NFL Week 11 Predictions: The Lions Will Beat Up Cam Newton and the Panthers

The Tennessee Titans have provided the template to shut down Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. This week, the Detroit Lions—1-3 in their past four after last week's 37-13 butt-whupping at the hands of the Chicago Bears—will be motivated to follow it.

Sunday should be a rough afternoon for Newton.

Last week certainly was. So much so, in fact, that it was obvious to the Titans that they had frustrated him. From Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean:

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"You could tell that he was getting frustrated," said defensive lineman Jason Jones, who had one of the five sacks. "He was flipping the ball and doing stuff like that. As a defense, we wanted to keep getting in his head, man. Even when we didn’t get to him, we wanted to make sure he saw us. And that’s what we did."

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Getting sacked five times and throwing one interception to no touchdown passes will do that to a quarterback. What's more, Newton knows he can expect more where that came from.

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"Whatever they did, it was effective," Newton said. "In this league, this is a copycat league so we can best believe the next team we’re playing is going to watch this film and try and do the same thing, but this can’t happen again."

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The Titans defensive game plan centered around taking away the big plays down the field—namely to wide receiver Steve Smith—and containing Newton. Per Wyatt's analysis, they achieved that by switching between sending three rushers and using the blitz. They also mixed coverages to keep the rookie quarterback guessing.

It is a template that the Lions should be able to duplicate. The Lions are sixth in the NFL with 26 sacks, and 22 of them have come from defensive lineman. They should be able to get pressure with three or four lineman, use a linebacker to spy Newton and pay extra attention to Steve Smith.

The Lions have the fourth-ranked passing defense, only allowing 184 passing yards per game. What's more, they have only given up nine touchdown passes, which is good for fourth-best in the NFL.

For the Panthers to have success against Detroit, they will have to run the ball against a vulnerable Lions run defense that is giving up 134.4 yards per game on the ground (27th in the NFL).

However, that may not be a sustainable plan of action against a Lions offense that should be able to move the ball on the Panthers. If Carolina is forced to play catch-up, look for the Lions to frustrate Newton like the Titans did and force turnovers.

The Lions need a statement win to reverse their 1-3 record in their past four games. Unfortunately for Cam Newton, the Lions will make that statement in a fashion that will be painful for the rookie quarterback.