PERSONNEL NEWS

Strategy And Personnel

The Sports Xchange

December 13, 2018 at 12:54 am.

PLAYER NOTES

–RB Kerryon Johnson is expected to miss his fourth straight game with a knee injury Sunday in Buffalo. Johnson remains the Lions’ leading rusher, but the team has survived his absence well. The Lions have topped 100 yards rushing in each of the last three games.

–DL Da’Shawn Hand suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain last week against Arizona and will miss Sunday’s game against the Bills. Hand was one of eight players who left the Cardinals game early with injuries. S Charles Washington also is expected to miss at least one week with a hamstring injury.

–TE Michael Roberts landed on injured reserve Tuesday because of a recurring shoulder injury. One of college football’s premier red-zone threats as a senior at Toledo, Roberts has had a disappointing start to his NFL career. He has just 13 catches for 146 yards in two seasons, and was suspended for the final game of his rookie season for violating team rules.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: DE Romeo Okwara. The Lions found some unexpected pass-rushing help in September when they claimed Okwara off waivers from the New York Giants. Okwara leads the Lions with 6.5 sacks in 12 games – he had just one sack in two seasons with the Giants – and has made 11 starts at right end. With Ezekiel Ansah out for the year and facing shoulder surgery, Okwara should see even more playing time over the final three weeks. He’s a native of Nigeria who was cut from his middle school team, but who’s blossomed as a pass rusher this year.

GAME PLAN: The Lions have followed a pretty similar game plan for three straight weeks: Run the ball with LeGarrette Blount, throw short, safe passes with Matthew Stafford, keep the clock moving to shorten the game, and try and win the field position battle on defense. The Bills have the NFL’s top-ranked pass defense, and as depleted as the Lions are on offense, there’s not much upside to forcing the ball downfield. Stafford has been turnover-prone this year and outdoors in his career, and the Lions have been inconsistent with their pass protection on the offensive line. They need another solid game out of Blount and the rushing attack to keep Jerry Hughes and Co. at bay.

Defensively, the Lions have done an excellent job of keeping mobile quarterbacks like Cam Newton (two carries, 2 yards), Mitchell Trubisky (3-18) and Russell Wilson (2-15) in the pocket, and they’ll likely use Jarrad Davis to spy Josh Allen on Sunday. Darius Slay has a tough assignment with Zay Jones, though the Lions could play more zone coverage than usual given Allen’s strengths (he leads all NFL quarterbacks in rushing). The Bills do like to take deep shots with their speedy receiving corps, and when they do it’s imperative for Devon Kennard and Romeo Okwara to get pressure off the edge.
MATCHUPS TO WATCH:

–Lions coach Matt Patricia vs. Bills OC Brian Daboll. College rivals in upstate New York, Daboll hired Patricia for his first job with the New England Patriots as a low-level assistant on Bill Belichick’s staff in 2004. Daboll and Patricia have coached with or against each other for most of the past 15 years, and know each other well. Daboll calls offensive plays for the Bills, while Patricia oversees the Lions defense. “We’ve been kind of intertwined my entire career here in the NFL,” Patricia said. “So this will just be another chapter of that. But it also makes it a little bit difficult from that standpoint, too, when you know people as well as we both know each other and kind of the different backgrounds that we have.”

–Lions WR Kenny Golladay vs. Bills CB Tre’Davious White. Golladay is the Lions’ only weapon of consequence on the outside, and someone they’ll need Sunday to help loosen up a good Bills defense and get the running game on track. Golladay managed just two catches for 5 yards against Patrick Peterson last week, and he faces another good cornerback Sunday in White. The Bills have no reason to fear Bruce Ellington or TJ Jones, so as long as they keep Golladay from making chunk plays, they should be able to force the Lions to sustain scoring drives.