Detroit Lions: What will we learn about the defense Friday night?

The Detroit Lions will play their first preseason game under Matt Patricia Friday night in Oakland. What can we expect from the defense?

Friday night the Detroit Lions will take the field and actually play a game. That’s right, the NFL exhibition season has arrived and we will all be treated to semi-real football.

Sure we won’t see the starters all that much except perhaps in the third game which is considered the ‘dress rehearsal’. We also won’t see a lot of continuity.

Generally speaking, the preseason is the proving grounds for players that are trying to make their respective teams. They desperately will try to make a handful of plays that will catch the coaches eye and hopefully allow them to win a job and fulfill their dream of playing in the NFL.

For fans, the dream is a little different. They hope for their team to look fairly coordinated, stay healthy and be good enough to contend when the bright lights of the regular season start to shine.

For Lions fans, it is the start of another season filled with hope. The dream that ‘maybe next year’ will have finally arrived to erase the bitter memories of so many disappointing seasons that have come and gone before.

That the pipe dream will be achieved and Lions fans will finally watch their beloved team hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy and proclaim themselves world champions.

As we prepare to dip our toes in the waters of Lions exhibition play, this particular season seems to have stirred up more hope than many of its predecessors.

The arrival of Matt Patricia, the additions to the offense that are expected to improve the ground game and thereby benefit the passing attack and of course the expectation that Patricia will work a miracle with the Lions defense as he brings the multiple defense philosophy with him from New England.

Having said all that, it leads us to the very reasonable question of; what will the Lions defense look like tomorrow night?