Numbers show how big of an impact Alex Anzalone's potential return could make for the Lions on Sunday
The Detroit Lions defense has been struggling as of late. There's no way around it. The injuries are causing a problem. Take a look at this graph that FTTN's Aaron Schatz made showing the Lions' defenses decline in recent weeks. Aidan Hutchinson was definitely a hard shot for the team to take since he was […]
The Detroit Lions defense has been struggling as of late. There's no way around it. The injuries are causing a problem. Take a look at this graph that FTTN's Aaron Schatz made showing the Lions' defenses decline in recent weeks.
Aidan Hutchinson was definitely a hard shot for the team to take since he was having a Defensive Player of the Year caliber season, but the Lions were surviving without him and were largely playing pretty well.
It's the Alex Anzalone injury that really made a drastic difference, and Detroit Football Network's Justin Rogers changed this graph to show that change.
You can easily see it out of graph form, too. The Lions' linebackers have been nearly exclusively beaten up in the past few weeks. We've seen a majority of the chunk plays the Lions have allowed come at the expense of a linebacker that the Lions signed in the last few weeks.
The Anzalone return is going to be gigantic for this team and the good news is that it could potentially happen this week against the Vikings. The Lions started Anzalone's 21-day clock on Wednesday and he returned to practice.
Lions' head coach Dan Campbell said later in the day that he was not sure if Anzalone would be back for Sunday's game just yet, but that the team would really know on Friday what his chances look like. We'll see what happens, but NFL insider Adam Schefter says a source tells him that the chances are "realistic."
Some Lions fans could be on the verge of making the biggest mistake of their lives
The stage is now completely set for Week 18. Sunday Night Football will be the spot where the 14-2 Detroit Lions go up against the 14-2 Minnesota Vikings for a shot at the first seed in the NFL Playoffs and the NFC North crown. This is everything that you watch football for. If you have […]
