Monday Night Football Returns To Detroit: Bears vs. Lions
By Jason Lisk
It has been since 2001 that the Lions last appeared on Monday Night Football, then it was a 35-0 loss to the Rams at home in the first year of Matt Millen’s tenure. It’s been a long decade in Detroit, but this game is a symbolic end to that decade and the promise of the next. The Lions are off to a 4-0 start, aided by two large comebacks on the road in Minnesota and Dallas. Detroit isn’t the second best team in football though they are one of two remaining undefeateds, but they look the part of serious playoff contender.
The offense has big play ability with Matt Stafford throwing to Calvin Johnson, complemented by Jahvid Best and Brandon Pettigrew. The defense gets first round pick Nick Fairley tonight, in his first game action. They are vulnerable at defending the run (4.8 yards per carry by opponents this year) and haven’t run it well themselves (3.0 ypc). Opponents, though, are only averaging 5.5 yards per pass (net, including sacks).
On the other side, the Bears’ offensive line will have to deal with Lions’ front of Suh, Avril, Vanden Bosch and Fairley. They’ve struggled in pass protection all year, and last week against Carolina, went with a run-heavy approach, only throwing it 18 times with one sack. Because of the matchup, I expect a similar game plan tonight. The Bears will try to use Forte heavily to slow down the Lions’ rush and shorten the game. The Lions will look to hit home runs early to force the Bears out of that plan and put them behind.
There will be a lot of emotion and energy in Detroit tonight. The Lions didn’t handle the hype very well last week, coming out very flat in Dallas until Tony Romo threw them back into it. If Detroit plays their game, they should win, but Chicago will relish the counterpuncher role, and hope that the Lions, in their youth and excitement, do what teams like the Eagles did yesterday, and turn it over and play into that style.
[photo via Getty]