Breakout Performance by D'Andre Swift Leads Lions to 34-16 Victory
Playing the Jacksonville Jaguars can cure a lot of ills for a National Football League team.
In desperate need of a victory, the Detroit Lions were able to defeat Jacksonville, 34-16.
The 34 points scored is the most the Lions have scored offensively during head coach Matt Patricia's tenure as coach.
Detroit's opening drive started at midfield, after the defense forced Jacksonville's offense to a three-and-out.
Matthew Stafford led the offense on a 10-play, 50-yard drive that was capped off by a one-yard touchdown from running back Adrian Peterson.
Defensively, Detroit used early blitzes and pressure to make life difficult for Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew II.
The Lions were certainly much more aggressive on defense, and the increased pressure forced the Jaguars' young quarterback to rush throws on numerous occasions in the first half.
Early in the second quarter, a blitz by linebacker Jahlani Tavai forced Minshew into throwing an interception that was hauled in by safety Duron Harmon.
Trey Flowers capped off a productive first half of football with a strip sack that stalled a Jacksonville drive.
Romero Okwara was able to recover the football to give Stafford a chance to extend Detroit's 17-3 lead with 35 seconds remaining in the half.
A curious decision was made by Lions head coach Matt Patricia and the coaching staff in the second quarter.
© Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports
After two successful touchdown drives, Detroit's offense rotated out its starting guards -- Jonah Jackson and Halapoulivaati Vaitai -- in favor of Joe Dahl (left guard) and Oday Aboushi (right guard).
Despite the 14-3 early lead, Detroit struggled mightily in the second quarter with multiple errors offensively, including a dropped pass by T.J. Hockenson, a holding call on Tyrell Crosby and a missed field goal by Matt Prater.
To make matters worse, both Crosy and Vaitai went to the locker room to be treated for dehydration.
Detroit went into halftime with a 17-3 lead.
The aggressiveness was not reserved for only the defense.
On Detroit's second offensive possession of the second half, the decision was made to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the Jaguars' one-yard line.
Stafford found Hockenson in the end zone to extend Detroit's lead to 24-3.
With the touchdown pass, the 12-year veteran has now thrown a touchdown against every team he's played in the NFL.
Rookie running back D'Andre Swift was used heavily in Detroit's rushing attack, as he recorded 14 carries for 116 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
He impressed early on with a 54-yard run that aided Detroit on its second touchdown drive of the game.
The Lions' 2020 second-round pick came into the game with only 42 career rushing yards in four games.
© Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports
With the victory, Detroit improves to 2-3.
Detroit will travel to Atlanta next week to take on a Falcons team that recently fired both its head coach (Dan Quinn) and general manager (Thomas Dimitroff).
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