Lions-Jaguars key stats: Career-best marks for Detroit’s skill players

Detroit’s offense got back on track this week in a historic way. That and more in this week’s look at advanced key statistics from Lions-Jaguars.

Perfection is something we all might strive for in one way or another, but it can take people years—even a lifetime—to reach that condition or state of flawlessness. For offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, quarterback Jared Goff, and the rest of the Detroit Lions offense, it only took until Week 11 to play some perfect football.

As we’ll do every week throughout the season for this Detroit Lions team, we have some data we can comb through courtesy of various outlets that better helps us understand the football the Lions have played thus far—and what to look forward to in the coming weeks. Let’s take a closer look at the Lions by the numbers after their historic beatdown of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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18.8% run defense stop rate

We’ll have plenty of time to highlight all of the great things done on offense, but first, let’s continue to appreciate the player Jack Campbell is becoming in the middle of Detroit’s defense. For the second week in a row, the Lions defense absolutely shut down their opponent’s run game, and Campbell played a pivotal role in that respect.

The Jaguars ran the ball 17 times for just 41 yards with their running backs accounting for 2.1 yards per carry. Campbell recorded three run defense stops across 16 of the Jaguars’ 17 rushing attempts, posting a 18.8% run defense stop rate which ranked third among 54 qualifying linebackers in Week 11.

24.0% pass rush win rate

One last note about the defense before we move along to the other side of the ball. Za’Darius Smith, the newcomer to Detroit’s defensive line, had a productive afternoon in his first bit of action with his new team. Smith played 77% of defensive snaps in this game but to no one’s surprise, was mostly used as a pass rusher, playing 26 of his 37 total snaps against the pass. He finished ninth among 79 qualifying edge defenders with a 24.0% pass rush win rate according to PFF, recording three pressures and 0.5 sack in his Detroit debut.

+1.09 expected points added per dropback

It was Jared Goff’s most prolific statistical performance of his Lions career and there’s no arguing that. His 412 passing yards and 158.3 (perfect) passer rating are personal bests for Goff during his time in Detroit, and his +1.09 expected points added per dropback against the Jaguars was not only the best mark for him in 2024, but the best for any quarterback in any given week this season. It’s Goff’s third time where he finished with the best EPA/DB this year (Week 4 and Week 6), and in Week 11, his +1.09 EPA/DB was sizably better than the quarterback who finished in second (Bo Nix, +0.61 EPA/DB).

+18.5 receiving expected points added

Goff was able to get a number of pass catchers involved in the offense, but none more so than Amon-Ra St. Brown. The fourth-year receiver caught all 11 targets thrown his way for a career-high 161 receiving yards against the Jaguars, finishing Week 11 as the top receiver in receiving EPA (+18.5).

75 yards after catch, 10.9 yards after catch per reception

Speaking of career bests, Jameson Williams set his game-high marks in receiving yards (124), receiving yards over expected (+57), and yards after the catch (75). Williams had the most yards after catch (75) among 95 qualifying wide receivers in Week 11, and his 10.9 yards after catch per reception is the most among wide receivers with at least 17 targets in 2024. It was only a matter of time on task before Williams became one of the most explosive big-play threats in the NFL, and his 22.4 yards per reception is second among 117 qualifying wide receivers this year.

56.5% breakaway rate

To cap off our celebration of the offense’s historic day, Jahmyr Gibbs racked up 39 breakaway yards in total on his 11 carries, but finished third in breakaway percentage (56.5%) among 42 qualifying running backs. Here’s a breakdown of what that PFF signature statistic tracks:

When a running back gains 15-plus yards on a single run, PFF tracks the run as a breakaway run and all the yards gained as breakaway yards. Then, PFF divides all of the running back’s breakaway yards by their total yards to calculate a back’s breakaway percentage and show which runners earn the highest (and lowest) percentage of yards on big runs.

So in short, along with Jameson Williams, Gibbs is another big-play threat in Detroit’s offense and has been all season long. The second-year running back currently ranks third among 62 qualifying running backs in breakaway percentage (42.5%).