Jerry Jacobs’ stomach is rumbling, in a metaphorical sense.
Jacobs has played eight games so far this fall in his return to the Detroit Lions from a torn ACL. He has started the past four weeks at cornerback and gotten his hands on several passes this season.
Last week, he had a key pass deflection on a deep ball to Adam Thielen early in the second quarter of the Lions’ 34-23 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
But Jacobs has watched with envy as his fellow defensive backs, one after another, have feasted on takeaways. Jeff Okudah had an interception against the Chicago Bears. Will Harris forced a fumble against the New York Giants. DeShon Elliott ripped out another against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Rookie Kerby Joseph has three interceptions and two forced fumbles, and he got his first fumble recovery last week.
Jacobs wants a taste, too. Badly.
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“Everybody wants to eat,” Jacobs told the Free Press on Thursday. “So that’s how it be. One person sees an interception, a DB want to do it, too. One person sees someone knock a fumble out, we all want to do it. So it’s contagious right now. I like it.”
The Lions (6-7) have won five of their past six games to surge into playoff contention in the NFC, and their opportunistic defense is a big reason why.
The Lions have forced 11 takeaways in six games after causing six in the first seven games of the year. They’ve gone from having a minus-6 turnover margin after an October loss to the Dallas Cowboys to being plus-3 now, tied for eighth-best in the league.
Of the seven teams in front of them, five currently hold playoff spots — including four in front of them in the NFC (the Cowboys, Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers).
“Usually the best defenses in the league, they get a lot of takeaways, and the best teams do that because you get your offense more possessions,” Elliott said. “So I think we’ve been preaching that a lot and going into each week, we always say, ‘Figure out a way to get the offense more possessions,’ and I think we’re starting to do that. We got to be consistent and keep doing it for the rest of the season.”
The Lions, like every NFL team, have stressed takeaways since the beginning of the season.
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But Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said his unit has become more intentional about trying to cause turnovers in recent weeks as they’ve forged an identify of “being tough, being violent and hunting the ball.”
On Thursday, they opened practice with a turnover circuit on the defensive side of the field, in which players practiced holding up a ball carrier for a teammate to come in and strip the ball loose at one station and worked on punching the ball out from behind at another.
“I think it’s more the mindset of … understanding who the targets are, and we do have a target, they intentionally try to go after that target,” Glenn said. “I’ve said this before, and it’s something that Bill Cowher had told me about creating an identity. You don’t know what that identity’s going to be until later on in the season, and the guys really hung onto that, and they know who they want to be. And I know who they want to be, so the things that we do stress, we want to make sure that, that comes out by the way that we play. But it all starts in how you practice, and our guys have been doing a good job of that.”
Elliott said the Lions have forced more turnovers in practice in recent weeks, and that has carried over to key times in games.
Against the Vikings, Isaiah Buggs knocked loose a Dalvin Cook fumble on what was supposed to be a halfback pass near the goal line. The Vikings, trailing 14-7, had a chance to tie the game with less than a minute left in the first half before getting the ball to start the third quarter.
Against the Jaguars, Elliott forced a fumble on the opening possession to help stake the Lions to an early lead. And against the New York Giants, the Lions trailed 6-3 and were scuffling on offense midway through the second quarter when Aidan Hutchinson intercepted a pass that started the Lions on a 21-0 run, en route to a Week 11 win.
“It’s all about attacking the ball,” defensive tackle Benito Jones said. “This game is all about the ball, so we get the ball back as fast as we can for the offense and just put them in great field position.”
The Lions are tied for the NFL lead with four red-zone takeaways this season, all in goal-to-go situations. Along with Buggs’ forced fumble last week, Joseph and Hutchinson intercepted Aaron Rodgers passes in a November win over the Green Bay Packers, and Alex Anzalone had a pick of Josh Allen in a Thanksgiving loss to the Buffalo Bills.
They also have one safety, and Okudah returned an interception for a touchdown.
Jacobs said he wants to get in the end zone like Okudah, but he won’t be greedy. After watching the rest of the starting secondary pile up takeaways, he’ll settle for whatever he can get.
“I got to get something,” he said. “I’m trying to get one, too.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.