the endzone this week, Stafford quickly responded:

“Yeah, that needs to happen for sure.”

And in the third quarter, it did indeed happen.

On the Lions second possession of the second half, the Jaguars jumped offsides, giving Stafford a free play, and he targeted Kenny Golladay 48-yards downfield, securing the catch inside the 10-yard line. Another pass to Golladay got the Lions to the one-yard line, and after two incompletions, the Lions decided to go for it on fourth down.

A simple rub route opened up T.J. Hockenson underneath and Stafford completed his 265th career touchdown pass:

 

Matthew Staffords career TD distribution courtesy of the Detroit Lions PR Department

Stafford doesn’t typically get caught up in individual achievements, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate the achievement. When he closed his media session this week, he wrapped it up by saying:

“Yeah, we need to make that happen… that’d be great. I’d love to have that on the tombstone one day or something.”

What you need to know: Detroit Lions at Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 6

Everything you need to know for the Detroit Lions at Jacksonville Jaguars matchup in Week 46 of the 2020 season.

The Detroit Lions (1-3) are traveling to Florida to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-4) in Week 6 of the 2020 season.

While the Lions haven’t had any concerning COVID-19 results since training camp — their last instance was the Matthew Stafford false-positive — their opponents have made a lot of headlines recently.

A false-positive result from a New Orleans Saints player threatened Week 4, but the game was played on time. The Atlanta Falcons (Lions Week 7 opponent) had a positive result on Thursday, but have already passed protocols and reopened their facility. The Indianapolis Colts (Lions Week 8 opponent) had four false-positives on Friday and are also already back on schedule.

Then yesterday, a Jaguars’ practice squad player had a positive result, but the team retested players and shut down their facility, leading to the NFL determining that the threat was contained and the game could be played as scheduled.

Here’s everything you need to know for how to watch or listen to this week’s game.

How To Watch

When: Sunday, October 18th at 1:00 p.m. EST

Where: TIAA Bank Field, Jacksonville, Florida

Referee: Shawn Hochuli

Vegas Watch via BetMGM:

TV: FOX

Broadcast crew:

  • Play-by-play: Chris Myers
  • Color commentary: Greg Jennings
  • Sideline reporter: Brock Huard

Broadcast map courtesy of 506 Sports, the Detroit Lions versus the Jacksonville Jaguars viewing audience is highlighted in Orange.

How to listen

Detroit area radio: WJR 760 AM radio

  • Announcers: Dan Miller and Lomas Brown

SIRIUS: 132 (Lions), 113 (Jaguars)

XM: 388 (Lions), 230 (Jaguars)

Lions Wire game prep podcast

Injury Updates

Roster updates

Lions Wire game prep articles

Fantasy Football

Matthew Stafford not worried about rumors of trades, coaching changes

Stafford cares not for the talk radio fodder

Matthew Stafford has heard it all before. The trade rumors. The coaching hot seat discussion. The speculation he doesn’t want to be in Detroit anymore.

As he has often done in the past, Stafford squashed the sports-talk radio fodder. In his Zoom session with reporters on Wednesday, the longtime Lions quarterback reiterated what he’s consistently stated over the years: he doesn’t listen to any of that outside noise.

“No, I just go out there and play,” Stafford said this week when asked about the speculation coach Matt Patricia could be fired as the losses continue to mount. “I don’t really worry too much about that stuff, even when it’s offseason or whatever it is. I just go out there and try to prepare to play as good as I possibly can week in and week out. I understand the game and the life of the NFL just as much as anybody else, but I don’t think about it too much, to be honest.”

Instead of biting into the bait on any potential trade to the Dallas Cowboys, Stafford offered support and well wishes to injured Cowboys QB Dak Prescott.

“It was horrible,” Stafford said of Prescott’s nasty broken ankle. “I felt so bad for him. He was playing so great, he’s been playing great for a few years now. Just been the heart and soul of that team and to see it happen – I was watching the game live, looked down for a second, looked back up and it did not look good obviously.”

Stafford indicated he reached out to Prescott via Kellen Moore, his former backup and now the Dallas offensive coordinator.

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NFL Power Rankings Week 6: Lions see a little movement after their bye

Examining where the Detroit Lions stand in the Week 6 NFL Power Rankings.

The Detroit Lions had a bye in Week 5 but that didn’t stop the NFL experts from moving them around the rankings a bit. Most experts agree, the Lions land around the 23rd or 25th spot, except for one analyst, who pegs them as the 3rd worst team in the NFL.

Let’s take a closer look at where the Lions stand in the national eye and what the experts are saying.

USA Today: 23 (Previous 25)

“Their three losses have come against teams with a combined 11 wins. Their next five opponents have a combined six wins. Giddy-up, fellas.” — Nate Davis

Touchdown Wire: 29 (Previous: 28)

“The Lions had a Week 5 bye, so they managed to not blow another double-digit lead. An encouraging trend! They face the 1-4 Jaguars on Sunday, so the resumption of football brings the prospect of more beclownery for Matt Patricia’s team.” — Doug Farrar

NFL: 25 (Previous: 24)

“You have to wonder whether Matt Patricia would still be employed right now if the Lions hadn’t edged out the Cardinals in Week 3. The Week 5 bye looked ominous for the embattled head coach as far back as August. Up next is a pair of winnable road games at Jacksonville and Atlanta (teams with a combined record of 1-9). Getting back to 3-3 hardly qualifies as an impossible ask… but what have the Lions shown us in the Patricia era to make us think they’ll take advantage of this opportunity to reboot their season? Do-or-die time in Motown.” — Dan Hanzus

ESPN: 25 (Previous: 25)

“Biggest weakness: Literally the entire defense. Where to begin. The Lions have given up more rushing yards per game (170.3) than any team in the NFL and have allowed 5.16 yards per rush. Detroit is yielding 405 yards per game in total and 6.16 yards per play. They can’t get off the field — No. 31 in first downs allowed per game (27.3) — and can’t sack the quarterback (five sacks in four games). Even defensive end Trey Flowers, when asked about the team’s lack of pass rush, said it hadn’t been in enough pass-rush situations because teams are running so well on them. It has led to an inefficient defense and putting more pressure on the offense to have to score on every possession” — Michael Rothstein

CBS Sports: 23 (Previous 22)

“They come off the bye with a game at Jacksonville. Matt Stafford hasn’t been great, but the Jaguars defense should be the perfect tonic.” — Pete Prisco

Sports Illustrated: 23 (Previous: 26)

“I understand that, sometimes under a new head coach, a team has to take a step back before it can take a step forward. After all, Bill Belichick started 5-13 after taking over a Patriots team that hadn’t had a losing record the previous four seasons and had made the playoffs in three of those four seasons. Everyone was calling for his job, the franchise quarterback he’d signed to a record deal had his insides liquified . . . and then the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl in 78 consecutive seasons (approximately). But in the case of Matt Patricia, it’s Year 3, they’ve been dealing talented players at a discount in order to get ‘his guys’ in the building, and the defense—his side of the ball—has gotten progressively worse since he arrived. There’s still time to turn things around—no one saw it coming with those early Belichick Patriots—but the evidence all points to another wasted year of Matthew Stafford’s dwindling prime.” — Gary Grambling

Sporting News: 25 (Previous: 24)

“The Lions went into the bye wondering how much longer Matt Patricia would be their coach coming out of it. They do get the Jaguars and Falcons back to back on the road to try to get to respectability fast.” — Vinnie Iyer

Lions coaches harp on consistency to help fix the defense

Patricia, Bevell and Undlin all prominently brought up consistency in their Monday press conferences

Lions head coach Matt Patricia is a huge stickler for consistency. It’s one of the biggest focuses of his coaching philosophy. It’s also a huge theme in his press conferences when talking about his team. In their first media sessions since the bye week break, Patricia and his top assistant coaches harped upon consistency, well, consistently.

Patricia brought up consistency almost right away when asked about how he is hoping to fix the pass rush.

“I think it’s everything that we said before,” Patricia said on Monday. “We have to do a better job in the run game, and we have to settle some things down there that have hurt us and play with better fundamentals and technique and just be consistent. I mean, that’s the biggest thing for us right now.

We have some good run plays on tape and just unfortunately too many bad ones. We have to be consistent with it and try to get teams in a situation where they have to pass the ball more.”

Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell also broached the subject of consistency in his own Zoom session.

“…but I think the thing that we’re really looking for and the thing that I’m preaching to these guys is just our level of consistency on offense,” Bevell said. “We know what we’re capable of, we know the players that we have, the things that we can do, but there’s just things that you need to do on a consistent basis down-in and down-out to help yourself be successful”

Defensive coordinator Cory Undlin stayed consistent to the theme in his presser on Monday as well. It came up right away when Undlin was asked what the biggest issue with his defense is after four games.

“I won’t say the biggest thing, we could go around on this for a while – the biggest thing is just the consistency part of it,” Undlin stated. “I can pull off six different plays, one time it goes for zero and then the next time it goes for six and then the next time it goes for seven, whatever it is. So, the big thing is watching with the players and going back through and having those discussions and then going out and practicing, we’ve just got to be more consistent up front, in the backend, linebackers, everybody.”

Patricia ended his question and answer period by explaining the overall issues with consistency throughout the team.

“I would say the good things on film for us, just right now, are too inconsistent. I think we’d like to really just make sure that the stuff that we’re doing well, we’d like to just see it every single play. If we could be consistent from that level, that would be a lot better for us.”

 

 

Look: Graph illustrates how terrible the Lions pass rush has been

The Lions pass rush win rate is more than 10 percentage points worse than any other team

The Detroit Lions pass rush has been dreadful in 2020. Anyone who has watched the Lions defense has seen the woeful ineffectiveness of the team’s ability to put pressure on the opposing passer.

Now we have a visual representation of just how anemic it’s been.

In graphic detail, the analytics folks at ESPN present the Detroit Lions defense in all its resplendent failure in the pass rush. ESPN created the graph showing win rates in run defense and the pass rush for all 32 teams.

As analyst Brian Burke noted on Twitter, “Horizontal is pass rush. Vertical is run stop. Up and right are good.”

The run defense is below the bar but relatively close to level. The pass rush? Let’s just say the graph would be a lot more condensed if not for the Lions’ astonishingly low percentage.

Detroit is more than 10 percentage points worse than any other defense.

Terry Bradshaw: Matt Patricia can’t coach, ‘he’s gotta be gone’

Bradshaw did not mince words in slamming Patricia’s style or results

Even with the Detroit Lions on a bye in Week 5, the team still took some hits from the national media. On the FOX pregame show on Sunday morning, Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw took a shot at the Lions and head coach Matt Patricia.

Bradshaw did not mince words.

“You can love them, but they have got to show they can coach,” Bradshaw said while symbolically using an actual spoon to stir the pot. “Patricia in Detroit can’t coach.”

Speaking to the panel of fellow FOX analysts, Bradshaw continued,

“Smartest guy in the world. Rocket scientist, engineer. Can’t coach a lick. Can’t hold a lead when they’re leading by 10 points. He’s gotta be gone.”

The discussion continued on the theme of coaches who are very smart but don’t have relationship or personal management skills, a group that also includes Adam Gase and his winless New York Jets.

Michael Strahan ran with that line of thought and brought up Tom Coughlin, who went from being all about discipline and Xs and Os to being a guy who embraced the player-friendly mindset. It won the Giants a Super Bowl. Speaking of Patricia and Gase, Strahan offered this,

“I think they’ve just been X’s and O’s guys. You have to have relationships if you want to win.“