4 Detroit Lions who must shine in Week 6 against the Dallas Cowboys
The Detroit Lions sit at 3-1 coming off their Week 5 bye, and they'll travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys on Sunday. This is the third straight season the Lions will be visiting Arlington, having lost the first two. Of course last year's game late in the season had quite the controversial finish.
The Cowboys have won two in a row, but neither was very pretty, to put themselves a 3-2 on the season.
It should be a high-scoring game late Sunday afternoon, and the betting odds surely back that up with the highest over-under (52.5) on FanDuel Sportsbook for this week's NFL slate. This is were we might say to start all your Lions and Cowboys in fantasy football this week, but there is one on the Lions' side that feels iffy automatically.
How good the Cowboys are this year is debatable. What isn't debatable is how meaningful a road win on Sunday would be for the Lions, as they would then head into a matchup against the currently undefeated Minnesota Vikings in Week 7.
If the Lions are going to have their best chance to win on Sunday, these four players have to shine.
4 Detroit Lions who must shine in Week 6 against the Cowboys
4. DE Josh Paschal
Sunday is something of a full circle moment for Paschal. After surgery to repair an injury from his final season at Kentucky delayed the start of his rookie season, he made his NFL debut against the Cowboys in Week 7 of the 2022 season.
In Week 4 against Seattle, unsurprisingly after both Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn pointed to him having a clear opportunity in the wake of Marcus Davenport's likely season-ending injury, Paschal played as season-high 53 snaps with three quarterback pressures.
Heading into this week's game. Glenn set the bar for Paschal.
"That's something that I talked about when Davenport went down, that (Paschal) is going to have to step up. I expect more from that player and he's expecting more from himself," Glenn said, via Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News. "And yes, he did a really good job against Seattle, but the thing is we have to consistently be able to do that, week in and week out. I'm looking forward to seeing how he's going to come out this week, and I know he's going to do a good job.
Campbell and Glenn have both hinted that Paschal's impact doesn't necessarily show up big on the stat sheet. But he primary lined up on the right edge against Seattle, and if that holds against the Cowboys that means he'll be regularly lined up against Cowboys' rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton. Guyton enters Week 6 with a 49.0 pass blocking grade from Pro Football Focus.
If Paschal is going to have a breakout performance, this sure looks like the week that's ripe for it to happen.