After a Week 3 win over Washington, the Detroit Lions experienced a 48-24 setback at Chicago. Detroit looked good in the first half, entering the locker room tied with the Bears at 21, but struggled in the second half and managed just one field goal.
Head Coach Jim Schwartz was disappointed with the second half of play, and set out this week to focus on specific areas of improvement such as the return game, kickoff and punt coverage and overall team consistency, and with this week’s match up being against the Pittsburgh Steelers, there will be no room for error.
Detroit will have to execute in all areas, but there are specific match-ups that the Lions need to do well at in order to have a strong chance at winning.
LIONS’ D-LINE vs. ROETHLISBERGER AND THE STEELERS’ O-LINE
Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger defies the standards of a present-day quarterback. At 6-5 and 241 pounds, Roethlisberger is difficult to get on the ground.
“I think he is one of the great old war horses; he belongs 25-30 years ago,” said Defensive Coordinator Gunther Cunningham.
“I don’t believe he has any fear of anything. There are plays that I’ve seen where he should have delivered the ball, but he doesn’t and the linebacker will be free on the blitz and he just shakes him off like a big tree shaking of the leaves; they fall down and he takes a couple steps and throws it about 70 yards down the field.”
Cunningham says the key to bringing down Roethlisberger will be more than just a physical one and the talent of Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes don’t help matters.
“One has speed and the other has great savvy,” said Cunningham.
But he says he has worked to focus his side of the ball more on the mental aspect of the game this week and believes with that under wraps, the Lions have a chance at winning.
“It’s going to be a tough challenge for us,” said Cunningham. “The mental preparation, though, can overcome all those things. We know what to do. When we feel the scramble happen, we use the term plaster; find the receiver, be in your zone and stay with him. Hopefully the defensive line can keep working to get him down.”
LIONS’ FRONT SEVEN vs. STEELERS’ RUN GAME
Steelers’ running back Rashard Mendenhall had a breakout game last week against San Diego, rushing for 165 yards and two touchdowns.
The key to bringing him down, says Cunningham, is to make sure there are no breakdowns.
“We’ll play 40 plays just great and we break down and that’s where guys like Mendenhall take an advantage,” said Cunningham. “The DBs have to be smart and they have to be in their spots when the run starts. If you do that, then you minimize the run.
“We did well against Adrian Peterson and then he got two breakouts. You can’t allow that to happen.”
As long as the Lions are aligned correctly and fit their gaps, they shouldn’t have any problems, says linebacker 
“We’ve just got to execute,” he said. “You’ve got to know where you’ve got to fit, got to stay in your gap, got to try to hit your gap – your open gap. So we’ve got to do our assignment, but at the end of the day you can’t forget that it’s going to be a street fight. Roll your sleeves up and they’re going to keep running if we don’t stop them.”
LIONS’ O-LINE vs. STEELERS’ FRONT SEVEN
This is Detroit’s first regular season look at a 3-4 defense and the Steelers have a good one.
“The thing about the Steelers defense: they’ve been doing that same defense since ’92,” said Foote. “They’re not going to change, you know what they’re going to do. It’s just up to us to stop them.”
Pittsburgh has not allowed a point in the first quarter this season and is one of the best teams against the run. Last week against San Diego, the Steelers held LaDainian Tomlinson to seven rushes for 15 yards.
“Their strength has been their strength for years,” said Linehan. “It’s a great scheme; very, very well coordinated and they’ve got great players that have been playing together for lots of years. So that’s the key to having a great defense or offense; if you can have that kind of continuity, they know what they’re doing.
“This is going to be a heck of a challenge. It’ll be fun to go out and meet the challenge against a team as good as this one.”
The Lions are hoping they can get the run game going after struggling a week ago. After getting a lead at the outset of the second half, Chicago was able to adjust to Detroit’s success through the air by sitting back in a Cover-2. Because the Lions struggled to run the ball, they were unable to get their rhythm back offensively.
“I know those guys, the running backs, are coming into the game with a chip on their shoulder trying to get it going against a team with that kind of defense,” said
OTHER MATCH-UP NOTES
- Head Coach Jim Schwartz announced after Friday’s practice that he wouldn’t name a starting quarterback until Sunday before the game.
- With LB
Ernie Sims still banged up from an injury suffered Week 2, rookie LBDeAndre Levy will get the start for the third-straight week and Sims will spot-play. - DT
Sammie Hill , SKo Simpson , and DEDewayne White all sat out of practice this week. Hill and White are listed as out; Simpson as questionable. - Schwartz also announced that WR
Derrick Williams will return kicks this week.
