Here Come Those Darn Seahawks!

By: Jeremy T. Ballreich

This week the Lions have another opponent who, for the lack of better terms, had very limited success against. 18 meetings between the Seattle Seahawks and the Detroit Lions. The Seahawks have a 13 and five record versus the Lions. Including a six-game win streak. But while they have had a talented WR core the entire time, they have trounced our defense on the ground.

At one point our tackling was so bad in 2 consecutive games, the Lions defense made Rashaad Penny look like Marshawn Lynch! But that was then. This year, our defense looks very formidable so far against the run. Teams are gaining 76.7 on the ground versus Detroit this season. Staying steady as the 3rd best run defense in the league. The passing defense has very much improved as well. Last year after three weeks was ranked at 31. This year the Lions rank at 19th. And the defense is ranked 10th overall. And the Lions have the 9th best scoring defense at giving up 17.7 points per game.

Injuries:
Seattle is missing their starting offensive tackles on both sides of the ball. They are also missing both of the defensive tackles as starters too. Also Kenneth Walker III is out for another week.

Lions:
The Lions lost Marcus Davenport and Derrick Barnes last week in Arizona for the season. Also out is our elite Center in Frank Ragnow, who is nursing a partially torn pectoral muscle.

Keys to the game:
It’s simple really, their two best interior run stuffers are out with injuries on the defensive line. Run the ball right up the middle to force the defense to focus more on the running attack. Then Ben Johson can get creative with the play action passes and trick plays. That’s when he’s the most successful as a play caller. When he dictates the flow of the game.

Defensively:
Stop the run, force them to pass. Once they are one dimensional, then focus on blitzing the QB, Geno Smith. Because he does wilt under pressure. He has an adequate release. So we need our coverage guys to stay on the DBs about 3 or 4 seconds.

This will be a very competitive, and close match up. All conference games matter for when it comes to playoff seeding at the end of the year.

This also is one of those four circled games by our head coach Dan Campbell. Seattle, Dallas, Packers, and San Francisco.

#OnePride #DefendTheDen