By: Jeremy T. Ballreich
The Detroit Lions, and their fans are going for their 4th consecutive road win this season. As they head to the east coast to face their 2nd strongest opponent in the Baltimore Ravens. The Lions have not won against the Ravens on the road since 1996 (their first year in existence!) It’s looking to be a great game.
Offensively:
Ravens have Lamar Jackson, still one of the most gifted athletic QBs the league has seen. But with the new OC is throwing more from the pocket, and looks pretty good doing it too.
They also have their Thunder and Lightning combo despite J.K. Dobbins being injured (shocker!) With Gus Edwards and Justice Hill.
The WR room, while very talented seems to have some drop issues. Like every other week or so. Which WR room shows up. The talented one, or the one that dipped their hands in lard?
This Oline would be a strength but has been riddled with the injury bug. But they are still solid with backups.
The Lions:
The Lions Have the number one raked QB this season thus far in Jared Goff. #1 in deep passing completion % at 64.2%. For those that don’t know, a deep pass is one that travels in air for 20+ yards. He also has 6 lore attempts than the next closest in this stat (Tua Tagovailoa) which is pretty good.
The Lions lost David Montgomery to a rib cartilage injury, with Gibbs out last week. The run game became the screen passing game. But Jahmyr Gibbs, 12th pick overall is expected to return to active duty. Craig Reynolds the RB 4 on this roster will not. So Devine Ozigba remains called up. And injury waived Mohamed Ibrahim was signed to the PS. I expect him to be called up to with the early signing this week.
The WR core had its drop issues early, the first 2 weeks. With a full compliment of WRs this game going in. Goff will not have a lack of targets out there. Plus the emergence of a deep passing game. Should open up the underneath routes.
Our Oline is the strength of this unit. Ranked 2nd best in the league right now. 7th fewest line penalties for holding and false starts in the league. They will have their hands full as I explain shortly.
Defensively:
These are 2 top 10 defenses. Lions 7th Ravens 2nd overall yardage. Lions 1st in run defense 64.8 YPG. Ravens are 10th with 98.6 YPG. Passing Game Ravens ranked 8th, Lions ranked 17th. Both are good to great at times. Both are suspect to Play Action and Run Pass Option Plays.
Ravens and Lions rank near the top of the League in pressures. And the Ravens get Jason Oweh back from his injury week 2. There is a chance we get Paschal back from injury for the Lions. Branch is expected to play as well. Which will be a huge boon to the secondary. Which hasn’t played awful. He’s just that good.
Keys to the game for a Lions Victory.
Find a way to get the run game going. Which makes Play Action more effective for the leagues best Play Action Passer Jared Goff with a staggering 125.8 out of 158.3 passe rating at this stat.
Gibbs is better in space running. Needs to develop his twitch before hitting the holes or the defense will eat him up at that hole. Mo Ibrahim should be the short yardage back split with Ozigba.
With the speed and route techs at WR plus a healthy Sam LaPorta at TE. The Lions may have a tough go. But I think they’re up to the challenge.
Defensively:
Normally I hear keep Lamar contained. But with this defense he’s been more in the pocket, getting him outside of that. He’s not as great as he was. Main thing is not to let him break past the DEs and DTs for big gains with his legs. Which in 2019, the Lions gave up 1 big 30 yard run. And with a terrible defense still held him to 58 yards on 7 carries and 0 TDs. I’ll take that type of performance again.
Our secondary has to stop being the blind ballerinas of the midway. Not lose their assignments. Stop double covering the wrong guys in the red zone. And they’ll be fine. Pressure makes their job easier.
Blitzing:
When hit and pressured. Lamar does get rattled. He doesn’t recover right away from mistakes while under pressure. Hit him, or sack him. He’s the same as every QB in the league. It just isn’t easy to do with his athleticism.
Follow the game plan:
DET 20
BAL 17
If it all goes awry:
DET 17
BAL 19
Thanks for Reading!!!
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