Detroit Lions Preseason Week 2 Game Ball: Tahir Whitehead

When the Detroit Lions hosted the Cincinnati Bengals in week two of the preseason, several players stood out but it was Tahir Whitehead who performed the best and took home this weeks Game Ball.

The Detroit Lions didn’t look in sync on Thursday night. The offensive line struggled, the backup quarterbacks didn’t look sharp, and the defense failed to generate a sack. But it wasn’t all bad. Several veteran players flashed their skills. Most noticeably, middle linebacker Tahir Whitehead.

Whitehead looked very comfortable in the middle, showing a knack for being in the right place at the right time. He registered five tackles (all solo) and was involved in on most defensive plays.

Tahir Whitehead had picture perfect form tackles and showed the ability to shed blockers to cause disruption on several plays. Cincinnati’s second drive ended when Whitehead, fought off his blocker, to fill the hole and stop the running back short of the first down. This was an issue for Detroit last year and Whitehead showed he’s making efforts to improve their third down play.

Whitehead is also being blitzed more this season than most expected. Some are delayed blitzes based on what he’s reading from the offensive play call. While other are by design pre-snap. I expect this to continue once Levy returns, as he will open up Whitehead’s game even more.

While Whitehead performed well on defense, his closest challengers for this weeks game ball came on the offensive side of the ball. The Matthew Stafford and Marvin Jones connection looks to be for real. We have been hearing all camp that they have been building chemistry and now we have seen two games where they look very comfortable with each other.

Plays like in the above tweet should be something we expect to see on a weekly basis from the Lions duo. Stafford looked sharp (8 of 13 for 113 yards) and Marvin Jones is taking advantage of his new opportunities in Detroit (four catches for 65 yards).

Next: Detroit Lions Preseason Week 1 Game Ball: Zach Zenner

We are only at the halfway point of the preseason and this team still has several areas that it needs to improve. The positive thing to take away from this game is that several Lions veterans are showing that they are ready to play come September 11.