Monday night represents a huge opportunity for the Lions to take advantage of the losses by the Packers and the Bears in their openers. A victory will be will give the Lions an early division lead and a wild card advantage over the Giants. But the Lions will need to eliminate penalties and play to their strengths and avoid repeating the coaching errors of the past regime.
Here's how it should happen:
Offense: I don't believe we have seen anything close to the entire Lion offense in the preseason. The only give-away in that regard was Kellen Moore's obvious mastery of an offense that spread the ball around and used a variety of plays we wouldn't have seen last year.
For example, Stafford up under center.
If the coaches stick to this, especially on third and short, we will win some games we would have lost last year, when we gave the defense only one look, shot-gun with a single back. Had the Lions made just three more third and short conversions, we would have beat three teams we lost to and made the playoffs.
When you line up with a fullback and a Reggie Bush or Joique Bell in the backfield, you create uncertainty in the minds of D-coordinators. This makes them pick a poison, which gives the Lions options in both the running and passing games. For example, you can't play four men in the box with the linebackers reading because the backs will be closer to the line when they get the ball and will have more momentum. The defense will have to have more men in the box, leaving the D-backs with less support underneath.
This formation should be used on second and 2-5 also, with the receivers going deep and taking away the run support by the db's. In short, I believe we will see the fullback a lot and if the Lions can make it work, lookout, the sky is the limit.
Defense: Given the current disarray in the Giant offensive line, the Lions should have a field day if they continue to mix in their blitz packages as frequently as I think they will. Since most teams will double Suh, there is no free man to pick up the blitz, unless the Giants keep a tight end or back in to block. And I think Ansah will be a major factor as he was at the beginning of last year when he was so quick the refs thought he was jumping offside. He got four sacks that were called back, yet was only offside on one and lined up offside on one. Jason Taylor and Fairly will also make this a long day for a Giants line that had to pick up a 32 year old castoff (Adam Snyder from the 'Niners) to bolster them when they lost their starting center.See it here at http://www.rotoworld.com/teams/transactions/nfl/all/today/
The other defensive coaching move will be to move their DB's and safeties up in front of the 1st down marker on third and more than ten, especially when in a "prevent" situation. Last year, we gave up several long completions into field goal range because our safeties were five yards behind the marker with nobody to cover back there. We also had our linebackers dropping back BEHIND the marker on third downs and gave up the first down to completions in front of them. Well there you have it. We will see how it unfolds. If the Lions do the above, I say we win by 21. You read it here first!!
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