Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Detroit Lions: Keep Your Enemies Close – 5 Questions with SideLion Report

As the Jacksonville Jaguars travel to Detroit for another seemingly certain defeat, we reached out to our Lions FanSided folks for some insight.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are 2-7 right now but they’ve had a chance to win more games. Against Green Bay, Baltimore, Kansas City, and Houston, the Jaguars were within one score in the fourth quarter with opportunities to take the lead or tie the game. They lost all of those games.

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It’s a completely different story in Detroit, where the Lions have had to fight tooth and nail in the 4th quarter and sometimes overtime for all 5 of their victories. The Jaguars need to learn how to win while the Lions are showing the Jaguars how to finish in crunchtime.

We wanted to get some intel on our opponent so we reached out to Matt Urben over at SideLion Report. Here’s what he had to say:

1. The Detroit Lions have pulled out a handful of games in the final few minutes this year. Is their record smoke and mirrors or do they have the talent of a division-winning team?

"That’s a great question and it’s a hard to say at this point. They are 5-4, with all five wins coming from dramatic, last-second comebacks. So, they were perhaps lucky to win some of those games, but a few of their losses were games they probably should’ve won as well. Overall, I don’t think they have the talent of a division-leading team, but when you have a great quarterback like Matthew Stafford, it’s hard to say it’s smoke and mirrors when he single-handedly won those games."

My take:

It feels like every week I keep an eye on RedZone while lamenting yet another embarrassing Jacksonville loss and see the Detroit Lions pulling out a win at the end in spectacular fashion. The miraculous overtime thriller against the Vikings with Golden Tate basking in the glow of his game-winning touchdown was probably my favorite of the finales. Must be nice.

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