The Detroit Lions will be doing something we're not used to around here on Sunday. They'll be playing in a second playoff game. The Lions will welcome the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to town and play them for a shot to go the NFC Championship game. 

The Lions have already faced the Bucs this year. Way back in Week 6 the Lions headed to Tampa Bay and came back with a 20-6 win. It was a great prove it game for the Lions at the time. They got to go and win a game on the road against a winning team. 

Now they'll have a chance to host that same winning team at home. There's a lot of differences this time though. I'm not talking about the whole "this team turned it around and they're different" type of changes. I'm talking about the amount of players that are currently on the Lions that didn't play in that last game or had some sort of situation. Let's get into it.

Offense

For starters, Jahmyr Gibbs missed this game. He also wasn't Jahmyr Gibbs yet. This was still very much in the days where fantasy nerds were pissed off that Gibbs hadn't been used the way they wanted him to be. He hadn't scored his first touchdown yet and his snap counts were super low. He was averaging 13 snaps a game at that point. 

Jameson Williams was playing in his second game after his suspension was lifted early. He wasn't even supposed to originally play in this game. He was limited to just nine snaps in the first meeting. One of them was the big touchdown he caught. 

David Montgomery did play in this game, but he got hurt almost immediately. He played six total snaps and then Craig Reynolds took over for the rest of the day. 

Jonah Jackson missed this game with an ankle injury. So the Bucs are one of the games in which the Lions didn't have their full offensive line. 

Defense

Brian Branch missed this game with an ankle injury. Will Harris started in his place. Branch has obviously been a big part of the Lions secondary this season and one of the Lions best players on defense. Speaking of secondary, the Lions didn't have C.J. Gardner-Johnson for this game either. He's been phenomenal since his return and should help against a pretty good receiving group. 

Josh Paschal did not play in this game. He was out with a knee injury. Paschal has not been a huge game changer, but he's had a decent season and having him out there is a plus. 

Ifeatu Melifonwu did not play defense in this game. Melifonwu has come on like a house on fire since taking over the starting job from Tracy Walker in Week 14. Since then he's been one of the best players on the field for the Lions every week. He did play in the first game, but every snap he played was on special teams. 

Detroit Lions 2023-24 moon stats

Everyone has a gimmick I suppose. For me, it's now the Detroit Lions moon man after I tweeted about the Lions last playoff win coming on a waxing crescent and that last Sunday night's moon was a waxing crescent. Suddenly all the major betting outlets took hold of it and it was everywhere. Even the […]