Detroit Lions: 5 questions with Luke Easterling ahead of Saturday

Here are five questions with Luke Easterling of The Bucs Wire ahead of Saturday’s matchup between the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Coming off a loss to the Tennessee Titans in Week 15, the Detroit Lions (5-9) play host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-5) in Week 16, with just two weeks left in the NFL regular season. The Lions are essentially playing for nothing but pride.

While, on the other hand,  the Buccaneers have a lot on the line, including a potential division title in the NFC South and a Wildcard spot if they cannot top the New Orleans Saints.

In honor of this weeks matchup, I sat down with NFL Draft and Tampa Bay Buccaneers Editor, Luke Easterling of both The Bucs Wire and The Draft Wire to ask him some questions about this weeks game, some of the players involved and some of the players coming out of next season’s  2021 NFL Draft.

Nate Williams of Detroit Jock City: First of all, thank you for taking the time to do this, and congratulations on what should be considered a successful season to this point! What are your thoughts in general on the “new look” Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020?

Luke Easterling: “Well, this year’s Bucs are already assured of a winning season, something that hasn’t happened in a decade, so the new look is definitely an improvement in the most important ways. Things haven’t always been smooth, but overall, this season has to be considered a success already for the Bucs, regardless of how it ends.”

1. Detroit Jock City: The Bucs sit at 9-5 and are coming off a win versus their division rival Atlanta Falcons. They take on ATL again next week to wrap the regular season and obviously get the 5-9 Detroit Lions this week. What are your thoughts on the keys to the game for Tampa versus Detroit?

Easterling: “This game will test Tampa Bay’s mental toughness as much as anything. They should obviously win this game easily, but they’ve made things more difficult on themselves than necessary at times this year, particularly because of a chronic inability to start fast.”

“If they can avoid turnovers and mental errors on both sides of the ball, and protect Tom Brady, the Bucs will leave Detroit with another comfortable win.”