Week two, and the Detroit Lions go from the frying pan in to the fire. Last week they made some mental errors and struggled to beat teh rebuilding St. Louis Rams. This week the challenge is far greater as they not only have to travel west, but take one the San Francisco 49ers who were a couple plays away from representing the NFC in the Super Bowl a year ago.
Sep 9, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) passes during the forth quarter against the St. Louis Rams at Ford Field. Lions won 27-23. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-US PRESSWIRE
The teams met last year in Detroit with the 49ers defeating the Lions 25-19 in Week 6, San Francisco’s eighth consecutive win in the series. In that contest, 49ers running back Frank Gore rushed for 141 yards and a touchdown. 49ers QB Alex Smith went 20 for 26 for 211 yards and two TD’s in the 2011 game. He will surely give a depleted Lions secondary a tougher challenge than Sam Bradford and the Rams did.
Speaking of the Lions secondary, there is a good news bad news situation there. Chris Houston has retuned to practice and based on how that goes during the week may play on Sunday. However, CB Bill Bentley was lost to a concussion and will likely join S Louis Delmas on the sideline. That means some combination of Houston, John Wendling, new comer Drayton Florence ,and Jacob Lacey will man the spots in the Lions defensive secondary.
To put last week’s struggles against the Rams in perspective here are a few comments from the fine folks over at ptofootballtalk.com:
"The Lions survived with an unimpressive win over the Rams at home, while the 49ers had an extremely impressive win over the Packers on the road. San Francisco may just have the best team in the NFL.The 49ers have gotten better since the last time these two teams met in Detroit. The Lions haven’t."
Needless to say the PFT is picking the 49ers over the Lions.
This game is the Sunday Night Football matchup and will be live on NBC. That means that Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth will be the TV broadcast team. Along with Michelle Tafoya as the sideline reporter. This is the first of five national TV games for the Lions in 2012. Let’s hope they do not completely embarrass themselves.
Interestingly enough the loss to the 49ers in 2011 was the first loss of the season for the Lions, a stat they hope to not repeat. Calvin Johnson did not participate in practice Wednesday due to what the Lions are calling a foot injury. That of course is being said to be precautionary and Megatron sounds like a guy who is go for the biggest game of the 2012 season thus far.
Many sports betting websites have the 49ers as 6.5 point favorites. In looking over the stats from the 2011 game, that game was a lot closer than the final score indicated, but the 49ers feel like a much improved team. DJC thinks the Lions can win this game, but they will need to avoid the mental errors of a week ago. The Lions will have a good gamelan, but how the implement that on the field will make all the difference in this game.
The Lions had identical 5-3 record at home and on the road in 2011. The challenge this week comes down to who is ready to go in the defensive secondary for the Lions, and if Matthew Stafford can lead the offense without the missteps we saw in the St. Louis game.
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