The Detroit Lions have a huge game against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. A game that could be a Super Bowl preview and a game that could decide a few things like how much farther the Lions can move ahead in their pursuit of the first seed and whether or not Jared Goff could be the league’s MVP.
The Bills are a very tough team. The Lions score a lot of points, but the Bills do, too. They’re second in the league in points for, Right behind the Lions. Two really good offenses and two pretty decent defenses. How are the Lions going to win this game.
There is a way and the Lions already showed that way not long ago when they beat the Tennessee Titans 52-14 in Week 8. It’s all about special teams. Obviously the Lions aren’t going to beat this Bills team 52-14, at least it would be significantly harder to do so. But they can attack the Bills pretty bad special teams unit and set themselves up for success and a good chance to win.
The Bills currently have the 29th-ranked special teams unit in DVOA. The Lions have the first-ranked unit. The Bills don’t punt a lot just like the Lions, but when they do they get hurt a little bit. They’re allowing nine yards per return. It’s the kick returns where the Bills get hurt the most. They’re allowing 32 yards per return. That’s third in the NFL. They’ve allowed 639 yards and a touchdown this season. That’s 12th in the league and more than the Titans who the Lions beat up.
The Lions aren’t going to rack up a bunch of return touchdowns. Those don’t come easy. What they can do is get good field position to start each one of their drives. That way they can have the best possible chance to score more points.
The big difference in this game is that the Lions don’t have Kalif Raymond. That’s ok though because they have a capable return man in Maurice Alexander. We’ve seen him put up some big returns in his time in Detroit. He just had a nice 23-yard return against the Bears on Thanksgiving. The Lions scored on that drive in part because they got good field positon to start.
Keep an eye on the special teams units for both teams on Sunday. It could be the difference in the game.