Detroit Lions Weblog

week 8: The Showdown in Motown!

This week is the big showdown between the NFC North SuperPowers, the Lions and the Bears. But Seriously, this is a huge game for the Lions. Supposing they win, the Lions would be alone at 1st place in the division, with a record over .500 at the season’s midpoint, both would be a big steps towards their becoming playoff contenders. This will be the fifth week in a row that the Lions have faced a tough, grind-it-out type of opponent where success in the ground game, turnovers, field position and time of posession will be major factors in the outcome of the game.

The Lions made a major move in appointing Jeff Garcia as their QB last week against the Browns. Garcia, though reckless and rag-armed, brings a veteran’s presence and will be able to adjust better to what opponent’s defenses bring at him than the deposed Joey Harrington was able to. Which is a good thing, in the first meeting between the Lions and Bears, the Bears defense dominated the Lions with relentless blitzing, a stout rushing defense, and game-turning big plays from their secondary. On the other hand, the Lions inherent weaknesses on offense were exposed for all of the world to see and it seems that in each successive week the Lions have attempted to adjust to compensate for those glaring team weaknesses.

Most importantly, for the Lions to enjoy any offensive success this week, the offensive line and lead blocking of FB’s Paul Smith and Corey Schlesinger will have to get a push against the Bears DT’s Ian Scott and Tommie Harris and LB’s Urlacher, Hunter Hillenmeyer, and Lance Briggs. Schlesinger has had some success against Urlacher, and hopefully that will continue this week. If the Lions can run effectively, at all, it will open more opportunities for Jeff Garcia to improvise while scrambling out of the pocket or utilizing play-action passes. Garcia will have a mixed-bag of receivers at his disposal with Scottie Vines, Mike Williams, and the hopefully healthy return of Roy Williams. Vines was quite effective against the Browns and did an excellent job in continuing his routes as Garcia broke from the plays and improvised. The Bears have a very good secondary and the Lions will see less blitzes than in the first game. Garcia’s experience and ability to react to the blitz will mean less man-to-man coverage for Lion’s receivers. Bears SS Mike Brown seems to always have big games against the Lions, hopefully he will unable to make the game-changing plays that have hurt the Lions so often in the past. Maybe if the Lions can find a way to occupy Brown with TE’s Pollard and FitzSimmons, he will be less active. Marcus Pollard, in particular, will have to become a larger factor for the Lions this week. I think that the Lions also should try to hammer the Bears with their ground attack, they have had past success when establishing the run against them. Garcia is not known for his down field passes, so it is imperative that the Lions create a lot of third and short yardage situations.

On defense, the Lions need to do whatever it takes to cause Kyle Orton to play like a rookie Qb, unlike their first meeting. To do so, they’ll have to continue to generate turnovers and make timely stops which they have done consistently since the last meeting between the two teams. First off, Shaun Rogers replacement, if Rogers is unable to play, be it Corey Redding or Marcus Bell will need to be very effective against the run. If the Lions can be more stout in the middle against the run and are able to walk Kenoy Kennedy up closer to the line of scrimmage, they could conceivably force the Bears to have to rely on Orton as opposed to letting Thomas Jones beat them. With the absence of Dre Bly and Fernando Bryant, the Bears may want to attack CB’s Andre Goodman, R. W. McQuarters, and Keith Smith and see how they fare against veteran WR Muhsin Muhammad. I would expect that McQuarters and FS Terrence Holt will routinely blanket Muhammad leaving Goodman to have to limit rookie WR Mark Bradley and WR Justin Gage. If the Lions can reduce the number of big passing plays for the Bears, I think this will be a winnable game. If DE’s Jared DeVries, Kalimba Edwards, and James Hall consistently pressure Orton it will be of major assistance to the depleted Lions secondary.

Special Teams will also be a very large factor in this game. It will be a low scoring affair so any big plays generated by the special teams could easily lead to a win in this game. I am especially concerned about Bears punt returner Bobby Wade. If Wade is allowed to give the Bears good field position, the Lions could be in for trouble. For the Lions, it will be interesting to monitor to what extent McQuarters starting on defense effects his availability on returns. If Eddie Drummond is unable to play, the Lions will scramble to find another player to use instead of McQuarters. Another major concern for me is that if Long Snapper Don Muhlbach is unable to play, Jody Littleton (just signed) has to make good snaps, especially after Joe Maese performed so poorly last week.

This will be a vintage grind-it-out Black ‘N’ Blue division style of game that will keep today’s short attention-spanned generation NFL viewers with their hands firmly clutched to their remotes. Both teams will play very conservatively on offense in hopes of their defenses being able to carry them to victory. I am not a huge fan of Jeff Garcia, but I will take a 12-year vet over a rookie in most games.

Garcia’s 17 Orton’s 10