Saturday Night Spotlight - Preseason Edition #2

Looking forward to seeing how Houston does this week. Last week I thought he was pretty well. Hope he keep it going this week.

Hes gonna be really exciting to watch, but I would say Calvin Johnson is the key offensive player. Broncos rely on their corners in order for their defense to be good. If Megatron can have his way, then that defense is screwed

The way I see it if need be we could double up on royal..(especially if delmas plays) once royal double covered it will leave the rest of a corners to cover slightly above average recivers. I expect huggy bear will see plent of carrys because he knows the system better the D line should be able to keep him and lendale in check fairly easy. Like you said little additions to the D but they did lose there coordinator ( a undervalued story ) Nolan is one of the best callers of the 3-4 in the NFL so it should be intresting to see. Player to watch well if he plays Jason Hunter at OLB should be more than slightly entertaining. I look to see something new in the ofeensive playbook this week story has Best has been running a small wildcat package in practice ( do we see it?, will it ever be used?) who knows but it could be something to keep an eye on as well. Great write up K. GO LIONS!

Since he was someone on my radar for the Lions to draft if they took a receiver later in the draft.

I don’t think any Lions starter will be in the game long enough to effect whether the game is a victory or loss, no matter their performance.

But I wanna see our DB’s tested a bit more. Our DL was pretty dominant last game, but I wanna see how we do in coverage. That’s what I’ll be looking at.

I look forward to this post in the regular season. If I can make a suggestion though, I think you should post it earlier than Saturday night. Put it up on Thursday or Friday, I think we will get alot more out of the commenting and discussion. I don’t know if this fits into your schedule, I’m just suggesting.

In addition, I “think” we got alot of regular articles that are going to be going up come the start of the season. And I like IT. Keep writing POD, my fandom is Thirsty!

 Paul Pratt’s ferocious play will bring fear into Denvers WR corp they will be begging their offensive coordinator to let them line up opposite of Houston. Watch the game after you say " oooooooo" when a reciever is laid out after a vicious hit, Pratt will be the man responsible for the hit reducing him to a bobble head.
 Gunther will line him up at CB or S whatever it takes to get Pratt on the field he is going to do the guy has the “it” factor going for him he doesn’t have great speed or atheletics but he is a SCRAPPER he will not be denied. Watch him close ya’ll we have a hidden gem in our defensive backfield.

THIS RESPONSE WAS SPONSORED BY THE PAUL PRATT FOR STARTER FOUNDATION,.

that is all, and Stafford staying healthy!!!!

Like that you picked Best, Denver’s run defense is awful so I see him having a big game tonight.

I hope that Smith and Grew get some reps w the starter’s and i’d like to see Levy and Delmas in on defense for at least one series. I think that if Delmas play’s him and Phillips will have a nice impact in the secondary and allow Houston to gamble a little more on play’s.

Peterson, Levy and Follett on the field at the same time is going to be IN YOUR FACE all the time. And i’m pretty sure we all know what the front four will do. I am not going to stress the offense b/c i think they are ahead of the defense and can very easily put up points at will…

JUST EFFIN STAY HEALTHY! Especially our starters. I don’t want to see any more injuries. Bump and bruise types I can deal with but no knee bends, tears, breaks or otherwise states of debilitation.

Well guys, I went 1 for 2 this week….

Jahvid Best IS lightning in a bottle. That kid is going to be the next best thing in Detroit since Barry Sanders. Mark my words. 8 carries for 49 yards!?! Man that was fun to watch!
This is what I said:

If Jahvid Best (and then rest of the running backs) is finding success on the ground against the Broncos, then the Lions will be controlling the clock, and they will also have the ability to pass the ball when the Broncos finally realize that they need to bring a safety up in the box to stop the Lion’s running game.

That is exactly what we saw in the 1st half of the game last night. Jahvid Best was tearing the Bronco defense up on the ground, and his success allowed Stafford to complete passes that he would not have been able to make if not for the success of the running game. We jumped out to a 10-0 lead because of the sweet balance of our offense….FINALLY! I was happy to see Kevin Smith get some snaps, but it was clearly obvious to me that he is no longer the feature back in our offense. Jahvid Best is the real deal, and he WAS key to our victory over the Broncos.

On the other hand, Chris Houston was not a key to our success…and he was not the DB covering Eddie Royal in the 1st half. Royal lined up in the slot, and he was covered by the nickle back. One thing that I did say on the defensive side did end up being true (at least when our starters were on the field):

I am not worried about Brandon Lloyd or Jabar Gaffney tearing us up too bad, and if they do it will be a clear sign that we have major issue and a lot more problems to come.

The major issue we have on defense is a clear lack of depth. Once our backups started rotating in, we had a ton of difficulty stopping Jabar Gaffney. If injuries occur, and we lose starters on defense, then there will definitely be more problems to come. It also became clearly evident that our backup linebackers could not stop Lance Ball from making good gains up the middle, and that was also a product of the lack of pressure created by the backups on the defensive line. Once Orton has time to sit back and pick his receivers, and the Broncos found more success on the ground, they were able to move the ball by dinking and dunking over the middle with Gaffney and their TEs. I am definitely worried about our lack of depth on defense, and all we can do is hope that our starters stay healthy. Ekejiuba was our only bastion of hope, and while Willie Young showed flashes against the 2nd and 3rd team offenses, it was just that…he was good against backups.

If there was a key player, who was vital to our victory, on the defensive side of the ball, then in hindsight it had to be someone on our defensive line. KVB and Corey Williams were dominant in the first half, giving Kyle Orton next to no time to make decisions. The interception by Dre Bly was probably the key play of the game, and that was created by the pressure imposed by our defensive line.