Ferocious Detroit Lions travel to face San Francisco 49ers – NFL Preview
After marking positive start to the 2012 National Football League (NFL) season, Detroit Lions are going to face San Francisco 49ers in Week 2 game at Candlestick Park on Sunday, September 16.
Since both teams are entering this encounter after winning their first game of the season respectively, the matchup is supposed to very thrilling as it could give an opportunity to the winning team to establish a winning streak.
Furthermore, the aggressive nature of Lions’ defence has already rung alarm bells and a physical encounter is certainly on the cards. 49ers, too, have a very good defensive and offensive unit, but when it comes to aggressive play, Lions are ahead of their
hosts.
Moreover, the game will also be judged in the light of last meeting between Lions and 49ers. Both teams faced each other last year in a very close encounter that 49ers won. The conclusion of the game was also marred with a controversy as 49ers head coach
Jim Harbaugh and Lions head coach Jim Schwartz were found scuffling a bit.
However, both officials have dismissed that controversy, and hope to face each other in the high spirits of sportsmanship.
In their first game of the season, Lions defeated St. Louis Rams, who did manage to give tough time to the former, but still could not outscore them. There were many flaws in Lions’ performance. Their quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is the backbone of
the team, did not look in great touch as he struggled with accuracy and threw three interceptions.
Also, the game-winning touchdown from Lions came right at the end of the final quarter and Rams were able to control them for most part of the game.
Against 49ers, who are coming off a victory against Green Bay Packers, Lions cannot afford to repeat those flaws. 49ers’ defence is not going to give any room to them and since they are good at controlling rushing and marking the receivers, Stafford will
have to provide a special effort to ensure victory.
Meanwhile, 49ers have to also take care of a few things. They are already going pretty good on the offence and defence, but they have to be strategically sound if they want to tackle the aggressive Lions’ defence.
49ers are mentally prepared to face Lions. Their offensive coordinator Greg Roman said of the visitors:
“Tough, aggressive defence, attacking style. Not a heavy blitz team, but at any point in time they’ll dial up a blitz. So, you’ve got to be ready for it. I think it’s really added to their profile.”
49ers only lost four games (three in the regular season, one in postseason) in the last season. Lions’ offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said of the teams that won against 49ers:
“Well, they made some plays that gave them some field position chunks or scores. That’s hard to do against them because they’re very stingy against the run; there weren’t a lot of plays being made against the run, but they made some plays in the passing
game.”
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