Anyone watch the Lions-Viking game?

SO yeah, I'm a little disconnected with the NFL this year, so I sat down to eye up the competition last night. I admit, I didn't even know Gunther Cunningham was the d-coordinator nor that Scott Linehan was the o-coordinator... embarrassing but yet so too have the Lions been.

The Vikings o-line has been categorized as damn good recently and guess what..... the lions were putting some serious pressure on them! If it wasn't for the threat of "Purple Jesus" and Brett Fav-ra err ... I think they would have had some decent success. We don't have either, so I think this is actually a tough match up.

They pressured the hell out of Brett "should I stay or should I go now" and sacked him 3 times, had 2 fumbles in the game with 1 recovered, and had couple of tackles for loss. I couldn't find the "hurries" "pressures" or "knockdown" stats but the pressure was real and its what anyone who can do it, will do against Jason Campbell. We've seen it time and time and time and time again....

I can't even tell you how many times Favre made a quick read and dumped the ball off while landing on his arse. Of course there was his trademark quick slant beating some of the pressures but we don't have either of these things, quick reads or great slants. He fired several passes in with the fastest decision making and even with that the Detroit D was able to get them off the field on 3rd down. Watching winfield trying to jam calvin johnson was humorous and d hall is no winfield.

These ain't your little sisters' Detroit Lions folks. I'm not worried, but there's no way one can look past this team, they are very hungry, the only question I have is..... How hungry are our guys?

The fact remains, the Lions have a historically bad pass-defense, and Campbell has looked pretty good between the 20's. This means I think we'll see two to three 20-40 yard TD strikes (you heard it here first).

Also, I read somewhere that Ernie Sims has a pretty serious injury - and he is far and away the best player on that defense. Who knows how much of an effect that will have, but I'm thinking it will be significant.

EDIT: to answer the question in the OP, no I did not watch the game. However I did watch the Saints/Lions game, and saw them getting very little pressure on Brees. Not sure what changed from week 1 to week 2, but I think its safe to say the Vikes OL is better than the Saints OL.

Is it true that AP only had 15 carries in that game?

I think we'll run the ball more then the Vikings did. Portis will get 20-25 carries at least and will probably have a big day. I expect a 17-14 type win where we dominate the stats with long grinding drives like we did against the Rams.

If we win, that is.

I'm not sure Portis will get 20-25 carries...he's been limited with an ankle injury this week. I think its possible that we see more of Mr. Mason and Mr. Betts, maybe with Betts getting about 15 carries, and Mason getting 5-10. I think we'll go up early, and Portis won't play much, to rest his ankle. I could be way off though...

So I guess nobody DID watch the game...

I flipped back and forth between it and other games as long as the Lions were making it interesting but once it turned into a blow out and the Vikes started pulling starters I stopped checking it out.

Yes, the Lions were getting some pressure and while I hear the Vikes line is good, it has always been my impression that it is built more for run blocking than pass protection. The Browns had 4 sacks in the first game and the Lions had 3 in their game. At that rate Favre is looking at taking 56 sacks this season. While not a record pace, it is more sacks than Jason took last season (and Favre has a quicker release) which should tell you something about the line.

It should be noted the Brees was not sacked once in the Lions first game of the season. My guess is Jason has a pretty clean day on Sunday considering the Giants could only get him twice (one of their 3 sacks was of ARE).

What is lost in the discussion is that both Minn and NO have legitimate productive quarterbacks.

And in terms of skill players I don't see a Marques Colston or Adrian Peterson on the Redskins roster to help bail out an under siege Campbell.

This offense is going to have to win by committee, using Kelly, Davis and Thomas together with Moss and Cooley.

This is what Joe Gibbs was so great at doing in his first term here in DC.
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I said last week the Redskins Rams would be an ugly win with the Skins winning 19-10 (I figured 4 FGs, 1 TD).

This week I see the Skins having a big game and blowing out the Lions 31-14.
Here's why:
1. Historically the Skins play the Lions well, even the close/mediocre performance from last year the Skins won. If this game was at FedEx it would be a guaranteed lock.

2. Jason Campbell has had career days vs. the Lions. Most notably in 2007 when Moss was out (injury) and he lost ARE (injury) midway through the game.
Andre Carter has also had pretty successful games against Detroit's LTs.

3. The Skins have finally come to realize that their butts are in serious trouble and that many of them could be gone sooner than later if they don't right this ship. Lose to the Lions and you're the laughing stock that they were.

Bulldog's Twin said:

What is lost in the discussion is that both Minn and NO have legitimate productive quarterbacks.

And in terms of skill players I don't see a Marques Colston or Adrian Peterson on the Redskins roster to help bail out an under siege Campbell.

This offense is going to have to win by committee, using Kelly, Davis and Thomas together with Moss and Cooley.

This is what Joe Gibbs was so great at doing in his first term here in DC.
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Click to expand...

This was the main basis for my post. Campbell can be productive when he's protected. If the Lions can establish pressure and make him uncomfortable, we struggle. Its been a simple formula that teams use against us.

Had to come back to my own thread to see how I felt before the game... I'm still in shock really. I mean my whole thing was that our offense could be in trouble if DET played like I saw them playing others...

I NEVER thought the damn Lions offense would trample our vaunted HOF destined defense... I'm ashamed of all that I put into this team and what I have come to expect.

The blind homerism displayed in a couple responses here is why the fanbase is so pissed off... Everyone has been duped.

Well, there was a thread on "the other site" showing pictures of wide open WRs that JC missed - so the 20-40 yarders were there, like I predicted.
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