The Detroit Lions welcome Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos to Ford Field for Sunday Night Football on NBC. It’s a big spot, a national spotlight game. Detroit is looking to avoid the kiss of death that 0-3 is, as it pretty means your season is over.
Denver is coming in with a 2-0 record and they feature Quarterback Peyton Manning who isn’t what fans remember. If Manning struggles to throw passes more than 25 yards these days but is in-game intellect is unmatched. He will dink and dunk to his two big wide receivers Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas and take six and seven yards at a time. Their big plays come from one of the wideouts to break a tackle and extend a seven yard play to 20 yards.
Denver also brings to town the most fearsome pass rush in all of football with Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware flying of the edges. So how can Detroit possibly compete? Here’s three things the Detroit Lions can do.
Protect Stafford
I know, you’re laughing. However if Matthew Stafford is picking himself off the Ford Field turf ten times this week he isn’t finishing the game. Protecting number nine is also easier said then done.
San Diego and Minnesota are now where near the caliber of Denver’s pass rush. Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware alone combined for 17 quarterback pressures so far this season.
This is a statement game for the offensive line. If they continue to allow their quarterback to get beat up, Matthew Stafford is going to end up on injured reserve. So whatever it take to keep Stafford upright, that needs to happen, whether it’s sixth offensive lineman or fullback Michael Burton playing 35 offensive snaps. If there is any hope left to save this season it starts Sunday night by building Stafford a pocket to work with.
Defending Peyton
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Peyton Manning dissect a defense. But while it seems like his physical game leaves him a little bit more every week for the last year, his preparation and in game decisions are still good enough to win football games.
Detroit is going to have a tough time hitting Manning, the ball will be gone quick out of the veterans hand. The Denver offensive line isn’t a great line by any means, the key for Detroit is the outside linebackers covering inside slant routes and corner-backs Darius Slay and Rashean Mathis having good games.
Detroit should also consider moving Darius Slay to stay on Demaryius Thomas all over the field as oppose to stay on their respective sides of the field.
Matthew Stafford putting the team on his back
I don’t want to put it all on Stafford, but it’s the only way they win. He will need to go out and have a three TD game with over 300 yards and not turn the football over for Detroit to win. Stafford has a tough bell to answer this game.
With a Secondary featuring T.J. Ward at safety and one of the better corner back duo’s in Chris Harris and Aqib Talib it’s a secondary fitted to stop good receiving cores. Add to that edge rushers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware are going to be in Stafford’s face it’s a daunting task.
The Lions are going to need their QB to find the 2nd and 3rd options on routes and command the field. Forcing the ball to Calvin Johnson is not a good recipe here, but a deep ball or two wouldn’t hurt after establishing Golden Tate or Eric Ebron on short routes or getting Ameer Abdullah involved in the passing game.