***SWAMP WILD-CARD WEEKEND - GAME 2 - DET @ SEA***
***DETROIT LIONS @ SEATTLE SEAHAWKS***
The second game of Wild-Card Weekend takes place in Seattle tonight when the Detroit Lions will look to overcome three straight losses to finish the season and pull off an unthinkable upset over the Seahawks. The Lions have managed to win games all season long by the skin of their teeth, pulling off comebacks late in the fourth quarter in nearly all of them to do so. They are battle tested, there is no doubt about that. QB Matthew Stafford has been their leader, and in a season where many thought the Lions offense would falter after losing the future the HOF WR Calvin Johnson, Stafford has managed to recreate his game and has been playing at an extremely high level. He has been spreading the ball evenly to his many reliable targets like WRs Golden Tate, Anquan Boldin, Marvin Jones, and TE Eric Ebron to name a few! They have also surprisingly found somewhat of a running game lately with RB Zach Zenner that has been absent for most of the season due to unfortunate injuries to their backfield. The Lions led the NFC North and were challenged with going on the road for back to back games against playoff caliber teams in the Giants and Cowboys and were unable to overcome either of them. They then returned home with the division on the line against the red hot Green Bay Packers and were unable to defend their home field to fend off big brother for the crown in the North as well. My point here is that the Lions collapsed to end the season, and if it weren't for the Redskins blowing their chance to punch a postseason ticket with a home win, the Lions wouldn't of made the cut. But hey, they're here and they will surely try and make the most of it. Their organization has barely graced the playoffs in the last decade and haven't won a road playoff game since 1957! WHAT?! They go into one of if not THE toughest place to play tonight in Seattle with the dreaded 12th man and the weather may also be a bit wet. The Seahawks on the other hand have been one of the most up and down teams this season and haven't won back to back games since weeks 10-11 where they took down the mighty Pats and Eagles. They lost one of their defensive leaders in Safety Earl Thomas and have shown that his absence leaves a void in the secondary that can be taken advantage of. I would imagine Matty Stafford has as good a chance as any QB to take advantage of them deep but ever since he injured his finger on his throwing hand three weeks ago he has not been at his best missing his mark and not as sharp with accuracy. I give him a ton of credit with just throwing a glove on it and still competing but I think he will be under fire tonight against this Seattle pass rush. They will be licking their chops and of course this stadium will be ROCKING tonight with Playoff energy and feeding their players constant momentum. I like DE Michael Bennett and ex-Lion Cliff Avril to get after Stafford and force him into some mistakes. Seattle has the LBs to stuff any sort of attempt at a Lions run game and on the other side of things I believe QB Russell Wilson will run all over this limited Lions defense similar to how Aaron Rodgers did last weekend. Wilson can create plays by buying time with his legs and I don't see anybody in this Lions secondary stopping or slowing down TE Jimmy Graham. I believe Seattle will practically score at will in this one and while I think the Lions give a gutty effort, they have backdoor'd their way into the postseason and I am not so sure they will even be able to backdoor the points in this one as I think Seattle will just get stronger and play better with the more success they have early on, similar to the night against the Panthers. No more time for a better write-up and I apologize on that! SEAHAWKS-9
