Lions vs Patriots Pregame Week-12

The Detroit Lions will host the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving this year. Every season there is talk of the Lions losing their annual holiday game and this year is no different. With the Lions lack of success in recent years, it is understandable. After all, why would the NFL want to display the likes of the Detroit Lions on national TV on Thanksgiving? The best the NFL can do to raise their ratings however is to put a good team against the Lions that people outside of Michigan would want to watch. This year it is Tom Brady and the Patriots.

There are fans who believe the Lions will put up a good game only to fall short yet again. There are fans who think the Patriots will dismember the Lions and scatter the bones. There are even those who believe the Lions will win this game, though to be honest, those are far and few between.

Seriously, does anyone believe that Linehan will suddenly start having Hill throwing the ball 15 yards down field rather than only seven? That Calvin Johnson will be utilized as more than a short route decoy? That they will finally come up with the idea of using a fullback as a lead blocker to open up some running room?

Does anyone believe that if the defensive line cannot get to Brady that Cunningham will start blitzing more than twice a quarter? That he will disguise his rare blitz rather than showing the offense who is coming so they can be picked up and blocked? Does anyone truly believe that even if the Lions have a lead, that Gunther will not go into the "Prevent the Win" defense?

I don't believe any of that. I don't believe you believe it either. You know why? Because when a team does the same thing over and over and over and over again, there is no reason not to believe they will just do the same thing yet again.

The Lions will throw down field for one and maybe two drives early on. They will score a touchdown and maybe even get the lead. Cunningham will then revert back to his conservative ways because after all, there is no sense in continuing to do what works and spread the lead is there?

After the first half, the Lions defensive line will be getting tired from being on the field so much. They will not be pressuring Tom Brady very much and Gunther will leave them to continue just rushing the quarterback without any help. If the Lions are up, he will use the prevent defense and if the Lions are behind, he will continue to allow Brady all day to find wide open receivers because, after all, we don't want to get burnt by him if we blitz right? Much better to let one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL to have extra time to pick and choose where to throw the ball.

As always the Lions will not be able to run the ball, but Linehan will not use the fullback for anything more than running the ball three times and pass blocking. As the run game fails to produce, yet again, he will continue to force the run. As always it will be painfully obvious to everyone else that Dominic Raiola just does not have the power to get a push on short yardage plays, but Linehan will not see that and continue to run the ball up the gut on 3rd down and 1 yard to go. Only to punt the ball on 4th down and 3 yards to go.

And as always, the Lions will keep it close. They will play up to one notch below their competitions level. They will have a chance to win in the fourth quarter but once again they will fall just short.

As with most other games, the refs will call a couple penalties that will leave everybody's jaws dropped to the floor as they watch and re-watch the slow motion replay and for some reason not be able to see any infraction. But it was there in the refs eyes somehow.

In the end, the Lions will lose yet another close game and the fans will say that the Lions are just as bad as ever, or that the refs stole another one, or maybe that the coach blew it again. They will scream that it was the penalties that lost the game, or that it was the lack of running game that lost it. One thing is for sure however. The Lions will lose and likely all of the above reasons will have good arguments.

Detroit - 23
New England - 30