Detroit just came away
with yet another win to add to their most impressive season in their franchise’s
history. It wasn’t pretty at all by any
stretch of the imagination, but the only thing that matters is that they came
away with the win. Jared Goff went into
Sunday Night’s game against the Houston Texans with an unbelievable completion
rate of 83% throughout the first nine weeks.
Goff had gone his last five games with only throwing 10 incomplete
passes combined, then on Sunday night he racked up 10 incompletions in the
first half alone. The Lions quarterback
ended up throwing 5 total interceptions against Houston which is the most he’s
ever thrown in a game. It was a wild
game that had both defenses grab a combined 7 interceptions. The Lions are now 8-1 and are off to the best
start they’ve had since the 1956 NFL season.
Although the Lions seemingly
have looked like they may be the most dominant team in the league this year,
they still only have one game lead in the Conference. In fact, they only have a one game lead in
their own division (Minnesota 7-2). The Lions are hungry and very much need to
stay that way if they want to achieve their goal. This isn’t just their goal for this season, but
the goal that this organization has had ever since they came into the NFL. Detroit is the 5th oldest
franchise in the NFL and was established in 1930. They are currently one of only four NFL teams
to never appear in a Super Bowl (Cle, Jac, & Hou). Since the Lions have been around, they have
only won a total of 9 divisional titles and the NFC North is far from locked up
for the Lions. They still have both the
Vikings (7-2) along with the Packers (6-3) lurking behind them and have a zero
margin for error.
One question that
people have been asking is what will happen to the Lions defense now after
their best pass rusher is out for the season after going down to injury. Well, for one, the Lions just got better
after coming out of the trade deadline with another premier edge rusher Za’Darius
Smith and he will play his first game as a Lion next Sunday when they take on
the Jacksonville Jaguars at home.
Another player that helped answer the question of many was their
cornerback Carlton Davis III, as he had the first 2 interception game of his
career. Those two turnovers caused by
Davis came within a six-minute window which was also a testament to their pass
rush that created 4 sacks (tied 2nd most in a game this season). With the addition of Smith coming over from
the Cleveland Browns they should be just fine, especially if they can continue
to create turnovers. The fact that they
were still able to come away with a win when they had by far their worst game
in probably the past two seasons, it just proves how strong this team is and how
relentless they truly are. The last time
a team trailed by 15 or more points while throwing five interceptions and came
back to win was when the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears in 1970.
Detroit is still
ranked top 10 in a bunch of statistics leaguewide. Offensively, the Lions are scoring on average
31.6 points (2nd), rushing for 147.3 yards per game (7th),
and are totaling 366.9 yards a contest (7th). On the other side of the ball Detroit is allowing
just 19 points a game (8th), giving up only 100.8 yards on the ground
(6th), and are tied for 2nd in total interceptions
(13). Though Goff is coming off arguably
the worst game of his career he has still been one of the best quarterbacks
this season on top of being probably the most accurate this year. Any team that plays the Lions will find it incredibly
difficult in attempting to make them one dimensional as they have a two-headed
monster rushing attack as well as a plethora of targets in the passing game for
Goff to create big plays downfield. I
still have the Lions seeded as the favorite to represent the NFC in the Super
Bowl and believe that Head Coach Dan Campbell should be named the Coach of the
Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment