Meanwhile, Detroit comes in as the scrappy underdog—almost a perfect representation of the city itself.  They are certainly underdogs in tonight’s contest, having lost to New Orleans around one month ago, but they will be entering the game with their signature cocksure confidence that has brought them to their first playoff berth in the 21st century.

 

 

 

 

Here’s how they can expect to beat the Saints:

 

 

  1. Brandon Pettigrew needs to step up. Against New Orleans last time, the tight end had just 2 catches for 13 yards. While certainly a good tight end with a great amount of talent, his inconsistency has kept him from reaching the elite level that the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski and the Saints Jimmy Graham have reached. Detroit’s going to need him to eclipse 100 receiving yards today, because there is no way New Orleans is going to single cover Calvin Johnson.
  2. Drew Brees must hit the ground. Detroit’s defense mustered 41 sacks this season, within the top ten in the NFL, and for good reason. With a defensive line led by Kyle Vanden Bosch, Cliff Avril, Corey Williams, and of course, Ndamukong Suh, the Lions don’t necessarily need to blitz to apply pressure on any offensive line. They will need to generate this type of heat on Brees, who was sacked 24 times this season, in order to slow down the aerial attack and perhaps even force mistakes from the savvy quarterback. 
  3. No rookie mistakes from the Coach Schwartz. Jim Schwartz has done an admirable job righting the ship for Detroit, and he certainly is not a rookie head coach. But this is his first trip to the playoffs, and it is therefore imperative for him to maintain his composure. He will definitely have to take risks—especially  look for him to try to convert the first down on 4th and 1 or 4th and 2, because field goals are sort of useless against New Orleans—but he cannot afford to lose sight of just how talented his team and mortgage their chances of winning by getting too excited and making the type of gamble Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith made during his overtime game against the Saints.