Saturday, September 6, 2008

Lions Preview Atlanta

The Detroit Lions website had a pretty well rounded, pre-game breakdown for Atlanta -- and due to personal time constraints (and the start of Soccer Season for my girls) I saw no real reason to recap the piece in its' entirety.

One phrase I laughed at was Roy Williams saying their two young corners would be a challenge. I looked at their stats, and found some interesting things:

Calvin Johnson is 6-5 -- a full 7 inches taller than starting LCB Brent Grimes , and 6 inches taller than starting RCB Chris Houston. He also has, at 235 pounds, has 50 Lbs on Grimes and 60 Lbs on Houston. And he runs a faster 40 time than either one. As a matter of fact, at 6-0 216 Lawyer Milloy (34 yrs old) is the biggest guy in their secondary -- and he is slower than both Grimes and Houston.

Roy might have a bit of a challenge as at 6-2 216, he only has about 4 inches and 30lbs on grimes and 3 inches and 40 lbs on Houston. Milloy is pretty close to him in size. Either way, if they bring the safeties to double the two guys on the outside (assuming that will stop them) who is going to stop the run?

The Lions can take 4 guys out of it by sending out Roy and CJ on even a moderate route, and still have a FB and a TE in to block for the run, or to catch short curls, etc against LB coverage, and if they go to a nickle, look for Smith and RJ to run it through the gut for big chunks. As soon as the safeties cheat up, the "Trees" as Marinelli refers to them as will have someone single covered by a (relatively speaking) Midget.

That's how it's supposed to work, so while Roy is being PC in his statement, and doing what Rod wants by focusing in on each snap, and not underestimating his opponent... In the back of his mind, he's thinking "First Down, Endzone baby."

And well they should. 13 hours til Filmseason kicks off.

Go Lions!!

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