Rams @ Lions - Game 5

[ajaX82]

The first must win of the Schwartz era possibly. A loss here would look pretty awful and we would be missing out on one of our few remaining winnable games.

Though obviously St. Louis has done a remarkable job turning themselves around, so this isn't nearly the pillow fight of the week it seemed like it would be 5 weeks ago

Im going with a win here, 31-27 in a really close one

[motorcity15]

Yea I agree this is a must win for us. I believe its a must win for the Rams too. A win against us would separate them from the bottom of the NFL and give them life for a playoff push. I expect this to be a good ass game. I hope the D line pressures bradford enough to make rookie mistakes

also im not sure if Burleson is coming back finally ready to contribute

I got the Lions 28 - 20

[kellmellus50]

My crystal ball says the lions will continue to kick field goals and fall just short once again.

[Liqourish]

Rams have been very fortunate with their schedule so far. We'll be the best team they'll face to date. Lions will win for 3 (maybe 4 ) reasons.

1. Lions are starving for a win. Coming close to 4 good teams late in the 4th quarter have left a bitter taste in their mouths. Rams are the first bad team they'll face.

2. Lions are at home. Finally, we're home for a game and not on the road against a division rival.

3. Lions want revenge for last years blunder. I don't think anyone from Mayhew, Schwartz, Linehan, Cunningham down to Stafford, Calvin, Delmas, etc will forget the fake FG that lost us a very winnable game last season.

4. (If Stafford returns) We'd be at almost full strength for the first time this season. We've seen what we can do with injuries across the board, how good will we be once our roster in active for the same game?

[Icness]

nice post Liqourish.

I would add:
--Rams have far and away the best OL the Lions have seen thus far. We'll see how dynamic the DL can be against a better line. I like the matchup of Suh and Williams against their guards in pass protect.
--The Rams found themselves a legit #2 RB in Kenneth Darby and he's the kind of runner that gives the Lions fits--he's patient behind his blocks and then explodes out of the fray.
--Bradford has impressed this skeptic, but their receiving options are very limited. If the corners can't handle these guys, they're beyond hope.

I think the Lions will win this one but as I wrote this week these Rams are not as fluky as a lot of people think. Their coaching staff has a great feel for how to use the limited talent they have.

[Liqourish]

^ I don't think they are fluky, but I do think they've benefitted from a generous schedule through the first 4 weeks. Actually, they have a fairly easy schedule throughout the year.

Rams scare me in three areas:

1. Sam Bradford is making a living with short passes that his guys are expanding with YAC. He won't hurt you deep, he'll hurt you in the middle of the field, which doesn't bode well against our horrible linebackers and safties.

2. The Rams have a very solid run game. Our run defense is improved, but it's still likely to give up one or two massive plays each game that really hurt us.

3. Rams have a decent secondary. I think Calvin will be okay if we look to him often, but they won't make it easy. I think involving our TEs and RBs with screens like we did against Green Bay is the best way to attack them.

I'm not worry about their O-line. Yes, it's good, but our D-line has been even better. I also think pressuring Bradford will help us. He's poise for a rookie, but our D-line was able to rattle Vick despite his scrambling ability and get Aaron Rodgers to throw a few INTs. Bradford is good, but he doesn't have the mobility or field awareness of the QBs our D-line has gone up against so far.

I don't think it will be a blow out or easy victory, but I really like the Lions chances of finally clinching their first W.

Also, Schwartz has said that he might start Alphonso Smith next to Chris Houston on Sunday. This would help us quite a bit considering how awful Wade has looked since preseason ended. Now if only they'd start Spievey or CC Brown.

[ajaX82]

^ I don't think they are fluky, but I do think they've benefitted from a generous schedule through the first 4 weeks. Actually, they have a fairly easy schedule throughout the year.

Rams scare me in three areas:

1. Sam Bradford is making a living with short passes that his guys are expanding with YAC. He won't hurt you deep, he'll hurt you in the middle of the field, which doesn't bode well against our horrible linebackers and safties.

2. The Rams have a very solid run game. Our run defense is improved, but it's still likely to give up one or two massive plays each game that really hurt us.

3. Rams have a decent secondary. I think Calvin will be okay if we look to him often, but they won't make it easy. I think involving our TEs and RBs with screens like we did against Green Bay is the best way to attack them.

I'm not worry about their O-line. Yes, it's good, but our D-line has been even better. I also think pressuring Bradford will help us. He's poise for a rookie, but our D-line was able to rattle Vick despite his scrambling ability and get Aaron Rodgers to throw a few INTs. Bradford is good, but he doesn't have the mobility or field awareness of the QBs our D-line has gone up against so far.

I don't think it will be a blow out or easy victory, but I really like the Lions chances of finally clinching their first W.

Also, Schwartz has said that he might start Alphonso Smith next to Chris Houston on Sunday. This would help us quite a bit considering how awful Wade has looked since preseason ended. Now if only they'd start Spievey or CC Brown.

You're right about Bradford on the middle routes and that is going to be a big problem imo. Someone like Danny Amendola is going to have a 8/80 kinda game im thinking. That combined with a few big SJax runs will be some trouble

Hopefully is we pressure him hard he will make some rook throws into coverage. He is almost inevitably going to throw a few dumb ones...we just need to capitalize.

Their D doesnt concern me all that much...even with Shaun Hill we should be able to get ours.

[kellmellus50]

My prediction comes true the lions are hitting field goals

logan 105 yard kick-off TD

Johnson finally hangs on for TD

[ajaX82]

Excellent first half. Logans return was nasty. Defense actually looks decent. Gotta be pleased with most things except for the stupid penalties

[TSE]

Not bad for Logan, I guess he saw my post on another board where I just recommended to cut him in order to pick up Devin Thomas, I'm still recommending that, so I guess he needs to do it one more time.

Wow the Rams suck as a team, and we are playing well because we are playing it the easy way and the simple way. When the game gets too complicated and we try to get too fancy, we are in over our heads because we can't figure out the complex stuff, but sticking to the basics and the simple plays and schemes, it seems to give us less opportunity to be in a potential situation to make mistakes. This approach of not going out of our way to make stupid decisions and manufacture illogical situations and responses is much more pleasing on the eye.

Interesting choice to throw the ball to CJ a lot. That strategy seems to work pretty well. Here's some interesting stats on target percentage which show that CJ is way too low when he should be in the top 5, and now we are playing more to our strength today.

http://wp.advancednflstats.com/playerstats.php?pos=WR (sort by target %, he's 19th going into the game at 23.1%, let's see if that moves up after the game?)

[kellmellus50]

The lons will keep logan after that run but i would be willing to cut Derric Williams to pick up Devin Thomas.

[TSE]

The lons will keep logan after that run but i would be willing to cut Derric Williams to pick up Devin Thomas.

Ehh, not a fan of cutting DW only because we haven't given him a shot to play enough yet. That's why we should have given him more opportunities to see the field in the past, so that the decision to keep him or cut him would be clearer today than it is. We still have time, but at some point this season we have to find out what he's worth, and the only guarantee for certain is that NOT playing a guy will NOT get you a certain answer as to what a player is worth. If it were me, Burleson and Johnson would be trade bait and both of them would be gone to open up those spots to younger players, while getting something in return to help other positions for the long-term. But if nobody is willing to trade for them, then that's just confirmation that we overpaid them too much, which means then we should be open minded to cutting them. You never want to keep players on your roster that you are willing to pay more than 31 other teams are willing to pay. We can't figure out how to stay out of those situations in the first place, and are slow to correcting them.

[kellmellus50]

Calvin Johnson has a shoulder injury so we have to keep Derric Williams now.

[ajaX82]

We are whipping them good today boy

[kellmellus50]

bring on the N.Y Giants

[TSE]

It's refreshing to see the Alphonso INT. He was a guy that one way or another found a way to come up with picks in college, and now he's doing it in the NFL. And it just goes to show you how nice it is to scoop up former high draft picks that haven't been tested or given ample opportunity when they don't cost you hardly anything at all to obtain, and the value in the event that they are good is a huge payoff unlike the vast majority of the other types of players we go after. If we made more moves like that a few years ago, then our team would have a bounty of extra wealth in the form of more good players, some of which would have been traded for by picking up and dealing low-risk high-return fringe players. We have missed dozens and dozens of these opportunities and we still do a bad job of milking the advantages that teams with bad records get. Which is why I am still pulling for a Devin Thomas pickup since it has very little opportunity to hurt us in any way, yet could yield another big return. He was 3rd in the NFL in KR average for guys with 12+ returns going into this week, plus he's a big fast guy that could end up being a solid WR.

[Liqourish]

OMFG, I thought the Lions were in great position to beat the Rams, but I didn't expect a royal butt-kicking. We got alot out of alot of guys.

Shaun Hill has been getting better each week. He's arguably the best backup QB in the league.

Our corners don't look to bad, especially with Alphonso Smith starting over Jonathan Wade. Smith just makes plays. Chris Houston was good too.

Suh with the tipped pass, INT and run was a thing of beauty. This is what the big guy does. He did it in college and he's now doing it in the pros. What a great pick he was, however obvious it may have been.

Our O-line deserves some praise. We've been one of the most pass happy teams in the league and they've protected our QB as well as you could ask. They need to cut out the false starts and penalties, but they are doing their job out there.

I really don't think this team is too far away from being an above average team. We need linebacking help, secondary help and depth, but I like the progress I see on the field. This team is moving forward and has a foundation in place. They just need to continue building on.

I still think 5 or 6 wins isn't out of the question this year. We need to go into Meadowlands focused and on top of our game. It won't be an easy game, but it could be a winnable game. Would be nice going into the BYE with a win streak.

[motorcity15]

Yea 5 or 6 wins is very realistic for this team, Great Win ESPN was so high on the rams and Bradford that its good that we gave them a reason to talk about us, hope this win gives them the confidence to do so.

Im so glad they're giving Alphonso Smith more playing time, he's earning that contract.

Regarding Injuries...

Does anybody no if Calvin Johnson shoulder will be something that will linger or is he fine ?

I also heard/read that Stafford has been throwing and doing some small drills... With how solid Hill is playing should we just let Hill play into the bye week even if Stafford seems ready ?

[TSE]

I really don't think this team is too far away from being an above average team. We need linebacking help, secondary help and depth, but I like the progress I see on the field. This team is moving forward and has a foundation in place. They just need to continue building on.

This is true to some extent, but that doesn't sound encouraging to me. There is still no excuse for how long it has taken, and how long it is still taking to transition to a great team, and our overall spot and expected ending spots for the next several years to me are still way too low for what they should be, so that really is more of a negative than a positive. But to just focus on the positives, well there's definitely a great opportunity to improve a lot by next year cause we have a lot more young and usable talented players than we have ever had and we are going to get another above average bounty of more young prospects. We have one of the better rosters in the NFL in terms of having very few truly old players that are key players. Not many teams can say they have less upcoming holes to fill as us. We pretty much have a good next 2 years of not losing much valuable player talent, and we will have another nice set or two of fresh young players, so it's inevitable for us to have significant improvements in the near future. No matter what this team does this year, they will have an obvious talent advantage on paper next year and the year after, while a lot of teams will have to be smart and lucky to get there or to prevent from leaving there.

[TSE]

I also heard/read that Stafford has been throwing and doing some small drills... With how solid Hill is playing should we just let Hill play into the bye week even if Stafford seems ready ?

At 1-4 it would be quite foolish to try to rush Stafford back early if there is any chance that it could harm him for the long-term. Even if we win, the odds to make the playoffs will be rather long, and the gain in chance to win to get that longshot from Hill to Stafford is rather inconsequential to me. Play the backup (either one since we have TWO of the best backup QBs in the league ), and hope to get lucky is the only decision.