Mandatory Credit: Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

September… The bright blue skies of summer slowly transform into a kaleidoscope of scenery, as the days grow shorter, and the skies greyer. The saving grace, as we march toward the bitterness of another Michigan winter, is that the gaping void felt every Sunday afternoon will soon be satisfied once again.

The Detroit Lions enter the 2012 season in unfamiliar territory, having exceeded many experts’ expectations with their playoff berth in 2011. Success leads to higher standards, and higher standards breed pressure. The type of pressure the franchise hasn’t felt since 2000, when they followed up their 1999 playoff run with an improved 9-7 record, which was only good enough to finish 4^th in the NFC Central.

Steven Jackson vs. Lions interior 3

The Lions open the season as hosts to the St. Louis Rams, featuring new head coach (and Jim Schwartz mentor) Jeff Fisher. The Rams are devoid of weapons on the outside, and will rely heavily on the oft-injured Steven Jackson. A dedication to the run game will be magnified by Fisher, as he ushers in his old-school approach of playing great defense and controlling the ball, much like he did with Eddie George in Tennessee.

This will be a great test to open the season for a Jekyll and Hyde Detroit run defense. Detroit’s weak secondary will not allow Gunther Cunningham the advantage of putting eight men in the box, so the Lions will largely rely on the front seven to be stout in run defense. The Rams lack the explosiveness to exploit the Lion secondary, which means they will most likely rely on their inside power running game.

The keys for Detroit will be in the center of the defense, most notably Corey Williams, Ndamukong Suh, and Stephen Tulloch. Williams is a very consistent role player, constantly absorbing blocks so that Tulloch is free to fill running lanes. The question this Sunday will be whether Suh is finally ready to take on a support role, and play within the defensive scheme.

Calvin Johnson vs. Cortland Finnegan

 The St. Louis rams owned one of the league’s worst run defenses in 2011, and did little in the off season to improve the front seven. In fact, they focused on the secondary in the draft by taking the much maligned Janoris Jenkins to play opposite Cortland Finnegan at cornerback. Even with the porous run defense, it is unlikely that Detroit will have much success pounding the ball, as it simply isn’t in their nature or design. The Detroit game plan will revolve around Stafford and the passing game, and it will fall on the feisty Finnegan to slow down this year’s Madden cover boy.

Finnegan has a very aggressive style of play, often getting in the face of receivers at the line of scrimmage and using his physical strength to disrupt routes and timing. While most corners would modify their strategy against Johnson given his physical attributes, Finnegan’s confidence will most likely lead to him challenging Calvin at the line of scrimmage. St. Louis will have a safety bracketing Johnson on every play, so Finnegan can afford to gamble in press coverage as long as the Lions aren’t successful running the football. Calvin Johnson is as physically gifted as they come, and has been successful against every type of coverage that he has seen. Finnegan has a reputation as a dirty player, whose strategy is to get under the skin of opposing receivers and break their focus. Fortunately for Lions fans, Calvin Johnson isn’t just physically gifted, but also mentally composed. Cortland Finnegan simply isn’t strong enough to disrupt Johnson, and isn’t talented enough to stay with him. Expect Finnegan to be the one who loses his composure in this matchup.

Chris Long vs. Gosder Cherilus

If the Rams hope to leave Detroit with a victory, they will have to do one of two things. Either engage in a shootout and keep pace offensively with the Lions, or put Matthew Stafford on his back. The best chance that the Rams have for a consistent pass rush is newly extended defensive end Chris Long, who will be looking to build on his 13 sack season in 2011. Playing the left defensive end position, Long will be matched up with right tackle Gosder Cherilus. The arrival of rookie Riley Reiff was thought by some to be the end of Cherilus as a starter, but the incumbent fought hard and impressed coaches enough during the off-season to remain in the starting lineup to begin 2012.

Cherilus did not commit as many penalties in 2011 as in previous seasons, but did surrender 9 sacks in 16 games as a starter. He will have to show improvement throughout the season to keep Reiff on the sideline, and Chris Long will provide a solid litmus test right out of the gate.  The best case scenario for Detroit would be for Cherilus to show enough improvement to gain the confidence of the coaching staff, allowing Reiff take time to develop into a true left tackle in order to eventually replace the aging Jeff Backus.

Other matchups to watch

The Rams will surely try to exploit the decimated Lion secondary, which is a below average unit when healthy. With injuries to starters Chris Houston and Louis Delmas, the Lions will feature four new starters in the defensive backfield to begin 2012. Rookie Bill Bentley and off-season acquisition Jacob Lacey will man the corners, while Erik Coleman and John Wendling will get the nod at safety.

Fortunately for Detroit, the Rams receiving corps is hardly one to fear, and will be a reasonable challenge to break in the new unit, and allow Houston and Delmas to get healthy. St. Louis will start Danny Amendola and Brandon Gibson at wide-out, which should allow Gunther Cunningham to truly assess what he has in his secondary, including newly acquired Drayton Florence. If Sam Bradford is able to expose the Lion defensive backfield on Sunday with Amendola and Gibson, Stafford and company better get used to scoring on every possession this season.

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Both offenses should be able to score points in this matchup. If the Lions defensive front four can hurry rookie QB Sam Bradford, they should be able to come up with the necessary stops to win this game. On offense, the Lions will do just fine so long as Shaun Hill takes care of the ball. The Rams have won a couple of games, but they’re still not a good team. This is a need to win game for the Lions.

Latif: I expect a 30-17 Lions win.

The way I see it, the Lions won’t be able to stop Steven Jackson on the ground. The Lions are giving up 4.8 yards per carry through the first four weeks, and that trend will continue in week five. On the other hand, our corners, who are the biggest weakness on this team, will matchup favorably against the St. Louis Rams receivers, who I consider to be the worst receiving corp in the NFL. That means Sam Bradford won’t have too many places to go with the ball when the D-line does bring the pressure.

On offense, the Lions offensive line is good enough to pass protect against Chris Long and James Hall. The problem will be dealing with their blitzing linebackers, but any blitzes from the linebackers also leaves our tight ends open in the flat. Plus, Shaun Hill looked settled in as a starter last week and threw the ball very efficiently and showed great mobility against the best defense in the NFC. The Rams, although much improved defensive unit from last year, are nowhere near as good as the Packers, so I expect Hill to put up great numbers.

All in all, a lot of people are worried about the “Steven Jackson effect”. He literally won them the game last season, but the way I see it: Calvin Johnson cancels out Steven Jackson, so the Lions should be great shape to win their first game and they should win it with a sizable margin.

Zac: Lions get their first win, 30-27.

I will admit that my pick is made with my heart as much as my head. This is a game that almost everybody marked down as a win when the schedule came out and despite what has occurred so far, there is no reason that the Lions can’t win it. Unfortunately, there is also a strong possibility they won’t win it.

Shaun Hill has been good, not great, but I can’t honestly say that the Lions would be in a drastically different place if Matthew Stafford hadn’t gotten hurt. Hill has thrown some poorly timed interceptions but he has also kept the offense moving with surprising regularity. The offense should be able to put up some points once again.

The biggest variable comes on defense. Steven Jackson is a legitimate threat to do some serious damage. DeAndre Levy will be sorely missed once again and the pressure will be on the Lions defenders to bring down Jackson when they have the chance. Broken tackles and big gains will spell trouble. The front four hasn’t disappointed this year. Their ability to get to Sam Bradford and force some mistakes could be the difference in the game. Sack him, hit him, and knock him down time after time and see how he responds. He may be talented but he is still young.

That’s what we have to say, what are your predictions?