FanPost

What did I learn about the Lions...Unit by unit

Here are some of my observations gathered from yesterday's win against Tampa Bay.

Quarterback: Matthew Stafford looked great. He took a bit to get comfortable and threw the early pick, but he responded well and played lights out after that.

Running Back: Jahvid Best looked pretty good, especially going between the tackles. Maurice Morris and Jerome Harrison looked good as well. Overall the run game was more consistent than I expected, I think the explosive plays will come.

Receiver: Looked pretty good to me. Megatron is Megatron, and Nate Burleson showed his usual big play ability after the catch.

Tight End: Brandon Pettigrew needs to get over the dropsies, other than that they were very solid.

Offensive Line: The pass blocking was as expected and the run blocking was better than I anticipated. Overall I was quite happy with this unit's performance (I had them pegged as the weak link for the team). I do hope someone slaps some intelligence into Peterman and Cherilus though.

Defensive Line: They were solid and played the run quite well. I did not think the pressure on Freeman was as good as it could have been, especially coming from the ends; Cliff Avril and KVB were handled pretty well by the Bucs' O-line. I expect the pressure to get better as the season goes on (and hopefully with the addition of Fairley). They really struggled when Freeman played out of the shotgun to get pressure before the ball came out, I hope that is not a sign of things to come against QBs who get the ball out fast.

Linebackers: They were better than the preseason suggested, as a unit they shut down the run. Stephen Tulloch was a beast. I think they will continue to improve week by week.

Secondary: The coverage was pretty good, and Chris Houston might have improved his ball skills from last year. Louis Delmas looked good in coverage, something I was keeping an eye on. Almost everything they gave up came after the shift to prevent. I can't complain about them one bit.

Special Teams: Stephan Logan's loss of yards on one return made my blood boil a bit. The long return by the Bucs early in the game also did not look good. Otherwise they were solid but unremarkable IMO. For a unit that should be very good, I thought they were disappointing yesterday.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.