Detroit Lions vs. Cleveland Browns: What to watch for in week 10

The Detroit Lions are back home to play the Cleveland Browns after a huge win last week. Let’s look at what to watch for in this week 10 matchup.

The Detroit Lions had their first dominating performance of the season last week. The Green Bay Packers looked lost for the entire game and Matthew Stafford looked like a golden god. This week, the Lions come back to Detroit and take on the winless Cleveland Browns. So let’s look into what to watch for this week.

1. Is Matthew Stafford Elite?

Last week, Matthew Stafford played a beautiful game. He always is locked in on game day, but on Monday night he was LOCKED in. He did everything right throughout the game sans a horrible quarterback sneak that I’ll blame the offensive line for more than Stafford.

If Stafford is getting to his boiling point right in the middle of the season, it could bode extremely well for the Lions. Back in the day, Joe Flacco turned into Joe Flames-o and led the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl victory. Now if Stafford got that hot, well, Lions fans would all be crying tears of joy at the end of the season and Stafford would have a statue placed in the middle of the city immediately.

So I doubt Stafford is that hot, but he’s still playing very well right now. If he can play at this level, or near this level, for the rest of the season then I think the Lions will be a playoff lock. Sunday will show us if he can keep this pace up. Luckily, Stafford has a great history when it comes to playing the Browns.

2. Are the Lions too high on themselves?

The Lions played extremely well last week. The Browns are extremely bad. This is the exact type of game that I have seen the Lions lose time and time again. Underestimating an opponent is a huge bringer of upsets, and I don’t know a soul on this earth that would take the Browns this week.

The Browns are also coming off a bye week, which means they had more time to prep for Matt Stafford and co. They also had a week to rest up, so they could come out there at full force right out of the gate.

Luckily, as I said before, the Browns are not good at all. If Josh Gordon could actually play then I would be worried. I don’t care if that guy didn’t play for 10 years and then came back, he would still be a great player. But he’s not going to be out there, and I have no idea who the Browns quarterback will even be.

As long as the Lions play like the Lions, they shouldn’t have a problem. I just really hope they don’t play like the old Lions.

 3. Taylor Decker

On Friday the Lions waived offensive tackle, Greg Robinson. Which only made me and many other fans think that Taylor Decker is coming back. Today it was announced that he is coming back and should even start on Sunday. Bringing in Robinson was a nice attempt at a stopgap, but Decker is exponentially better than Robinson was.

Decker coming back will immediately make the entire offensive line unit better. They’ve struggled a lot this season trying to find somebody to fill his void and having no weak link will be great. Hopefully, he can even make the run game work again.

Next: Lions week 10 injury report

The Lions are getting hot and getting healthy at a great time. The season is past the mid-way point and now is the time that great teams show why they are championship contenders. Something, as weird as it is to say, I actually believe the Lions are.