Free Press sports writer Dave Birkett breaks down the Detroit Lions’ 40-14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, and looks at whose stock was helped or hurt Sunday at Ford Field.
Stock up
RB D’Andre Swift: Swift had fallen to third in the pecking order at running back as he battled shoulder and ankle injuries in recent weeks, but he re-emerged Sunday as a valuable weapon in the backfield. Swift, who was not listed on the Lions’ injury report this week for the first time since Week 1, matched a season-high with 18 offensive touches and finished with 111 yards from scrimmage. He ran for a touchdown for the third time in four weeks, and proved he still can be a top playmaker when healthy.
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WR DJ Chark: He has had an even rougher go of it this season with injuries than Swift. The Lions’ top free agent addition of the offseason, Chark missed six games with pain in his surgically repaired ankle and entered Sunday with a disappointing nine catches for 114 yards. Playing against his former team, Chark caught five passes for 98 yards and had a big 41-yard catch to set up the Lions’ second touchdown. If his ankle holds up, he should be a big part of the Lions’ passing game down the stretch.
S DeShon Elliott: Elliott’s Week 5 benching seems like a thing of the past as he has been a key part of the Lions’ defensive turnaround in the second half of the season. He forced a fumble on Jacksonville’s second offensive play that Lions coach Dan Campbell said set the tone for the game, and that Elliott said he needed for his own well-being. “Just a confidence booster cause I haven’t got the ball a lot this year,” he said. “I only had one pick before that, so I think that’s going to finally roll the ball for me and for our team, our defense.”
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LB James Houston: All Houston does is get sacks. A rookie sixth-round pick out of Jackson State, Houston had two sacks in his NFL debut last week against the Buffalo Bills and another Sunday with a good pass rush on the final play of the first half. Houston has natural pass rush skills and incredible bend around the edge. He won’t be an every-down player this season, but he’s a player the Lions can deploy up front.
QB Jared Goff: Goff has taken plenty of arrows for his play this season, including last week, when he missed a crucial throw late in the game to Chark. But the 28-year-old quarterback played perhaps his best game as a Lion on Sunday. He completed 31 of 41 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns to Amon-Ra St. Brown, and he was a big reason the offense looked unstoppable at times. The Lions went into this season believing Goff could be successful if they surrounded him with the right supporting cast, and that sure looked to be the case Sunday.
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Stock down
Lions’ playoff chances: The Lions got an important win Sunday to keep their postseason hopes alive, but they lost some of the slim margin for error they had to make the postseason anyway as the New York Giants and Washington Commanders played to a 20-20 tie. The Giants (7-4-1) and Commanders (7-5-1) are competing for the final two wild-card spots in the NFC, and both have a path to the playoffs as nine-win teams. The Lions, 5-7 with five games to play, hold the tiebreaker with the Giants and Commanders, but that seems unlikely to come into play now. Instead, they’ll need to win all five of their remaining games to pass a nine-win Washington or New York team in the standings. Making matters worse, the Seattle Seahawks (7-5) rallied to beat the Los Angeles Rams with 36 seconds to play to take control of the third and final wild-card spot, just ahead of the Commanders. Seattle holds the tiebreaker over the Lions due to their 48-45 win at Ford Field in Week 4.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.