Thoughts on Lions and next week

[HoosierinFL]

No long list of key points or stupid grades but:

I think its telling that the offense looks so much better when we use the weapons that have been making plays all year (and some last year). That is, instead of forcing it to TY Doyle and Burton and Taylor, we use the creative personnel matchups that come with spreading it around to MAC, Pascal, Hines and Wilkens. Those latter 4 just continually make plays when we ask them to and then the offense puts up 34 points. (really 35 but for missed PATs) And look at the turnaround in red zone offense as a result!! No FG tries, that's 5 TDs! (plus a defensive score)

And speaking of defense, it still blows my mind that we have a top 3 defense in the NFL, one that has a legit shot at being #1 when all is said and done. And even now, legit #1 run defense. You can't run on this Colts D? what?
The Lions had only 29 rushing yards, and it's esp hard to blame a run defense for a scramble on a passing snap, so realistically thats only 19 yards when the D was defending a run play. Crazy.

The pass D had some problems, if the pressure wasn't getting there, Stafford was good enough to find the holes in the zone. That 73 yard pass was a disaster.

We'll see what Lamar Jackson can do next week. He's fast, but I'm not worried about that, i think Darius Leonard will spy him and is fast enough to contain him. He has a great deep ball, but can he read the zones. If he can, then we could see a similar stat line for him as Stafford put up, and we're going to need the offense to do a repeat performance. If not, then our D could come away with 2 or 3 INTs instead.

[Pez]

Originally Posted by HoosierinFL

No long list of key points or stupid grades but:

I think its telling that the offense looks so much better when we use the weapons that have been making plays all year (and some last year). That is, instead of forcing it to TY Doyle and Burton and Taylor, we use the creative personnel matchups that come with spreading it around to MAC, Pascal, Hines and Wilkens. ....

And speaking of defense, it still blows my mind that we have a top 3 defense in the NFL, one that has a legit shot at being #1 when all is said and done. And even now, legit #1 run defense. You can't run on this Colts D? what?...

Great points, I love that our defense is really fun to watch now. Our line is improved our LBs are improved... I think our issues on pass defense are 50% scheme and 50% execution. Honestly though, were ranked #6 in passing yards allowed that blows my mind also.

Darius forced fumple vs stafford was awesome. When I see #53 crown the line my eyes are almost always drawn to him. Seems like 80-85% of the time he crowds the line then drops into coverage. On the play vs stafford, he crowded the center of the line, then dropped back at the snap, then stunted around to the right to get the fumble. It's a beautiful and violent finesse. The first 5 years of every marvin harrison route are identical. The first 2 seconds of every darius leonard play is identical.

I think there is a 25% chance we win next week, and a 25% chance we get blown out. If we are still In the game halfway through the third quarter we might pull off the shocker. We have a stunningly difficult schedule... Ravens, Tits, Packers, Tits. At the end of that stretch we will know what kind of team we have. If we come out the other side of that stretch with the #2 AFC seed on our pocket, the December steelers game will have all sort of implications.