By Jeff Moeller, Florida Sports Wire
The key word going into the Lions’ game was embarrassing.
According to a number of published reports, head coach Doug Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke were in definite danger of being fired if the club was “embarrassed” against the Lions in Detroit Sunday afternoon. The fact that they were 14-point underdogs was the primary motivation.
Well, embarrassed they were in a 52-6 Detroit demolition. It was hard to watch, and really, hard to describe in words. Yes, 52-6..think about that in an NFL game.
A once promising season has deteriorated to this.
It was a game that conjured plenty of facts relating to the 46-point blowout, too many to repeat. Probably the most staggering was the 475-yard differential between the two teams, a bulge big enough to be traced back to 1979.
They gave up the most points in a game in team history, breaking the old mark set in a 51-17 loss to New England in 2015. Their 46-point deficit also broke their old mark set in a 44-0 shutout to the Lions in 1995.
The Lions also scored on their first eight possessions, the final one by their backup quarterback. Detroit was rarely challenged.
Jacksonville looked every bit like a 2-9 team and worse. They are 0-6 on the road this year, and have lost 15 of their last 20 games.
This one hit rock bottom for Pederson.
It is especially disappointing for their defense that played up to their potential last week at home against Minnesota, holding the Vikings to four field goals in spite of a 12-7 loss.
When you allow a team to accumulate 645 yards of total offense with relative ease, it is an embarrassment. Once again, the secondary was torched for 449 yards, 161 and 11 catches went to Amon-ra St. Brown, who they couldn’t contain.
The Lions put on a clinic, and the numbers were staggering.
For the Jags, there were few positives except for rookie kicker Walker Little, who added to his solid year with a pair of field goals. Little gave the Jags a 3-0 lead before Detroit took over.
Mac Jones again couldn’t find any consistency, but Evan Engram and Bryan Thomas Jr. did each catch five balls. Both have been the lone bright spots in recent weeks.
With Tank Bigsby still out, the running game accounted for just 41 yards from their overall 170 total yards on the afternoon. They had 163 last week against Minnesota.
The Jags will roll into their much-needed bye week, and Pederson is still preaching optimism with four division battles over their final six games. He claimed his defense is tired, and they certainly have provided enough evidence.
However, Pederson sounded more like a defeated man.
Trevor Lawrence could return, and he truly could save some face for the franchise. However, if Lawrence isn’t truly healthy, is it worth bringing him back? Or
The question now is whether Shah Khan will pull the trigger on Pederson and Baalke. There is still a split camp whether he’ll make a move now or at the end of the season.
There’s also some chatter building that Bill Belichick could be a good fit to take over the whole operation, and bring in old cronies Josh McDaniel and Matt Patricia to run the offense and defense respectively.
This one was embarrassing, and it’s hard to believe it can get any worse.
We’ll find out in two weeks, possibly with a new leading cast in place.
