Game day: How to watch and 3 things to watch for Lions vs. Colts
● When: Nov. 24, 1 p.m.
● Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Ind.
● How to watch: FOX (Kenny Albert/Jonathan Vilma/Megan Olivi)
● How to listen: 97.1-FM The Ticket in Metro Detroit or any number of network affiliates around the state.
● Line: Lions -7.5
● Injury report: The Lions will be shuffling the deck in the secondary after rookies Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw were ruled out after suffering midweek injuries. The latter’s hamstring strain is severe enough it requires a stint on injured reserve.
To compensate for those absences, the Lions have activated veteran Emmanuel Moseley off injured reserve.
● Officiating assignment: Shawn Hochuli’s crew. In his seventh season as a head referee, this will be his first Lions game since Week 16 of the 2022 season, when the team was trounced by the Panthers on Christmas Eve, 37-23.
In six games with Hochuli in charge, the Lions are 2-4. His crew throws 16.1 flags per game, more than the league average.
● Last meeting: After a slow start, the Colts scored 20 points in the second quarter and another 21 more in the fourth frame, cruising past the Lions at Ford Field, 41-21, in Week 8 of the 2020 season.
Quarterback Philip Rivers, in his final season, was stellar in the victory. He completed 23-of-33 for 262 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Nyheim Hines was the recipient of two.
To emphasize how bad of a day (and era) it was for the Lions, the team’s leading rusher was Jamal Agnew (one carry, 11 yards), while Marvin Hall paced the receivers with four grabs for 113 yards.
Coverage from the week
● Three and Out: These Lions are the modern day “Bad Boys”
● Ifeatu Melifonwu suffered another injury and “won’t be ready for a while”
● Film review: What Za’Darius Smith showed in his Detroit debut
● The Colts are blending uncommon continuity with a messy QB situation
● Montgomery’s running style draws lofty comps from coach Campbell
● Does Brian Branch have a realistic shot at winning Defensive Player of the Year?
● Thoughts to End the Week: How the 2024 defense stacks up to 2014 version
Three things worth watching
● The Lions are coming off the most prolific offensive performance in franchise history, racking up 645 yards and scoring touchdowns each of their first seven possessions in a 52-6 walloping of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Even though the Lions fell shy of the franchise’s single-game scoring mark of 55, set in a 1997 win over the Chicago Bears, Sunday’s effort can safely be labeled more impressive.
So what does the encore look like?
It would be unreasonable to expect another 600 yards and 50 points, right? Sure, but there is a real opportunity to stuff the stat sheet once again if quarterback Jared Goff can continue to take care of the ball.
Here’s what we know. The Colts are bottom five in yardage allowed, including bottom five in rushing yards against, and are also among the lower half of the league on third down and in the red zone. Frankly, it’s impressive they’re only allowing 22.7 points per game. Creating 17 takeaways certainly helps.
That’s why taking care of the ball will be key for the Lions, and it’s something they've done well this season. They obviously got off track against Houston, but Goff didn’t throw an interception in the other six of the previous seven games.
If that column remains clean against the Colts, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Lions pushing for their fifth 40-point effort of the season.
● Defensively, the Lions face more stress attempting to overcome another devastating injury. The train has stayed on track despite Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport and Derrick Barnes landing on the shelf. The team is now tasked with adjusting to the unit’s quarterback, Alex Anzalone, suffering a broken arm.
That means more will be put on the plate of 2023 first-round draft pick Jack Campbell. He’s already been playing nearly every defensive snap since Week 8, but he'll be expected to take on the added responsibility of the green dot helmet, which puts him in charge of communicating with the sideline and relaying that information to the other 10 defenders on the field.
You can see it on tape, Campbell is constantly adjusting the alignment of his teammates. He already knows where everyone needs to be, so the transition should be close to seamless. What he lacks is the established rapport Anzalone has built over the years with defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn. As coach Dan Campbell put it earlier this week, Anzalone often knows what Glenn is thinking before the coordinator has to say it.
Malcolm Rodriguez will likely backfill most of the remaining workload. That showed up against the Jaguars when he played a season-high 90% of the defensive snaps, despite coming off a two-game absence due to an ankle sprain.
Before the injury, Rodriguez was logging between 40-50% of the snaps.
Veterans Ben Niemann and Ezekiel Turner should pick up the scraps, playing different roles due to their body types and skill sets. Niemann is more of a thumper, while the leaner Turner has more coverage range, which should earn him some third-down work.
● Speaking of injuries, the team will unexpectedly be without Arnold, who showed up on Thursday’s injury report with a groin strain. It’s interesting timing because the Lions are getting Moseley back after the veteran suffered a third, serious injury requiring surgery in as many years, tearing his pec during a training camp practice.
It’s probably a stretch to think Moseley will replace Arnold in the starting lineup. On Friday, a hopeful coach Campbell suggested the veteran could be deployed as a matchup piece in the secondary, potentially seeing reps at outside corner, in the slot and at safety.
Any work would be meaningful given what Moseley has been through. He tore his ACL in 2022, had a setback in his recovery last year, and ended up tearing the other ACL two snaps into his delayed season debut. Then, the pectoral put him on the shelf for the first 10 games this year.
His resilience is commendable, but he’s not a charity case. Moseley was a smart, physical and fundamentally sound defender prior to the mounting injuries and he should be able to help the Lions down the stretch.
Great write up.
I’m a pretty dedicated Lions fan, yet I have no recollection of Marvin Hall or him being on the Lions. 2020 really was the darkness before the light.
Wow...Marvin Hall back then was the Lion's early version of Jameson Williams. Always making long haul grabs. Theoretically and statistically, the Lions should score 45 points and run up close to 500 yards. For some reason, Indy concerns me.