Darius Slay is Key to Lions’ Chances of Beating Packers
Everyone around here probably assumes the Green Bay Packers will just roll into Detroit and pound the Lions on Sunday. These are the Lions, after all.
We’ve seen this movie before.
Maybe that will happen, but the Lions have a much better chance with Darius Slay on the field. To us, Slay — not Matthew Stafford, Marvin Jones, Ziggy Ansah or anyone else — is the most important player for the Lions.
Slay is a bonafide No. 1 corner. He sat out the Lions’ loss to the Cowboys with an injury and Dallas threw for four touchdowns. Of course, not all of those would have been Slay’s responsibility, but since Dez Bryant caught two of them, you can expect his presence would have made this a tighter game. As it was, it got out hand in the second half and the Cowboys won, 42-21.
In Slay’s absence, the Lions were forced to rely on Nevin Lawson — who isn’t very good to begin with — and Johnson Bademosi. It’s okay if you’ve never heard of Bademosi. He’s a former undrafted free agent for played four seasons for the Browns before signing with the Lions this year. He has just three career starts, all with the Lions in 2016.
You can see that the Cowboys went after Bademosi in that game, since he led the team with five solo tackles.
The Packers come into this game with arguably the hottest quarterback in the NFL right now in Aaron Rodgers. He hasn’t finished two of the last three games he played because they got out of hand.
And they got out of hand because Rodgers and his receivers were finding the end zone early and often.
If you’re a Lions fan — and we know you’re not, nobody is — the good news is Slay returned to practice on Wednesday. The bad news is the injury he’s recovering from is a hamstring injury. It’s not easy to play corner, where someone else is dictating your movements, with a hamstring injury.
It’s quite possible the Lions sat Slay against Dallas to get him healthy for the bigger game with Green Bay. It’s also possible he won’t be fully healthy.
Either way, the Lions need this guy, more than anyone, to play well on Sunday to win. If Detroit can’t slow down Aaron Rodgers — and they might not be able to slow him down even with Slay on the field — their only chance is to win in a shootout.
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Slay is decent…but he’s not the stud corner he’s made out to be here. Nor is he in danger of going to the pro bowl anytime soon. But…as Mordi wrote, he is an improvement over what they have.
I just don’t think he’s a game day difference maker.
What’s far more interesting to us fans and the Packers and Lions, is the Skins/Giants game. If the Giants win, the winner of the Packer/Lion game is NFC N Div. Champion, and the losing team is the 6th seed wildcard.
If the Skins win, the Packers/Lions winner are NFC N Champs, and the losing team wives start making vacation plans.
My thoughts are…i don’t care who wins the Giant/Skins game and the Packers better beat the Lions.
Slay practised today.
Yea, that’s what the article said.
Saw some photos of today’s practice. Mike Daniels had a cast or wrap on his right hand. It was not as large as Perry’s, but it was a full round wrap. I do not recall Daniels being listed with a hand injury before? I wonder if he will be listed tomorrow?
That’s very strange, especially citing the fact that he wasn’t even on today’s injury list.
I’ve seen this defense play. The less players that play with clubs on their hands, the better. Regardless if they get a couple of easy sacks in the last 5 minutes of garbage time.
Supposing he’s got a roll of nickles tucked in his hand under the cast…
Old boxing trick – makes for a hard-ass hit…..
Yes very strange. Must have just been an oversight by the team. ;-). The photo was of yesterday’s practice and it was on the Packers official web site. It was photo 18 of 46 of the practice. I guess someone will ask MM about it today. The club did not look as big as some, hopefully just a precaution.
I don’t think the Lions have a chance in this game. Of all the games the Lions have won this season, only one of those victories has been against a team with a winning record. And the Lions have been trailing in the 4th quarter of almost every game. That means that in almost every game (even against bad teams), the Lions were trailing at the end of the game.
I don’t see this game being close at all. Aaron Rodgers and the offense will be firing on all cylinders, and I think the final score will something like Packers 35, Lions 17.