The Detroit Lions won a little ugly again in Week 3 on the road against the Arizona Cardinals, 20-13 as the defense and NFC Special Teams Player of the Week Jack Fox played the lead roles in the second half.
In Week 4 the 3-0 Seattle Seahawks are coming to Ford Field for a Monday night game. The credibility of that undefeated mark can be questioned, given the Seahawks have faced the Denver Broncos with a rookie quarterback making his first start, the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins without Tua Tagovailoa. But make no mistake there is plenty of talent on the Seattle roster, on both sides of the ball.
The Lions are playing the Seahawks for the fourth straight season under Dan Campbell, and they've lost the first three times. The two teams are different this year though, with Detroit adding talent to a notably weak area of their defense and Mike Macdonald replacing Pete Carrol as the head coach in Seattle.
If the Lions are going to end their losing streak against the Seahawks on Monday night, these five players have to shine.
4 Lions who must shine in Week 4 vs. the Seahawks
4. TE Sam LaPorta
After suffering a sprained right ankle in Week 3, LaPorta looks to be good to go for Monday night. He is off to a slow start this season (eight catches for 94 yards), but he has acknowledged his days will come to be a prominent target in the Lions' offense.
Against the Seahawks is lined up to be one of LaPorta's days. However skewed by Hunter Henry's eight catches for 109 yards in Week 2, Seattle is in the bottom-10 of the league (as in, allowing among the most) in receptions and yards allowed to tight ends. That small sample carries over from the last few seasons, albeit with a new coaching staff, where the Seahawks were one of the most generous teams to opposing tight ends.
Seattle's cornerbacks have spearheaded their No.1-ranked pass defense. Not that Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams won't do anything notable on Monday night, but a healthy LaPorta has a favorable situation he needs to take advantage of.
LaPorta fantasy managers who have been patient, by necessity when it comes down to it, should be rewarded this week.
3. OL Graham Glasgow
With Frank Ragnow (partially torn pectoral) out for Monday night's game, the assumption is Glasgow will move over to center like he did in the two games Ragnow missed last season. Glasgow talked this week about the mental adjustment of playing center, but it's not something that is daunting for him.
Seattle's interior defensive line is formidable, but also banged up with Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy and Johnathan Hankins all on the injury report this week. Williams and Murphy will be out Monday night.
The Seahawks haven't blitzed much over their first three games (19,2 percent; eighth-lowest rate in the league), but they are at or near the top of the league in every other metric related to pressure on the quarterback (hurry rate, knockdown rate, pressure rate).
We know what pressure, especially quick pressure up the middle, does to Jared Goff. Keeping a clean pocket for him this week starts with Glasgow as the new man in the middle, so he needs to be proficient mentally and strong physically-a reasonable facsimile of Ragnow, to put it succinctly.
2. DE Josh Paschal
With Marcus Davenport going on IR and likely done for the season, head coach Dan Campbell and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn have both named Paschal as the one with the clearest opportunity to step up.
"The guys that's behind those (injured) guys got to step up, and the guys I'm thinking about — Josh Paschal is the first guy that comes to my mind," defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said on Friday, via Richard Silva of the Detroit News.
Paschal's career has been set off-course by injuries over his first two seasons, and he hasn't played a ton over the first three games this season (53 snaps). But opportunity is knocking loudly, and he should have favorable matchups to take advantage of because of who else will be occupying blocks on the Lions' defensive front.
It's time Paschal starts to show the potential that made him a top-50 overall pick in the 2022 draft, it's just been a matter of when he might get a full chance to do so. There are no health or opportunity excuses now, and the Lions' coaching staff clearly expects him to step up. Monday night is the starting point for him to change the early narrative of his career, or eventually confirm it.
1. CB Terrion Arnold
It'd be easy to just cheat a little and just put the entire reshaped Lions' secondary here, going against the Seahawks third-ranked pass offense. But a lot of attention has been placed on the rookie Arnold, for better or worse, so let's narrow down to him.
Seattle has a formidable trio of wide receivers in DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxson Smith-Njigba. Arnold will get his doses of both Metcalf and Lockett primarily on Monday night. The coaching staff, and now at least one teammate, continues to point to not wanting the rookie first-round pick to lose his aggressiveness because he's drawn four pass interference penalties in three games.
“That’s the thing with the league," defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said on Saturday. "You’re a DB and you’ve played, you’ve had at least one PI called on you. So, that’s just the nature of the business. He just has to keep playing. That’s the one thing we have to continue to do, not worry about the penalties and just go play I always joke around and tell them they can’t call 60 PI’s, so keep being close. And that’s what we want," . "He’s been close in a lot of coverages and that’s the main thing we want to continue to work on those things. Keep being close in coverage and just keep being technique sound."
Despite a call that was out there to consider benching Arnold after last week's game, the Lions are firmly committed to letting him learn and grow by playing. He will be tested again by the Seahawks, over and over, and on the Monday night stage he needs to shine brightly.