Cue the lights. It’s time for some football. Let the sounds from the field and from the crowds come to fruition. Tailgaters rejoice. Your time is here.
Football is back so let’s cue its theme song as well. Well maybe in an alternate universe where Hank Williams Jr. still does the Monday Night Football song that many football fans will always identify with.
The Detroit Lions shocked just about everybody surrounding the NFL last season with their 10-6 playoff worthy season. It was definitely a sharp contrast from the 0-16 campaign the team suffered just three seasons earlier in 2008.
Detroit will not sneak up on anybody in 2012. Everybody knows that Matthew Stafford has an absolute canon of an arm and that his co-worker Calvin Johnson is just about to enter his football prime.
Will both of these guys replicate their stellar 2011 seasons? It is hard to say that they will but just like Phil Ivey I would bet against them. Stafford does not need a poker face to disguise his offensive weapons, which is why the St. Louis Rams will struggle on Sunday to stop the Lions vaunted offensive attack.
Questions do exist in Detroit’s backfield and in the secondary. The team feels as though that both areas have been addressed to an extent in the preseason. S Louis Delmas is doubtful for Sunday’s game and CB Chris Houston is questionable.
If the Lions do not get a running game going in week one or any week for that matter teams will begin to rush only three and drop the rest back into coverage at times to give Stafford smaller windows to throw into.
If everyone is covered Stafford will have a tough time staying upright. The Lions know this though, right?
The Lions had a rough off-season full of arrests and bad PR. The team wants its fans to believe that they are past those issues and that they are ready to take the next step in their developmental process. The team would like to challenge and dethrone the Green Bay Packers at the top of the division, but first thing is first this Sunday.
Detroit should not disappoint this Sunday at Ford Field. While the Rams may have a new coach in Jeff Fisher they will have a tall mountain to climb in stopping Stafford and company.
The Lions defense must contain Rams QB Sam Bradford and RB Steven Jackson. Both have a great deal to prove this season, especially with a new coaching staff.
If the Lions want to return to the playoffs this season they will need to win games like this because they will not get a mulligan if they do not show up.
