Sadly for those of us on this side of the Atlantic this fixture has come a year too early with the Jaguars series of London games not beginning until next year. There may well have been a strong chance that the Lions with their array of young stars would've been the perfect opponent for the International Series game but we'll never know what might have been. Whilst it may be a disappointment for us on distant shores the Lions players will probably prefer the warm Florida air to that of a drizzly autumnal London. Encouragingly going into the game the Lions finally seem to be finding their form. Having resolutely refused to buy into the Game Plan I've been offering them the last few weeks the Lions persistent belief that they were right offensively received a much needed boost in last weeks victory over the Seahawks. It now has to be hoped that the team are able to build on that win and start to put themselves back into the playoff hunt.
Although the Lions offense didn't turn to the run game with any conviction against the Seahawks it did do a better job of exploiting the yards that were on offer. Titus Young finally had the game we were expecting to have at some point and Ryan Broyles proved to have the safe reliable hands that his Sooner days suggested he would have. Stafford appeared to be a bit quicker in his reads and as a consequence open receivers were found. With Calvin seemingly struggling with injury it may well be the two young wideouts that see most of the ball against the Jags. The Jaguars defense is not the best and injuries have left them looking ideal for the Lions to feast upon. I will maintain the hope that Linehan directs more resources and commitment to the ground game as I believe a better balanced attack will serve the drive toward playoff football well. Ultimately though the Lions offensive game is built around Matthew Stafford and his ability to find the most potentially damaging receiver on any given play. In the modern NFL there is not that great a difference between the better teams and the weaker ones and so the Jags come into this game having run the Packers close for much of their previous outing. If the Lions are looking to mount a serious push to get amongst the playoff contending teams in the NFC though they will need to make this the one sided contest that on paper it looks like it should be.
If the offense looked to finally have found some form in the Seahawks game the defense turned in one of those head scratching performances. It was a remarkably inconsistent outing and one that had Gunther Cunningham looking like he was fit to burst on the sidelines at some points. The Jags biggest offensive threat MJD will not be on the field for this encounter and just as the Lions offense should be capable of exploiting the Jags D so the Lions defense should be able to shut down the Jags O. Sadly Delmas may not be fit to play once again and it also looks like Levy will be missing too but Palmer and Silva showed up against the Seahawks to great effect. It may surprise many that the Lions currently have the 9th ranked Passing defense but it would be unwise I think to believe that they are no longer likely to give up big passing yards even to a young improving QB like Gabbert. Ndamukong Suh has been threatening a monster performance over the last few weeks and I have a feeling that this could be a gig game for the former Cornhusker.
The pre-deadline trade for the Jags WR Mike Thomas offers hope for those of us that believe Stefan Logan should be making fair catches in a uniform other than a Lions one. Logan's frustrating play aside there does appear to have been steady improvement with the play of the Special Teams unit while the kicking of Jason Hanson has remained as consistent and reliable as ever.
I'm not yet convinced that the Lions are ready to fulfil the promise they looked to have in the off-season but I do believe that they are slowly finding their feet. This should be enough to put plenty of distance between themselves and a Jacksonville side that appears to be struggling to be much of anything. I think we could see big games from Broyles, the Bell/LeShoure combo and, as already mentioned, Suh. I'm hoping that Linehan uses more balance in his play calling and that the Lions D is off the field for much of the game.
Prediction: LIONS 41 Jaguars 16
No comments:
Post a Comment