Philadelphia Eagles Week Two Preview: Detroit Lions

The Eagles take their battered squad on the road for the first time this week to take on the Detroit Lions. Both teams will be looking to pick up their first win, and if you go by the Dononvan McNabb rule book, one of them will get it.

Today we look at some of the Lions team stats after the first week, as well as looking at their impact players on both sides of the ball.

Offense
Points per game: 14 (19th)
Yards per game: 168 (31st)
Pass yards per game: 148 (26th)
Rush yards per game: 20 (32nd)

Defense
Points per game: 19 (21st)
Yards per game: 463 (31st)
Pass yards per game: 362 (31st)
Rush yards per game: 101 (15th)

Offense
Shaun Hill – Hill will make his first start of the year against the Eagles for the injured Matthew Stafford. He saw some time last week against the Bears, and didn’t do much to inspire confidence. Throughout this career, Hill hasn’t played at a high enough level to maintain a starting job, and I don’t expect him to make a run at it come Sunday.

Jahvid Best – The highly-touted rookie scored twice in his first NFL game but did so with horrible numbers. He rushed 14 times for a total of 20 yards, and also had five catches for 16 yards. This doesn’t mean the guy is a bust, he’s got loads of talent. However, he hasn’t received the support needed from his offensive line to fully display his talents.

Calvin Johnson – Johnson is a monster and will definitely create some size mismatches on Sunday. He’s listed at 6-5, 236 pounds, and we don’t have any corners that even come close to that. Hill may be throwing up prayers to Johnson all day if the defensive line is in his face; the problem is Johnson is talented enough to go up and make plays over our small corners.

Offensive line – This group played terribly against the Bears, and it’s easy to tell by looking at the offensive numbers listed above. Things should be even worse for them when they line up against the Eagles aggressive line that was wreaking all sorts of havoc against the Packers. If the Lions offensive line plays like they did last week, the offense is going to have a long day.

Defense
Ndamukong Suh – The second overall pick in the 2010 draft has already been making an impact on the field. He practically removed Jake Delhomme’s head in the preseason, and was able to record his first sack in his first game against the Bears last week. This is troubling for the Eagles, who have a lot of concerns with their interior line. They’re going to need to double team Suh a lot and try to limit his impact up front.

Kyle Vanden Bosch – He may be new to the Lions, but he’s definitely not new to the game. Against the Bears, Vanden Bosch was all over the field, recording 11 total tackles. With the questions around the Eagles interior line and the strength of the guys in the middle, Jason Peters will probably be asked to handle Vanden Bosch on his own. Peters will need to keep him in check and not let him play like he did against Chicago.

Louis Delmas – Delmas is a young, developing star in a secondary that isn’t all that great. With eight tackles, he was the second-leading tackler on the day behind Vanden Bosch. He recorded 94 tackles as a rookie, and will look to eclipse that number in 2010.

Special Teams
Looking at the box score from last week, none of their numbers jump off the page at you. However, they had some nice preparation for DeSean Jackson by facing Devin Hester. Hester only managed 17 yards on five punt returns.