What You Need to Know About the Lions

Overview: The Redskins head into the 3rd game of the season desperate for a win. Unfortunately, they face a Lions team that causes some serious matchup problems. Primarily the Lions have the best wide receiver in the game in Calvin Johnson. To make it worse Johnson has a talented quarterback throwing him the ball. Stafford may not be on the same level as Aaron Rodgers but he is very good and improved from a year ago. The Lions also have added Reggie Bush who has the ability to create big plays. On the defensive side of the ball the Lions have an impressive defensive line. A group that included Ndamukong Suh. The inside of the Lions DL will likely cause havoc for the Redskins interior offensive line that struggled against the Packers.

Offense: As I mentioned before the Lions have Calvin Johnson. He is the biggest threat by far and someone that the Redskins don't really have an answer for. The Redskins secondary is clearly it's biggest weakness and will need to find a way to slow Megatron down. Fortunately, outside of Calvin Johnson the Lions' receiving core isn't overly impressive. Ryan Broyles and Nate Burleson aren't awful but they also aren't players that cause much fear in defenses. In fact, going into this game Reggie Bush is 2nd in receiving yards behind Johnson. Matthew Stafford has avoided the interceptions so far this year and has a much higher completions percentage. However, it's unrealistic to expect him to continue this kind of path. This is not to say that he hasn't improved but it is likely that his interceptions will return. Hopefully, this will be something the Redskins can exploit.

Reggie Bush is extremely talented and can be used as a receiver out of the backfield. However, he isn't a bell cow kind of back and isn't very durable. The Redskins will need to limit big plays with strong tackling. Bush also has some injury problems coming into this game so it will be interesting to see how healthy he really is.

Ultimately, the Redskins will need to focus their energy on stopping Calvin Johnson. The goal will be for the Redskins to force the other receivers to make big plays.

Defense: The Lions have a fairly mediocre defense. Suh and company have a lot of talent and will likely cause trouble for the offensive line especially in pass protection. However, this defense was also 6th in points allowed last season. They have improved so far this season but one of there opponent was a Vikings team with Christian Ponder at quarterback.

The Redskins will need to get the passing game going early if they want to open holes for Alfred Morris. With the exception of one 78 yard touchdown the Lions only allowed 15 yards on 17 carries to Adrian Peterson in week 1. Part of the reason they were able to do this is Ponder isn't much of a threat through the air and so far RGIII hasn't been one during the first half of games.

Week 3 Prediction: The Redskins have been horrible so far this year and if they continue to play like they have it isn't likely that this game will be close. If they can at least start to resemble the team we all loved last year then this becomes a very winnable game. There is no doubt that the Lions have talent but there are reasons why thy only won 4 games last year. Calvin Johnson is a big threat and I honestly don't know if the Redskins have a secondary to stop him without double and triple coverage most of the day. This will force the other corners and linebackers to step up and play well one on one with the Lions other receivers. Reggie Bush is also going to make the defense pay if they don't tackle much better than they have so far. On offense RGIII has shown some improvement but I think it is time to let him run. He needs to be safe and slide/run out of bounds but this offense isn't the same when there isn't the threat of RGIII running. I really expect the offense to have a big game sometime soon and while I'm not entirely convinced it will be this game I am going to hope for the best. This is a must win game and the Redskins will need to put up a lot of points to win this one.

Redskins 38, Lions 31