Fellas...the boys are on a roll. They're looking great, and next week will be a true test of the offense against a very very good defense. Thoughts?
From someone who watches the Lions a lot its gonna come down to our dline versus their Oline, and i will take our dline every time. Raiola in particular has been bad, pressure Stafford and he is a huge mistake prone QB. they haven't been consistent at running the ball. it'll be a close game for sure.
I agree. Stafford is NOT a high completion percentage QB, and he's prone to making really dumb mistakes, despite his physical ability and relative experience for his young age. If we can get in his face and rattle him, our secondary should have some opprotunities to make some game changers. Unfortunately for us, it looks like Calvin Johnson will be back. Maybe we'll catch a break and he'll rest one more week. The guys have really stepped up and shut down some good wideouts lately though. The loss of Fairly is huge for us. It should allow us to double team Suh, and hopefully slow down their rush.
I think the first thing to look at is how healthy Detroit gets through this weekend as they're on a bye. They'll be without Nick Fairley and his direct backup C.J. Mosley is suspended due to being sent home from London for having marijuana in his hotel room overseas. They beat Atlanta without Reggie Bush, Calvin Johnson, their 3 TEs - Pettigrew, Fauria and Ebron and had to sign Kellen Davis off the street, Stephen Tulloch is done and Fairley left that game in the 2nd quarter. Honestly, if they had better kickers, they could be 8-0. I think Detroit's secondary isn't all that great. They're trotting out Rashean Mathis as a starter, so I wouldn't be surprised if Miami tries to pick on him. That said, I was impressed with their pass-rush against Atlanta. Ndamukong Suh is a stud, might be the best interior DL in the NFL; Miami will have to scheme around him. Ansah is becoming a nice player and I was impressed with Jason Jones on the other side. Deandre Levy is a stud and flows very fast to the ball. Obviously if Megatron is back, he's got a really big advantage height-wise over Grimes and Finnegan and is just really, exceptionally good. Hopefully Miami can do what they did today and stop Detroit's run game as I think Wake and OV can beat Riley Reiff and LaAdrian Waddle. Waddle may have been hurt this year as well.
agreed also. Our offense won't score many points vs that Defense. We need to bash Stafford around and stifle that offense
All I know is I wish we could fast forward to Sunday again. Oh well, MVP Bosh will have to keep me entertained for the week.
i'm looking at flights and tickets now. I've been able to fly down and see them win in Jacksonville and see them win here in Chicago. It's been fun.
Purchased my tickets tonight. Hopefully I can bring my record of watching the Fins in NFC North venues to 3-0. I saw them win in Chicago in 2006 and in Green Bay in 2010...every 4 years, right?
I underestimated how good our defense can be. If they can play close to like they did today, I think we have a damn good chance. Their pass rush scares me and I think our offense will revert back to the jacksonville game. Hoping for a 21-17 victory
This one is going to be tough. I think this game will actually be really close. No way can we expect to put up the points we did today against that Detroit D. I say if our defense can keep Detroit to 20 points we can win this one. I think their receivers are exceptional and will be the first to truly take advantage of our height at corner. If we stuff the run like we have been doing and we get a big play or two from Grimes and Rashaad, I think we have a shot.
Moseley might play. Their coach is being coy as to whether his "two week suspension" inlcudes the bye week. If its a two week suspension, and not a two game suspension, he'll play. Lame....
Hope you guys help us out. But seeing Miami kick Detroit's butt would be awesome anyway and a Phins win to put them a half game behind would be great!
Section 242, in one of the endzones. Going with one of my best friends who has been a Detroit Lions fan since I met him in 1st grade. LOVED Barry Sanders. I'm going to a buddy's wedding the day before so luckily we're driving up/back separate. He doesn't tolerate losing too well. He and I are both Ohio State fans (by birth only for me) and he's going up for the OSU vs. MSU game the night before...so he could already be in a bad mood heading into Sunday.
I'm worried about this game. Lions have a damn good DL, they're coming off a bye, getting a lot of guys back from injury, we def have their attention after beating SD 37-0, and we have a huge game va Buffalo 4 days later so the look ahead factor is in play. Their secondary is weak and their OTs can't handle Wake & Vernon so we have a decent shot but I'm not nearly as confident as I was about the Chargers.
Yeah the D will have to continue balling out. They don't have much of a run game so there will be chances to get after Stafford, hopefully he throws a couple to us, short fields for the O will be a huge boost.
They were down 23-10 to the Saints midway through the 4th quarter but they came back and won 24-23. They held us down to 166 yards of total offense and beat us 19-7. They were down 21-0 against Atlanta and won on a game winning field goal to win 22-21. They also lost to Buffalo at home in OT 17-14 but missed like 3 field goals that game. Carolina handled them well and won 24-7. It depends on which Lions team shows up.
Suh really worries me. I don't think any of the interior between Thomas/Colledge - Satele - Pouncey can handle him without help.
That would be a good idea lol. I'm hoping Miller brings his big boy pants Bc running and staying out of obvious pass situations will be key for both teams.
Fairley being out may help us a bit there, sustaining some drives early on to get Suh's snap count up, using our mobility on the OL to get Miller out on the edge, no holding back this week Lazor!
At East Lansing. I'm not going to that, I'm only going to the Dolphins vs. Lions game. I'm driving up to Detroit the morning of. My buddy, however, is going to both games.
Where you driving up from? Was in Ann Arbor last May drove right up to U of M stadium. What a nice venue that is. Would love to see a game there.
My son is a crazy Lion's fan so I also watch a lot of their games. Their DLine has not played as well lately as they did earlier in the season. They should have CJ and Bush back but they are really banged up. Golden Tate is pretty good, their TE's were hurt last week, not sure how healthy they will be next Sunday. Deandre Levy is a beast. Ziggy is pretty good, I don't think he would start for the Phins. Like the poster that I quoted said, attack Stafford, he gets gunshy and throws up a lot of balls that are possible interceptions. Their running game has been nonexistent, their OL is below average, and I think Caldwell is auditioning for Weekend at Bernie's 3. We must win this game because my son can be an insufferable bastard, and I have been running my mouth for a month.
Toughest defense of the year so far probably. This is one of those games you don't necessarily need (the Bills game is far more important, but would love to win both of course!), but it would be nice to win and further the Dolphins being taken seriously to go on the road and beat a 6-2 team with a top defense coming off a bye week. They'll have their chances.
I live about 20 miles from the stadium. Heading down early and sitting in Section 123. Going with my buddy who is a big Lions fan. I've told him the nice part about us both going is that one of us is going to be really happy.... and the other one of us is named Rob. My name isn't Rob. Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk
Dayton, OH. My friend's wedding is there on Saturday and it's only a 3.5 hour drive up I-75 from there to Detroit.
Saw the Lions/Panthers game earlier this year. No Bush but they had Johnson and Ebron. Panther's D totally handled them, but I guess Detroit is a different team on grass, not to mention away. Still, I think we match up well if the o-line can hold up.
Mosley will play. His suspension was technically two weeks, not two games. Convenient that the 2nd week was a bye week. Johnson says he will be playing, Bush should be back, as well as at least 2 of the tight ends. Ebron, Fauria and Pettigrew all block better than the 2 fill-ins we had playing, so the o-line should get a slight boost from that help. LaAdrain Waddle was hurt and missed a few games. He was out for the Atlanta game, but he should be back for Sunday, so that will help the o-line as well. They just re-signed Andre Fluellen to replace Fairley while he's hurt. Kyle Van Noy will be playing too, just not sure how much. I'm guessing he'll be rotating with Ashlee Palmer quite a bit. My guess is that Van Noy plays better than Palmer for the most part and ends up in the game more. That would put Levy and Van Noy on the outside with Tahir Whitehead in the middle. My personal take on all of this, having to deal with Tate (who should now be considered a legitimate threat by most teams) and Johnson on the field at the same time should open things up a bit for either the TEs or the RBs. Neither Bush nor Bell have done much to impress this year, but that may have more to do with them shying away from passing unless they had to because of all the injuries. Defensively, the secondary's performance is pretty dependent upon the front 4. Slay and Mathis are pretty good if you don't ask them to try and hold coverage for more than 3 seconds (what corners aren't though). Beyond that amount of time, Slay has been good, Mathis has gotten beat a few times. Detroit has only allowed more than 100 yards rushing once this season (132 to the Jets, but 35 came on a garbage time TD run) and are averaging 74 yds per game allowed. As a Lions fan, my worries for this game are all on the offensive side of the ball. The defense has pretty much done what it needs to do all year, but the offensive has been less than impressive. My hope is that all the returning players provide some spark. I really don't expect a high scoring game. I do, however, expect Miami to score first and force the Lions to play catch up all game. Whether they recover or not is a coin toss.
Welcome to the board and thanks for the info....Obviously (or not) this game scares the **** out of me as a Dolphin fan but Detroit is such a puzzle they never quite seem to play up to what they look like on paper. Hopefully its a good injury free game.
time for the next step for our team,on the road in a very hostile environment..playing well, complete, and our Qb playing well in that environment..we do that we will be in the game at the end.
this will be the best game of the week in the league, ford field is an electric location..its a game that everyone should want to play in, key to me is Lazor mitigating the aggressive and hyped nature early and letting our defense settle in..Johnson and Tate is much more formidable than Marshall and Jeffrey.. Get Ryan going east and west early..Ryan was soooo good going to both sides yesterday..even if it's 6 yards, just get their minds defending east and west.. I want Wallace to shred that fast turf.
He's played a few. I know New Orleans last year, which wasn't a good one. Indianapolis in 2012, which was a good one (played there in 2013 but roof was open). I'm not sure there's really anything to take one way or the other from that.