As well as the Lions played in last Sunday's rout of the Jaguars, they felt like they could have played better -- which is exactly how you know they're feeling themselves with five games to go and a playoff berth within reach.
"As greedy as we are, we think we could have had a few more touchdowns in there," Jared Goff said Tuesday on The Ticket. "But scoring 40 is a good day and the way our defense played and special teams played, it was a big day for everybody. It was fun."
The Lions piled up 40 points and never punted in their most complete win of the season. Goff went 31-41 for 340 yards and two touchdowns in arguably his best game as a Lion.
"Honestly," Dan Campbell said Tuesday on The Ticket, "we left some things out there. You get into one of those games where we're dialing it up and the details are good, yet there’s a couple things in there where you’re like, 'Man, we could have had touchdowns instead of field goals.'
"But certainly, we’re pleased with the performance overall."
After a 1-6 start full of one-score losses, the Lions have won four of their last five to fuel hopes of a playoff push. They've opened so many eyes of late that they're listed in some segments of Vegas as favorites Sunday against the 10-2 Vikings. Against the Jaguars, Goff said it "felt like there was no coverage they could play that would stop us, there wasn't anything they could do in the run game that could stop us."
Across the board, the Lions are playing with confidence they were lacking at the start of the season. That's the biggest difference to Campbell during their surge. And that will make them a dangerous team down the stretch, whether or not they can erase a two-game deficit for the final playoff spot in the NFC. They're also healthier than they've been all year, with a full stable of weapons on offense and the reins coming off Jameson Williams in the weeks ahead.
"Collectively as a team, I think the guys – I don’t think, I know they have a lot of faith in each other and they do believe that the guy next to them is going to do their job. And that breeds a ton of confidence. It becomes contagious and then it begins to really snowball, if you will, and we’re at that point right now. It’s a good place to be," Campbell said.
In September and October, the Lions were a young team finding ways to lose. They blew a double-digit fourth quarter lead against the Vikings in Week 3 and failed to force a single punt against the Seahawks in Week 4. As they continue to grow up, they're finding ways to win. They made the key fourth-quarter plays against the Bears and the Packers in Weeks 9 and 10. Their last two wins, over the Jaguars and the Giants, were clean and convincing from start to finish.
On Sunday, they get a chance to avenge their most painful loss of the season -- and really put the NFL on notice.
"We’ve learned how to slam the door on teams, and that Vikings game we didn’t," said Goff. "We really didn’t. We blew it there at the end, with two drives offensively where we could have ended it. You look at the Giants game, the Chicago game, running our four-minute offense and ending with the ball, that’s stuff that we’ve learned how to do, the defense making a stop in the fourth quarter against the Packers.
"Even the Giants and (Jaguars), it’s a lot of learning of how to slam the door shut. Knowing when those moments are, knowing when the time comes to finish a game, we’ve grown up in that way and learned how to do it."
The Lions have come an especially long way on defense. Goff said he's seen a young unit learn to identify those game-deciding plays "and just turning it up a notch for those moments." Campbell heaped praise on coordinator Aaron Glenn, who not long ago had critics calling for his job. The Lions smothered a Jaguars offense that entered last Sunday firing on all cylinders.
"I gotta give a lot of credit to Aaron Glenn, man," said Campbell. "He’s what I’ve always thought he was and is, he’s steady as a rock. He doesn’t change, he’s consistent, he’s a problem solver, he doesn’t have bad days, he doesn’t get high or get low, he’s smart and he just hung in there."
Glenn and the Lions simplified things in Week 5 against the Patriots, which helped a lost defense start to find itself. They've also gotten healthier in the weeks since and begun to play with more togetherness and "swagger," as Campbell likes to say.
"As we’ve done that, we’ve slowly started to put more back into what we can do and guys are playing at a high level," he said. "You can see the confidence right now."
A dangerous team indeed.
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