Pride of Detroit
After the Detroit Lions blew out the Chicago Bears, fans started to gain confidence that the team we’ve been used to seeing over the last three years was back. After their gutsy win over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday, the Lions looked all the way back. In our latest confidence survey, 99 percent of Lions fans said they were confident in the direction of the team.
This week, the Lions are back home against the Cleveland Browns in a game they’re currently favored by 9.5 points. The Browns don’t have much of anything on offense—their 46 points scored (30th) is less than the Lions put up in all of Week 2 against the Bears. However, their defense is punishing and could threaten to shut down Detroit’s essential run game.
So today’s Question of the Day is:
My answer: I am a firm believer in “any given Sunday,” so I almost would never hand out a 9 or 10 out 10 confidence level, and I certainly won’t be this week when the Browns’ run defense has a real chance to swing this game. That said, it feels like Cleveland’s best hope on offense is through rookie running back Quinshon Judkins, and the Lions are pretty dang good at stopping the run, too.
So if, theoretically, both teams are able to shut down the other team’s running game, the result of the matchup could simply go down to who has the better passing attack. Detroit has been very efficient through the air this year, while the Browns have not.
As Lions coach Dan Campbell has said several times this year, the Lions are figuring out how many different ways they can win football games. They’ve already proven they can win shootouts, they can win with their passing offense, run offense, and can even win with some strong defensive efforts at times. The Browns, meanwhile, can only seemingly win with their defense.
Put that all together, and I’m at like a 6.5 or 7 out of 10 confident the Lions beat the Browns.
Where is your confidence level at? Share your score in the comment section at the bottom of the page and explain your answer!
