Given that it has been a decade since the Lions had any sort of national respect it might be easy for some to discount the accomplishments of Calvin Johnson and Ndamukong Suh, especially since Suh is just a rookie. Doug Farrar of Yahoo’s NFL blog, The Shutdown Corner, reviewed the NFC starters and gave their take on who should have received the honor.

(more…)

Photo: www.visioncompanies.com

The fans have spoken.  Announced tonight were the rosters for the upcoming 2011 Pro Bowl.  The Pro Bowl will be played January 30th, in Honolulu which is one week before the Super Bowl.  For the first time since 2004, the Detroit Lions are pleased to send two– not only players, but starters to Hawaii.  Detroit Lion’s WR Calvin Johnson along side DT Ndamukong Suh will make their first career appearances in Honolulu.

(more…)

Photo: YardBarker.com

This week, the Detroit Lions will be facing off against a surprising 2-7 Dallas Cowboys team. The last few years, the Cowboys defense was coached and coordinated by their head coach Wade Philips, but since he was fired two weeks ago, Paul Pasqualoni has taken over. Pasqualoni was the Dolphins defensive coordinator for the last two seasons, so he is an experienced play caller and is quite qualified for the position. Where Wade Philips and Paul Pasqualoni differ is their demeanor. While Philips was known for being the “player’s coach”, Pasqualoni is known for being tough on his players and preaching discipline. Last week, a lot of Pasqualoni’s style of coaching showed up on the field as the Dallas defense held the Giants 6^th ranked offense to just 20 points.

Schematically, nothing has changed between Pasqualoni’s defense that the Lions are going to face and Wade Phillips’ defense. The Dallas Cowboys will regularly be in a 3-4 defensive set, but they play a ton of 4-3 and 5-2 sets also (probably the most in the league). While you could call the Dallas defense a zone blitz defense, I think the best way to describe what the Cowboys do defensively would be to call it a Tampa-2 version of the 3-4 defense. In the regular Tampa 2, which is run out of a 4-3 set, the middle linebacker is almost like a midfielder in soccer as he almost always drops back to shallower depths than middle linebackers normally would and tries to take away the middle of the field.

In Dallas’s defensive scheme, Brady James and Keith Brooking almost always play that role as they will often drop back into coverage. This is really why I call Dallas’s defense the Tampa 2 version of the 3-4. Other defenses around the NFL like the Steelers and Jets do things that are similar, but you can expect all four linebackers of both of those teams to blitz at some point.  On the other hand, DeMarcus Ware will almost always (if not all the time) rush the passer, even though he is an outside linebacker. The only guy that will consistently drop back into pass coverage and rush the passer is Anthony Spencer. In addition to that, the corners and safeties play a zone coverage scheme most of the time. (more…)