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The Detroit Lions season begins on Sunday at 1 PM EST and it could not be MORE polarizing. Whether it is from the fan base itself or the national media, the Detroit Lions have a path to go 5-12 but also as high as 11-6 with a playoff berth it seems. I believe Dan Campbell and the rest of the coaching staff will change the outcome of our season more so than other staffs around the league. But I am not oblivious to the fact that we are still a rebuilding team that needs to take small steps towards becoming, what the Detroit Lions have lacked thus far throughout history, a winning organization. I fall somewhere in the middle of those predictions at about 7-10. The Lions have a favorable schedule but also are starting the season with a couple key injuries to Romeo Okwara and now Vatai our offensive guard. The Lions have a lot of questions that need to be answered. We will see if they end up with the right answer in the next 18 weeks. for now we dive into the five ways the Detroit Lions can upset the Philadelphia eagles on Sunday along with my score prediction.
1: Turnovers
The Philadelphia eagles look to win their division this year behind last year‘s number one rushing attack. If the Detroit Lions can force a couple turnovers and capitalize with touchdowns off of those, then they could win this game fairly easily. But the question is, does this young defense have the ability to do so with the new defensive scheme in place?
2: Stop the Run
As previously noted, the Eagles had the best rushing offense in the NFL last year. Jalen hurts looks to take another step in his development, and that includes running the football. I would say the Eagles land in the top three in that category again this season. The lions defense can hold them to less than 100 yards then they will win this football game. That is a very tough task for any team, let alone a team who struggled against the run quite a bit last year. Lets see if the new additions of Benito Jones and John Cominsky in the middle can help in that category.
3: Play-action
The Detroit Lions new look WR corps should be fun to watch. Last year they had Tyrell Williams and Breshad Perriman as their top 2 WRs. Enough said there. Now they go in with newly acquired DJ Chark, second year stud Amon Ra St Brown, and Goffs former LA connection Josh Reynolds as their top 3 with rookie Jameson Williams looking to return around week 7 or so. The Detroit Lions running game worked well at times last year and I expect it to take another step forward with continuity throughout the group and the better playbook and coaching that has been established. If that rings true then the play action game should be wide open for Goff and his new WR group which doesn’t even include standout tight end TJ Hockenson. They can put up 30+ points on Sunday if everything goes right.
4: Next Man Up
As mentioned previously, the lions are without a couple key pieces to start the season. It looks like the lions may also be without their back up guard as well this week. Who will step in? Will second overall pick Aidan Hutchinson continue to look like a wrecking ball or will he be stifled by this tough Eagles O line? Will 3rd pass rusher Austin Bryant emerge like he is projected to? We will see soon enough because if the Lions can’t stop the interior of the Eagles defense and can’t get to the QB, the game will look very similar to last year.
5: Pressure off the Edge
The last and what I believe to be the most important aspect of this football game is the pass rush. The Detroit Lions could have two double digit sack players on this football team for the first time in a while. The attention that Aidan Hutchinson continues to take away from Charles Harris and other pass rushers will only help. There are plenty of defensive lineman who can get to the quarterback on this team. If the Detroit Lions have five or more sacks on Sunday then I believe they will win this football game. It will force the Eagles to run the football which they are good at, but any team that becomes one dimensional is playing short handed.
My Prediction:
I have the Lions losing a fairly close one, 31-23. Defense struggles with Jalen Hurts and the Eagles rushing attack but the offense gets key contributions from D’andre Swift and newcomer DJ Chark. This is also one of the loses I have for the Lions this season. Here’s to hoping they prove me wrong because the Detroit Lions have the ability and the talent to shock a lot of people this year.
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