How can this Detroit Lions team take a step forward with their game against the Seattle Seahawks?
Week 3 found the Detroit Lions returning to the win column, knocking off the Arizona Cardinals to get back on the right side of .500.
This week, the Seattle Seahawks come to Ford Field for a primetime matchup on “Monday Night Football”—and what Lions fans hope will be an exorcism of sorts. Under coach Dan Campbell, the Lions have yet to beat the Seahawks, losing in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
So for Thursday’s Question of the Day, we revisit this kind of question…
How do the Detroit Lions take another step forward in Week 4?
It’s been quite the news week surrounding this football team. Everything from how some early-season injuries will test the depth in Detroit to the head coach needing to uproot his family and move because teenagers and Snapchat are a worse combination than the Chicago Bears and quarterbacks.
It’s been a week, as I said.
If you’re interested in watching must-win sports, tune into the Detroit Tigers this weekend to get your fix. It’s not even October yet, so there’s no such thing as a “must-win” game in the NFL unless you’re the Cincinnati Bengals, sitting at 0-3, staring down the barrel of the Red Rifle’s Revenge. But certainly not for the Detroit Lions.
3-1 doesn’t guarantee you win another playoff game. It doesn’t get you back to the NFC Championship game. It doesn’t punch your ticket to Louisiana for the Super Bowl.
But winning does prevent an extended case of the Bye Week Blues, and if the Lions can kill two birds—err, one bird and one Seahawk—with one stone, boy, wouldn’t that be something to see Detroit exact revenge against a Seattle team that has relentlessly bullied them for the past few years.
In order for the Lions to take another step forward this week, they’re going to need two things: Ben Johnson at his craftiest against a tough defense and Jared Goff to play a complete game from start to finish, free of the momentary lapses (read: turnovers). There’s not much room for issues with diagnosing simulated pressure and identifying coverages—like with that interception in Arizona—-because that’s all Mike Macdonald’s defense is about. A game plan that helps keep him upright against the team that leads the NFL in pressures according to PFF, despite possibly being without Frank Ragnow at center.
The offense’s slow start has been a product of some questionable play-calling/sequencing at times, and Goff turning the football over. The stretch of clean football he played in 2022 was never going to be sustainable, but his play in 2023 was about as good as you could expect when it came to taking care of the ball. With the way Detroit’s defense is playing—think of the Arizona game specifically—you can rationalize the conservative feel to the way Detroit handled the second half. Protect the football and protect the lead by winning the field position battle—shoutout Jack Fox.
It’ll be up to Ben Johnson and Jared Goff to get this offense back up and running at full speed. And the offense was something all of us were counting on to be humming from the start. They’ve slightly underwhelmed through three weeks, but there’s a matchup waiting on Monday that gives them the opportunity to take on one of the most impressive defense’s in the NFL. Creating a game plan and executing on offense will go a long way towards building some peace of mind as we head into the one-week hiatus.
