The Weekend Spotlight - Week 9 Edition

Good Afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another edition of the Weekend Spotlight.  I am your host, KDawg.  The eighth installment of my weekly series has the Detroit Lions battling the New York Jets, at Home in Detroit, MI, at Ford Field.  Coming off of a HUGE week 8 win against the Redskins, my expectations for the Lions are once again very high.  I write this week's post amidst the feeling that I do not have the time to be doing it, and that only a select few people read it anyway, but still I choose to babble on and let my voice be heard.  Needless to say, I am SO ramped up for this game that it is ridiculous!  I am very excited to say that I will be AT this game in person, with some of our fellow POD members.  This makes the game even more important to me, but it can not possibly be more important for me than it is for the Lions.

This is the chance the Lions have been waiting for.  Should the Lions WIN this game against a highly touted Jets team, then not only are WE the fans going to go through the roof of Ford Field, but also the Lion players are REALLY going to start to BELIEVE that they CAN have a winning season THIS YEAR!  The Lions are now 2-5 on the season, but we all know that their record does not reflect the talent and ability that this team has, nor does it reflect their potential to beat some very good teams right NOW.  With 8 weeks of the regular season already behind us, once again I will reveal who I believe will be the key players, on the Lion's offense and defense, for a Lion VICTORY!

This weeks injury report shows that the Lions will be without C.C. Brown (knee) and Isaiah Ekejiuba (knee) for sure, and of course Shaun Hill is listed as doubtful with the broken left forearm.  Ashlee Palmer (hamstring) and Kevin Smith (knee) are both questionable (both were limited all week in practice and Smith DNP on Wednesday), and Louis Delmas (ankle, LP all week) and Brandon Pettigrew (ankle, LP all week) are listed as probable, while Jahvid Best (toe), Bryant Johnson (foot), Calvin Johnson (shoulder), DeAndre Levy (ankle), Turk McBride (ankle), and Matthew Stafford (foot) all practiced fully all week while being listed as probable as well.  On the other side of the ball, the Jets only list 4 players, all probable, on their injury report, and they are Brodney Pool (head, LP all week), David Harris (back, DNP Tuesday, FP Wed and Thur), Calvin Pace (foot, FP all week), and Darelle Revis (hamstring, FP all week).

As usual, I will provide you with the logic behind the reasoning for my picks, including stats.  The Jets are a decent team, but I would not say that their defense is the best in the league by any stretch of the imagination, certainly not as good as the Giant's D, and I would say that their offense is about as good as St. Louis or Washington's.  I would not likely rank them as high as Green Bay, Philadelphia, the Giants, Chicago or even Minnesota overall (if not for the traditional end of the game INT by Brett Favre that went for 6, then the Jets win by 2...and if not for the 5 field goals by Nick Folk, or even if he just missed one or did not get one of the chances, then the Vikings win that game).  In fact, despite their record (they have some VERY shaky wins so far) and historical trends, I believe that the Jets are the third worse team that we will have faced so far (ahead of the Rams and Redskins, but not by much).  VICTORY can be ours, and I'll tell you why and how as the WS W8E begins after the jump...

I want to start off this week by mentioning the fact that Rex Ryan is a jackass.  Did you know that?  I am sure you did.  Listen, I don't know where this guy thinks he is coming from, or who he thinks he is fooling, but the Jets do NOT have the best defense in the league.  They do not even have the best run defense in the league (ranked 4th), and their passing defense has been less than stellar this season (ranked 18th).  I certainly hope that behind the scenes his words are motivating the Lions to prove him wrong, as much as they have angered me and made me wish that the Lions would ram it down their throats all day long so he could choke on it.  Maybe then he would shut his pie hole, but maybe that is too much to ask for...

Furthermore, the Jets defense is ranked 7th in the NFL in total yards allowed per game.  There are TWO defenses ahead of them in the rankings that we have already faced this year.  While we did not win either of those games, and while our offense did not light the world on fire in those games, we DID manage put up 21 to beat the Bears, and their #6 total defense in week 1 (I know, I know...thanks to poor officiating it was only 14 and we lost, but we all know better), and we put up 20 against the #2 ranked total defense of the Giants in week 6, nearly winning that game with our backup QB at the helm.  The Jets run a 3-4 defense, and just like Washington and Green Bay it is fashioned after the Steeler's defense.  However, just like Washington, the Jets do not create the pressure that Pittsburgh is so successful at bringing, and with their pass defense lacking this year they also have not been overly successful at creating turnovers.  Once again, the effectiveness of what they are trying to emulate on defense is in serious question, and i doubt they will cause our offense any more trouble than Washington did when it comes to the passing game.  I am sure we will see a lot of shifting by the linebackers, a lot of zone blitz attempts, and a lot of different looks to try to confuse young Stafford, but I think our young leader is more than ready, willing, and able to handle the task.

Offensively, I think the Lions are going to struggle to run the ball, as has been the norm for them so far.  The Jets are very solid against the run, but that does not mean that we will, or should, abandon that aspect of the game.  The Lions need to make an effort to establish some sort of running game, even if it is just enough to keep the Jet's linebackers honest.  As previously stated, I think Stafford will get the job done in the passing game, and I do not feel that the Lions will have any trouble passing the ball.  This week is going to be about whether or not the Jets think that Revis can shut Calvin Johnson down one on one, and whether or not Calvin Johnson can make big plays for us against him.  As such, I am naming Calvin Johnson as my key player on offense this week, to a Lion victory.

I am not totally convinced that the Jets will not try to match Cromartie up against CJ this week, however, as he has clearly been the better defender against the pass for the Jets this season (he has 13 pass deflections, 21 tackles, and 2 INTs vs Revis' 3 PDs, 10 tackles, and 0 INTs).  Many would argue that teams do not throw at Revis, but I think the Patriots and Vikings clearly looked to expose him against Randy Moss.  Revis has had hamstring issues this season, and it has been claimed that he is 100% healthy now...so we will just have to wait and see about that.  IF Revis in matched up on Calvin Johnson one on one, then I surely hope that the Lions coaching staff takes advantage of his clear size advantage.  I feel that CJ's size alone makes it a mismatch against Revis, and while Revis can likely run with CJ all day, he most assuredly can't leap high enough to beat CJ for any jump balls.  IF Calvin Johnson can use his size to his advantage, IF Linehan will call the plays to utilize CJ, and IF Matt Stafford can make the proper throws, then Calvin Johnson might just light "Revis Island" on fire Sunday.

Defensively, the Lions face the #3 rushing offense in the NFL.  On the bright side, the Jets are only ranked 18th in the league in passing.  Clearly, the Lions would do themselves justice to follow the example of the Packers last week by going all out against the run.  By doing so, they would force Mark Sanchez to beat them with his wet noodle.  Sanchez is definitely not the QB that even Donovan McNabb has been this season, and to even try to compare him to Brett Favre, Eli Manning, or Aaron Rodgers would be silly and pointless.  Honestly, I think Sam Bradford is a far superior QB and I am not even certain that he could give Jay Cutler or Vick/Kolb a run for their money in the passing department.  I would categorize Sanchez in with the likes of Alex Smith, Chad Henne, and Jason Campbell...servicable, but not a guy who can control a game with his arm.  That said, I think the key to the Lions beating the Jets this week will be stopping LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene from controlling the game on the ground and running wild.

With that end in mind, I think it will be paramount that our defensive ends do not over pursue this week.  Even though D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Damien Woody are clearly beatable on the ends, I think that our ends need to do a very good job at reading run or pass before they just try to blow up the QB on every play.  Both Tomlinson and Greene have the speed to get to the outside, and if our DEs over pursue too many times, they will get beat to the outside and LT and SG will be in our defensive backfield creating havoc.  The middle of the Jets offensive line is their greatest strength, in my opinion, with Nick Mangold.  However, Corey Williams and Ndamukong Suh have been out of control in the middle of our defensive line this season, and Mangold is only going to be able to help block one of them.

As such, and because of the fact that I think the All Pro center will be doubling Suh all day long, I am naming Corey Williams as my key defensive player for a Lion victory this week.  RG Matt Slauson knows Suh personally, as they were team mates in college.  I am betting that he is either scared to death right now, or he thinks he can get the job done...one way or the other.  We may actually see Mangold and Moore doubling Williams early on, as we saw last week against Washington, but my bet would be that Suh will dominate Slauson if that happens, which will force Mangold to shade his way sooner than later.  If, and when, that occurs...then Corey Williams will turn it up a notch and he will dominate Brandon Moore.  One way or another, the Jets tackles are going to have their hands full with Avril and KVB, so that will leave 3 men to block 2 DTs.  If the interior O-line doubles one DT or the other, then I believe the DT in the one on one matchup will dominate.  I believe it will be Suh who draws the most double teams, and therefore Williams that dominates.  With any luck Williams will be in the Jets backfield all day long, forcing the running backs to act and react to his presence, change directions, and hopefully get stuffed.

In conclusion, I think this is going to be a great game to watch.  I am happy for everyone that it is a sold out game, and I am really looking forward to meeting some of you PODers this weekend.  I think that the words of Jim Schwartz say it best, and since I can not say it better I will conclude with his quotes;

“There are a lot of challenges for us this game,” Lions’ head coach Jim Schwartz said. “We need to protect our quarterback, we need to be able to run the ball, we need to be able to make big plays and we need to be able to sustain drives. Those things are difficult to do.

“On defense we need to be able to stop the run and we need to be able to take away big play players like their wide receivers and their tight ends.”

http://www.detroitlions.com/news/article-1/Week-9-Game-Preview-Lions-vs-Jets/f936eef5-9f0d-41de-8cc4-236ef0369a84

If we can establish some sort of run game, keep Stafford on his feet, sustain drives by passing the ball effectively, allow our play-makers to make big plays on offense while also stopping the run and taking away the big play threats on defense, then the Lions WILL win this week!  And that is all I have to say about that.  As always, I hope the refs do not beat us, and I hope that the Lions play a well disciplined, mistake free game.   This has been KDawg, and you have been reading the eighth regular season edition of The Weekend Spotlight!  Happy Football Sunday ladies and gentlemen, and GOOOOOOOOOO LIOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNSS!!!!! 

Poll

Do you enjoy my weekly ramblings, and do you think I should continue writing this post on a weekly basis?

2%

KDawg, you are an idiot and I just wish you would shut up (for the Jets fans).

1 votes

85%

You definitely do a good job, I like your posts and read them weekly, and I would like you to continue.

36 votes

11%

Your post is boring, written in a Captain Obvious sort of fashion, and I hate it. Please do yourself and others a favor and quit now.

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