By Michael Stets
Led by a stingy defensive performance, the Lions defeated the Jets 16-6 at the newly renovated Ford Field on Saturday night.
Defensive end Cornelius Washington, who signed with the Lions via free agency in March after playing four seasons with the Chicago Bears, set the tone early on for the defense.
On the third play from scrimmage, Washington blew past tackle Brandon Shell and obliterated Christian Hackenburg for a 12-yard loss. Shell, for whatever reason, moved inside to block Haloti Ngata, giving Washington a clear path to Hackenburg for the sack and forced fumble, which was recovered by the Jets.
While the Jets offense is terrible, the Lions needed a good performance from the defensive line to show they can generate a pass rush after losing two defensive ends–Kerry Hyder and Brandon Copeland–for the season in last week’s win over the Indianapolis Colts.
And they certainly got one.
Washington finished with three tackles and one sack, Akeem Spence added two tackles and one sack, and the Lions didn’t allow the Jets on the scoreboard until Ross Martin hit a 31-yard field goal with 11:06 left in the fourth quarter.
Speaking with Jim Brandstatter on WJR after the game, Lions head coach Jim Caldwell talked about what Washington does well.
“One of the things we know he can do, he’s a big strong guy, he’s heavy handed,” Caldwell said. “He can do a good job just in terms of setting the edge and he can apply pressure in terms of the rush and probably more through power rushing more than anything else because he’s a strong guy. He can collapse the pocket. It was good to see him go even though he was clean. Sometimes you find a lot of guys in this league they can’t make that play even when they’re clean. But he did a nice job. I think overall that first couple of units there with our defensive front were pretty strong.”
On the offensive side of the ball, Matthew Stafford was in for three possessions and led the Lions on two scoring drives: one resulting in a 37-yard field goal by Matt Prater. The other, a five-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones on a fade pattern. Stafford stood in the pocket and got decked as he made the throw to Jones for the score.
“He got hit pretty good on that particular play, but he got it out and put it right in the perfect spot and Marvin did a nice job getting both feet down as well,” Caldwell said. “But Matthew moved the ball consistently with that group. Not only that, I think just in terms of his leadership he controlled things nicely.”
Stafford finished the game 8-10 for 84 yards and one touchdown. Jones caught four passes for 34 yards and one touchdown. The Lions didn’t do much on the ground in large part to the Jets talented defensive line. Ameer Abdullah rushed for 16 yards on four carries before exiting the game, and Dwayne Washington led the Lions with 24 yards on eight carries. Backup Jake Rudock went 8-13 for 84 yards in relief of Stafford, and also threw a bad interception.
Prater, who went three for three on the night, added a 25-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the first half to give the Lions a 13-0 lead.
Hackenburg was absolutely dreadful for New York, completing just two passes in 16 attempts for 14 yards.
The Jets cut the Lions lead to 13-6 when Martin hit a 31-yard field goal with 5:30 left in the fourth quarter. But the Lions answered with a 43-yard return by Keshawn Martin on the ensuing kickoff, and third-string quarterback Brad Kaaya led the offense on a seven-play, 30-yard drive, which ended with Prater’s 50-yard field goal to close out the scoring.
Jets backup Bryce Petty led New York into Lions’ territory in the closing minute of the game but was picked off in the end zone by safety Rolan Milligan, icing the game for the Detroit.
“That was a positive,” Caldwell told Brandstatter. “Last week we ended giving up a touchdown. This week we ended up taking it away. I think anytime that we can get … We had a couple of opportunities early on to get a couple of interceptions but didn’t quite complete them. But that’s one of the things that I think is important. You just cannot go into ball games and play it even and expect to come out on top consistently. So those turnovers are key.”
The Lions return to Ford Field on Friday, August 25, to host the New England Patriots.