The current 8 and 1 Detroit Lions face off against the 2 and 8 Jacksonville Jaguars at Ford Field this weekend.
The Lions currently rank first in the NFC North division being one game over the Minnesota Vikings. They are three and one at home with their only loss coming from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and five and zero on the road. Jared Goff has been very good this season with having a game where he threw zero incompletions. Unlike the very proficient games he has had so far, he is coming off a five-interception game versus the Houston Texans where the Lions still managed to win the game. Detroit has a very strong offense ranking seventh in the league for total yards so it should be expected for the Lions to drive down the field a lot. The Lions are going to look to run the ball like they have successfully done all season. They rank seventh in the league for total rushing yards and third for total rushing touchdowns.
On the other side are the Jaguars. They currently rank last in the AFC South which is not a very strong division. Jacksonville ranks twenty-fifth in the NFL for total offensive yards. The Lions have been doing good on defense this season so the Jaguars may struggle putting points on the board. They have only been able to put up on average twenty points per game which is pretty low compared to other teams. What makes it even harder for the Jaguars to win is that it is at Ford Field and they are currently zero and five in away games this season.
The Jaguars defense has not been so successful this season. They currently rank last in the league in yards allowed, and 27th in the league in total points allowed. A key way for them to win is going to be trying to stop the Lions’ run game. Detroit likes to run the ball a lot and when they do it successfully it is very hard to win because it sets up second and short or third and short. The Jaguars also rank 23rd in the NFL in red zone defense allowing a touchdown about sixty percent of the time which they will have to do better on against the Lions.
This will be the Lions’ first game with new edge rusher Za’darius Smith. Detroit gave up a fifth and sixth-round pick for Smith and a seventh-round pick. So far this season Smith has a total of five sacks and twenty-three total tackles. With the loss of Aiden Hutchinson the Lions needed to go out and get someone to fill his position. Hopefully, he can make a big impact in this game and ways to help in the future.
Detroit fans should expect a win at home against the Jaguars this Sunday. They are thirteen-point favorites so my prediction is that the Lions will win 31-20.
