Detroit Lions Weblog

Week 8: Lions Vs. Bears Preview

On the heels of Tommie Harris’ proclamation that the Lions will lose in Chicago this Sunday, I have been wondering, just exactly how can the Lions win this game?  Given the Lions 4-2 start, and the fact that Sunday’s game is against a divisional foe, this may be the biggest game the Lions have played during the Matt Millen-era.  It certainly is the most critical game of this season, in my opinion.

The Lions offense has been significantly less potent of late.   The Lions made some progress towards improving their rushing attack by making the decision to start Kevin Jones over Tatum Bell last Sunday.   Jones is a physical runner, and he seems to be a more complete fit in Mike Martz’s offense.

The Bears have a pretty good run defense, however, their defense is nowhere near as staunch as it was last season against the run.  In fact, I would not be surprised if the Lions were able to achieve a moderate amount of success in running with the ball on Sunday.  

I think that T.J. Duckett could be especially effective, albeit with a limited amount of carries. Situations where Duckett carries the ball, featuring Jon Bradley as a lead blocker for him, will give the Lions a major size/strength advantage over the Bears LB’s and DB’s, with which they could pound the Bears defense.

On the other hand, if they are going to win, the Lions must be successful with their passing game.  The Bears secondary has been depleted by injury for most of the season.   Given the slowly improving Bears offense, the Lions will need to rack up a lot of points through the air to account for how effective the Bears likely will be scoring against the Lions defense.   In order to be effective in their aerial attack, the Lions offensive line will have to slow the pass rush of Adewale Ogunleye and Mark Anderson.  

The Bears will likely be without CB Nathan Vasher, which means the Lions may be able to exploit matchups against the Bears nickel and dime defensive backs with Shaun McDonald and Mike Furrey.  

The Lions defense will have to continue to generate the high number of turnovers that have come with a surprising frequency in recent games, in order to win.   The Lions secondary has been picked apart in most games, in an attempt to limit big plays by playing their safeties deep, or using a “bend but don’t break” philosophy.  

The Lions front four has been a major factor in all of the their wins, and will continue to have to do so for the Lions to dream of having any  legitimate chance of winning.

The Bears have been effective utilizing double tight end formations in recent weeks.   It will be interesting to see if the Lions will utilize a safety, LB’s or a nickel back to slow Bears TE Greg Olson who could be dangerous, if the Bears use him to exploit the deep middle soft spots of the Lions zone defense with their vertical passing attack.

This has been one of the more difficult games me for me to project this year.   Most experts figure that the Bears defense will slow the Lions offense enough to give their offense the ability to score enough points to win.  In other  words, as bad as the Bears offense and defense are, the Lions defense is poor enough for experts to believe that the Bears will likely win.

When it is all said and done, I disagree.   If the Lions limit Devin Hester and play adequate defense, they will eventually outscore the Bears with a surprise 27-21 road victory.