Lions vs. Seahawks: Full game preview by position
Week 8 sees the Detroit Lions face off against the Seattle Seahawks. Both teams have improved every week. But who has the advantage coming into the game?
The Detroit Lions are coming off of a win in which they dominated their Week Seven opponent, the Miami Dolphins, in almost every aspect of the game. Detroit now has to get ready for the Seattle Seahawks to come to town.
The Seahawks started out the season slow but, much like the Lions, have progressively improved every week (including going down to the wire with the powerhouse Los Angeles Rams). As the Lions prepare to face off against Seattle on Sunday, let’s take a look at which team has the edge at each position.
Offense
Quarterback
The Lions and Seahawks feature two highly respected quarterbacks in Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson. Stafford, outside of the week one disaster, has been nearly flawless and ruthlessly efficient this year. Wilson has played tremendously the past two weeks as well.
Stafford’s season stats are impressive with a 67.6 completion percentage, 1,602 yards, 12 touchdowns, five interceptions (four of those interceptions came in Week One vs. the Jets), and a 98.8 quarterback rating.
Wilson’s season stats are equally impressive as he is completing 64.2% completion percentage, 1,308 yards, 13 touchdowns, four interceptions, and a whopping 104.8 quarterback rating.
Stafford has been more accurate with the football and leads Wilson in just about every statistical category. The Lions’ passer has better pocket awareness and is less likely to abandon the pocket prematurely than his counterpart.
Wilson is more mobile and can extend plays like you’ve never seen, which makes it harder on defensive lineman to track him down for the sack and harder on the secondary as they have to maintain their coverage longer.
Both quarterbacks have been good in their own right this year, and are facing defenses that can be beaten through the air. However, only one has recorded six-straight games with a quarterback rating over 100 … and that’s Stafford. He is simply on another level now that he has good protection and a running game that isn’t at the bottom of the league (this year it is top fifteen).
Advantage: Lions