The Lions Come to Washington

O.K. Redskins fans here's what you've been waiting for.

Somebody is afraid of us. I know what you're thinking, after the not-so-inspiring 0-2 start the Skins
have had who could possibly be afraid of us.?

Some Lions fans seem to be.

lionchore
Man would I love to see my lions win but how many out there feel RG3 will out run and out pass the lions. what I saw last week from this team I'am worried!!!

rebelyankee
Im not worried about our Defense Im worried about our Offense !!!

BlueLion
This game is so predictable!...Lions will start off strong and then end up losing in the fourth quarter. (same
ole Lions) :0( Mark my words!

TROYzBOYz
RG3 better start performing...there is a lot of talk about him getting benched in favor of Cousins if he doesnt pick it up. They are afraid to run him and Cousins fits the pass offense better.

rebelyankee
Cousins fit's nothing better...lol.

RG3 has no problem being a pocket passer, he has a very accurate arm and reads the field well. He is rusty period getting used to a reconstructed knee. This is still his pre-season and he has gotten more comfortable all along so far. Cousins won't see any game action unless RG3 get's injured again or there is a blowout

Some aren't quite as scared of the Redskins.

RVA Lion
If we are to ever win in Washington, this is the week to do it. Washington is not a good team when RG3 is gimped and their secondary makes that of the 2011 Lions look good.

That said, DC will be playing for the season and we all know the Lions have never won at Washington.

froot loops
Yeah you keep on saying that. Maybe you don't remember the 90s, a couple of times the Lions went in with a good team and lost to medicre or bad team in Washington.

And some show a supreme lack of confidence in the Lions chances

I mean one Lions fan board has a thread titled "No way we beat Washington."

Not everyone was in agreement however.

dndlion
Reggie will be out and will be replaced by Leshoure. LeShoure will score an early TD but then gets kicked out of the game by celebrating by smokin a doobie. Fairley will not play and SUH is ejected in the 1st quarter after
giving the ref a dirty look.

BIGMATTSON
The Redskins have played two games this year, both games they got stomped in until the winning team turned off the jets (remind you of any team from last year?) We lost last week to a good Arizona team, but keep in mind the run of good fortune they had in that game. Fairley didn’t play even though most expected him too, Bush got dinged up for half the game, Our kicker missed back to back kicks, they had a turnover called back on a illegal hands to the face (wasn’t intentional but that happens) they got 2 30+ yard pass interference calls and they blocked a kick…
And with all that, we still had the ball with 2 minutes left with a chance to win.
I expect a very similar game to the Minnesota game, where we will get a lead, and probably should have a much bigger lead, but we will shoot ourselves in the feet a few times, and Washington will make it close at the end because RG3 is great at carving up prevent defense.

Lions 31- Redskins 24.

MICHAEL
Must-win for the 'Skins. I see us getting blown out. Our anemic defense will do wonders for RGIII’s knee, especially if Fairley is out again.

Then a sarcastic smart-ass entered the mix.

ERIC
Suh accidentally decapitates a skins O lineman and is arrested for manslaughter. Matt throws ten TD’S, (all of
them to Calvin), but it’s not enough as the lions secondary gets lit up by Rex Grossman for eighty points after
RGIII and Cousins are knocked out of the game on consecutive plays.

One Canadian Lions fan mirrored a conversation Redskins fans have been having.

WINNEPEGFAN
I don’t know what to think about RG3 anymore. They want him to be a pocket passer this season, and he just isn’t.

I think we play them a fair bit like we played Minny: Key on Morris, keep RG3 in the pocket and under pressure, and work the passing game in the short middle of the field. It could work.

MYLIONS
this Redskins team is not the Redskins team of old. Even if RGIII was healthy. I love Alfred Morris but he is
not Adrian Peterson. Garcon is a good WR but I’m not sure he is even all that better then Simpson from Minnesota, and on defense they have Orakpo and Kerrigan. But we faced Jared Allen already and I think the Redskins are not as good as the Cardinals on defense. I expect good results on Sunday as I think this Lions team has a lot of talent.

This was possibly the most pessimistic Lions fan I saw.

Maspartan
I will not be watching this week, I will not care this week, I will not be posting this week after today, the
inevitable will occur. The Lions have NEVER ... as in NEVER EVER won a football game in Washington and I can't find anything that suggests this team is mentally tough or well coached enough to get it done this week.

The Skins are in pure desperation mode ... they are NOT a 0-3 team and I don't expect them to be there after this weekend.

I was done with Shwartz last year and nothing that has happened this year has persuaded me to change my mind. The Cardinals are an aggressive defensive team, always attacking and clogging up the short and intermediate lanes ... so how did we attack them ... with short and intermediate passes. Brilliant.

If Burleson fakes the slant, swims over Mathieu he's probably still running. Did they try anything beyond a 5 yard
slant all afternoon? I didn't see it.

Are our WR's capable of getting off the line of scrimmage? Is there anything wrong with running the occasional max protect and send some guys deep?

Washington's DB's might be a mess right now, but they are capable of covering for 5 - 7 yards, which means they'll be able to hold the Lions to 14-20 points. RGIII on 1 leg will easily surpass that total.

The Skins will win this one in a laugher and this forum will implode amidst a the bickering and finger pointing.

There were strategic tips offered in tis post

Trickalicious
If I am preparing for the Lions, I make sure I shadow a running back, whether Reginald or Zoiks Bell. I continue to double cover Megatron, and I dare the Leos to pass it on quick slants and TEs all day. Further, I will just assume first down, with the exception of the first Lions drive reverse, will be a run up the middle, usually a draw.

When the Lions are close to FG range, I pressure like crazy because I don't believe they can can make long kicks or pass over my head.

If I am Schwartz, I pray that RGIII has an ouchie and will try to sit in a pocket that won't be there. If it is, I
clinch the red flag between any body parts feasible, and pray even harder that the DC receivers trip on a yard line.

On second thought, let's pray that RG has the ouchie and gets intimately familiar with Mr Suh, Fairley, and
Ziggatron.

Some thougts on who needs to step up for the Lions in this game-and why.

weaselpuppy
OK folks. who, in your opinion (with rationale laid out) is the One Guy we need to show up next week to win?

I’ll start-

Nick Fairley- why?

RGIII isn’t the same guy, mobility-wise. If we can get consistent pressure in his face, they will not be able run
between the tackles not get RGIII time to get a deep passing game going. We played pretty well versus ARZ and great against MIN as far as medium range/short passing game. What we didn’t do was get Palmer bothered enough nor stop the inside rush. The issues were on long passing plays, which involved little middle rsh and some knucklehead plays by Slay and Bentley.

Washington’s D is on par with Minny’s…and we should have put up 50 on Minny. We should throw 35+ on the Skins….but we need to keep them from creating the big splash play. After seeing this team last week not control the game as they should have on defense facing a Fitzgerald-less Cardinals team in the 2nd half…Fairley is the key.

kalamazoo31
I’ll make the projected popular pick for the reasons that it’ll be popular: Bush, because our offense isn’t the
same without him.

Though, honestly, I think the bigger deal might be the offensive line and the WRs and TEs as blockers. If we can open up the kind of holes we did against Minny against a very bad run defense in Washington, Bell is a dynamic enough back for us to have a multidimensional offense that can put up points and keep RGIII off the field. If we get great run blocking, we can win even without Bush.

I decided to end this with a blog from an Eric Shinabarger on a Lions site called "Redskins Player to watch against the Lions" this time it's Ryan Kerrigan-plus a few other items.

The most intriguing player in the Detroit Lions' Week 3 clash with the Washington Redskins is almost certainly
Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, but he is being covered to no end by every sports news source, so I decided to go in a different direction. With that disclaimer, I do think it will be interesting to see how the Lions' defense does against the newly immobile RGIII and running back Alfred Morris. Both have had decent years on paper, but have benefited statistically from playing three quarters of each game against a prevent defense after the Redskins fell behind early.

Instead, this week I will focus on young Redskins linebacker Ryan Kerrigan. This third-year player has jumped out of the gate thus far with 3 sacks, 12 total tackles and a forced fumble (which was returned for a 75-yard touchdown) through two games. It's too early in the season to project Kerrigan's stats for the year, but he will have a career season in all three statistical categories even if his production is cut in half (in his first two years, Kerrigan collected 7.5 and 8.5 sacks and 41 and 42 tackles, respectively).

Despite Kerrigan's success this year, his effectiveness has deteriorated as games progress. Kerrigan had a fantastic first half in the season opener, with 6 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble, but he contributed only 1.5 tackles in the second half before leaving the game late with concussion-like symptoms. Last week, per Pro Football Focus, Kerrigan started off the game red-hot with 2 sacks, but then was completely stymied with only 1 QB pressure in his next 38 pass rushes. I don't know how much of this was Kerrigan running out of gas and how much was offensive lines figuring him out, but it seems unusual to me. Kerrigan is known as a high-motor guy, so he may just be taking "leave it all on the field" a bit too far.

From his left outside linebacker position, Kerrigan will primarily be facing Lions right tackle Corey Hilliard
unless starter Jason Fox makes a miraculous recovery. Hilliard has done a decent job filling in for Fox in the last
two games after an inconsistent preseason. Overall, the Lions' offensive line has been fantastic at keeping Matthew Stafford clean this season by allowing pressure a league-low 22.9 percent of the time. That needs to happen again this week, as Kerrigan and his counterpart Brian Orakpo are a potent pass-rushing duo. Whatever the reason for Kerrigan's late-game declines, the offensive line has to be ready for Kerrigan's early-game onslaught.

While Kerrigan entered the league with a draft profile highlighting his prowess against the run, the Redskins
defense has been gouged on the ground in each of the past two games. Last week's defensive failure against the Green Bay Packers was especially surprising. Getting beat by Aaron Rodgers is one thing, but allowing backup running back James Starks to end the Packers' 100-yard rushing drought is quite another.

Hopefully the Lions can continue that trend this week. The Lions' offensive line has shown that it is athletic
enough to reach the second level of defenses for both runs and screens, so locking up the Redskins' talented linebacking corps will be key. I anticipate even more screens and draws than usual (and that is saying something) this week as the Lions try to keep Kerrigan and the rest of the 'Skins pass rushers guessing.

The formula to beat the Redskins so far this season has been to come out strong for an early lead and then just milk the clock while RGIII and company make fantasy owners happy. After the last two weeks of nail biters, that sounds pretty good to me.

The Lions Come to Washington

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