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Rookie safety Miles Killebrew played 12 snaps, yet led the Lions in tackles. It was his best game as a pro.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

DETROIT -- The Lions (6-4) beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 26-19 on Sunday at Ford Field. Here's some analysis of the snap counts.



-- Jim Caldwell has basically said rookie safety Miles Killebrew is too good not to play, so Detroit has been finding spots to get him experience. And against Jacksonville, he rewarded those efforts. Killebrew played just 12 defensive snaps, yet managed to lead the team in tackles with five. And better yet, four of those five tackles came on third down and forced punts. The fourth-round pick seems to really be turning a corner.



-- Johnson Bademosi played pretty well while starting two games for the injured Darius Slay. Yet he didn't play any defense at all against Jacksonville, and was replaced by Johnthan Banks as the third outside cornerback. That should be seen as a really positive develop for the Lions, because Banks has obviously done enough in just three weeks with Detroit to leap a player who seemed to be playing well. Banks played 21 defensive snaps while spelling Nevin Lawson, and though he did give up a long reception to Marqise Lee to set up a touchdown, drew rave reviews from Caldwell after the game. Banks, a long corner at 6-foot-2, will be an interesting player to watch going forward.



-- Tavon Wilson has started over Rafael Bush at strong safety most of the year, but Detroit started Bush and played both extensively against Jacksonville. Wilson played 77 percent of the defensive snaps, while Bush played 68 percent. And both made huge plays. Bush had the first pick-six of his pro career, which gave the Lions a second-half lead at a time when they still hadn't scored an offensive touchdown, and Wilson sealed the win with a game-ending pick. He also recovered a fumble. They were two of Detroit's top three defensive players overall, per ProFootballFocus.

Rafael Bush houses pick-six on big day for Lions' defense



-- Former first-round pick Laken Tomlinson saw his first action on offense since losing the left guard job to Graham Glasgow. He played six snaps, mostly for Larry Warford on the right side late in the game. It was weird to see Warford come out -- he's never done that in his career with Detroit, barring injury -- and it'll be interesting to note if that rotation is a sign of things to come. Detroit has done it before, obviously, with Glasgow and Tomlinson on the left side -- and the job eventually turned over to Glasgow.



-- The Lions continue to tempo Anquan Boldin's reps at receiver, this time playing him 68 percent of the snaps. That's still a large workload, but is down -- for the second straight game -- from what he was drawing every week the first two months of the season. He did catch six passes on his 39 reps, though, two of which picked up key third downs on that final drive.



-- Defensive end Ezekiel Ansah, at last, looked like the Ansah of old. He was a terror in the first half, with four QB pressures on 12 pass-rushing downs, and finished with five for the game, plus four tackles. But he still somehow didn't lead the defensive ends in reps, his 40 snaps coming up five short of Kerry Hyder.



-- With former starting defensive tackle Tyrunn Walker benched for the game, Khyri Thornton got a second straight start, and Stefan Charles actually played the second-most reps (28) behind Haloti Ngata. He made a huge play late in the game, too, sinking Chris Ivory for a 5-yard loss right after Detroit had taken its fourth-quarter lead. Thornton was right behind him with 26 snaps, and rookie A'Shawn Robinson played 25.

Report: Lions to host veteran LB James Laurinaitis



Offense

C Travis Swanson 57 snaps (100 percent)

T Riley Reiff 57 (100 percent)

T Taylor Decker 57 (100 percent)

QB Matthew Stafford 57 (100 percent)

G Graham Glasgow 55 (96 percent)

G Larry Warford 53 (93 percent)

WR Marvin Jones 51 (89 percent)

WR Golden Tate 47 (82 percent)

TE Eric Ebron 46 (81 percent)

WR Anquan Boldin 39 (68 percent)

RB Theo Riddick 33 (58 percent)

RB Dwayne Washington 24 (42 percent)

TE Matthew Mulligan 17 (30 percent)

WR Andre Roberts 13 (23 percent)

FB Michael Burton 8 (14 percent)

G Laken Tomlinson 6 (11 percent)

T Corey Robinson 5 (9 percent)

TE Clay Harbor 2 (4 percent)



Defense

FS Glover Quin 66 (100 percent)

LB Tahir Whitehead 66 (100 percent)

CB Darius Slay 65 (98 percent)

SS Tavon Wilson 51 (77 percent)

SS Rafael Bush 45 (68 percent)

CB Nevin Lawson 45 (68 percent)

DE Kerry Hyder 45 (68 percent)

DE Ezekiel Ansah 40 (61 percent)

DE Devin Taylor 39 (59 percent)

CB Quandre Diggs 38 (58 percent)

DT Haloti Ngata 38 (58 percent)

LB Josh Bynes 36 (55 percent)

DT Stefan Charles 28 (42 percent)

DT Khyri Thornton 26 (39 percent)

DT A'Shawn Robinson 25 (38 percent)

DE Anthony Zettel 24 (36 percent)

CB Johnthan Banks 21 (32 percent)

LB Antwione Williams 16 (24 percent)

SS Miles Killebrew 12 (18 percent)

DE Brandon Copeland 1 (2 percent)



Special teams

Thurston Armbrister 27 (84 percent)

Miles Killebrew 24 (75 percent)

Brandon Copeland 23 (72 percent)

Johnson Bademosi 23 (72 percent)

Antwione Williams 20 (62 percent)

Don Carey 20 (62 percent)

Zach Zenner 18 (56 percent)

Sam Martin 17 (53 percent)

Clay Harbor 16 (50 percent)

Rafael Bush 12 (38 percent)

Andre Roberts 11 (34 percent)

Don Muhlbach 11 (34 percent)

Matthew Mulligan 10 (31 percent)

Josh Bynes 10 (31 percent)

Johnthan Banks 9 (28 percent)

Nevin Lawson 8 (25 percent)

Quandre Diggs 8 (25 percent)

Tavon Wilson 6 (19 percent)

Anthony Zettel 6 (19 percent)

Travis Swanson 5 (16 percent)

Riley Reiff 5 (16 percent)

Taylor Decker 5 (16 percent)

Graham Glasgow 5 (16 percent)

Matt Prater 5 (16 percent)

Larry Warford 5 (16 percent)

Michael Burton 5 (16 percent)

Laken Tomlinson 5 (16 percent)

Corey Robinson 5 (16 percent)

Glover Quin 4 (12 percent)

Tahir Whitehead 4 (12 percent)

Darius Slay 4 (12 percent)

Haloti Ngata 4 (12 percent)

Devin Taylor 3 (9 percent)

Stefan Charles 3 (9 percent)

Khyri Thornton 3 (9 percent)

A'Shawn Robinson 3 (9 percent)