This will be an interesting game. I expect a high scoring game, that either team can win.
Their D-front is very good, but their secondary is pretty bad. We should be able to exploit that. On the other hand, the lions have a lot of offensive weapons. Obviously the have Calvin, and now also Tate. I like our outside corners and I think that they may limit the Lions to a manageable amount of catches and yards. Obviously our pass rush needs to help them out, but I believe they can do that. I do however fear there tight ends and one of their running backs (Bush). Our defense sucks defending short passes in the middle of the field. I feel that this Lions team could exploit that, especially on 3rd down.
I think that the best way to stop that would be a hybrid base/nickel and nickel/dime package that features Sean Richardson (or Hyde) as "linebacker" (
http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/xs-os-breakdown-micah-hyde-as-nickel-linebackerdime-cornerback-hybrid). I think that such a package would be better versus the run than conventional nickel, and better versus the pass than a conventional base. Moreover Richardson has a size advantage compared to the other DB's when covering a TE (especially versus Fauria). Therefore I think that such a package would help us stop the Lions.
Problem is, we probably don't have such a package
. Although if we have it in our playbook, we would have shown it yet, since we haven't faced a dangerous TE yet.