Lions vs Saints - Playoffs Wildcard Game

The Saints have not lost at home. The Saints are dominating at home. The Saints are one of the favorites to win the Superbowl. The Saints have Drew Brees who broke the NFL record for passing yards in a season. The Detroit Lions don't have a chance to beat the Saints.

Yeah, I get sick of hearing that too!

Try taking these facts out for a test drive....

1) Drew Brees is the top ranked quarterback in passing yards and the Lions pass defense is the 22nd ranked defense in passing yards. A difference of 21 spots. On the other hand, Matthew Stafford is the #3 QB in passing yards while the Saints defense ranks at #30 in passing yards allowed. A difference of 27 spots. Advantage: LIONS

2) The Detroit Lions are 4th in the NFL in Turn Over Ratio at +11, while the Saints are 20th at a ratio of -3. Advantage: LIONS

3) As great as Brees has been, he has thrown 14 picks this year and he has been healthy all year. On the other side of the ball, 9 of Stafford's 16 picks came while he was playing with gloves on dealing with a broken index finger on his throwing hand. Take those three games away and Stafford has been far better at protecting the ball than Brees has. Advantage: LIONS

4) The last time these teams met, the Lions were without Louis Delmas, Chris Houston and Ndamukong Suh. All three will be back this week.

The Saints are favored as they should be, but make no mistakes, the Lions will not be walked over. The Lions offense is nearly as good as the Saints offense and lately maybe as good or better. If they come out clicking as they have in games late in the season, they will score plenty of points on the Saints defense. The real question will be on which Detroit Lions defense shows up.

The way to beat ANY quarterback in the NFL is to get in his face with pressure. The Lions front four needs to have a good day. If they cannot get pressure on Brees, the pressure will be on Cunningham to start taking chances and blitzing. Even if he gets burnt! The very last thing the Lions want to do is allow Drew Brees time to sit back comfortably and pick open receivers. The Lions must get to him and get to him fast and often! If the defensive line does not create a lot of pressure and Cunningham refuses to blitz to help them? Game over!

Let us make another thing clear right here and now. The Lions defense is not as bad as the unit we saw in Green Bay! That was their worst outing of the season and it simply should not be expected to happen a second week in a row. The front four will usually put more pressure on the quarterbacks, the secondary will usually make more plays and all in all, they are much better than we saw in that game. Having Delmas and Berry back on the field should make a big difference all on its own.

If the Lions defense plays like I know they can, and the offense plays well, this could very well be a Lions play-off win. In fact, I think that is what will happen!