5 questions with Pride of Detroit: How good did it feel to maul the Packers?

The Detroit Lions are coming off a delightful Sunday thrashing a pack of pitiful package-pushers, and the Chicago Bears are riding high on a record-setting performance from their future-MVP franchise savior quarterback. We’re set up for a fun Sunday watching two of the world's most glorious beasts playfully spar in one of the greatest stadiums this fine country has to offer. Let’s see how Lions fans are feeling halfway through this fine season...

1. How good did it feel to beat the Packers last week? Aaron Rodgers: lol. Am I wrong?

There’s nothing sweeter than beating Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. If the Lions only won one game in a season and it was against the Packers, that season would be considered a success in my book. The best part of this win is seeing just how much it irks Rodgers. He’s been bringing it up in interviews all week long. The Lions may have broken him.

2. From the outside, it seemed like the Lions came into this season with a lot of hope. They have several exciting young players, an endearing coach, and the hard knocks boost. That hasn’t translated to wins yet. What is it going to take for this team to turn the corner and start winning more than they lose?

The Lions rebuild isn’t an overnight plan. In previous history, it seemed that the Lions plan was always to just quickly build a team that can compete until that team falls apart as teams do after the window closes. It’s never worked. The new plan is to build a franchise that can have long term sustained success. They’re doing it basically from the bottom up. This was never meant to be a quick turnaround. This team is still so young and inexperienced. The good thing is that the young players are getting better every week. That’s all you can really ask for at this point. There’s still more work to be done though.

3. The Lions' offense has been explosive for a lot of this season but struggled with certain matchups. What has been their biggest weakness and how would you defend them? If your answer is to have a strong front 7, what would be the next best strategy to defend them?

The issue with the Lions offense is that they’re having trouble keeping it on the field. Amon-Ra St.Brown, D’Andre Swift, DJ Chark and more have all dealt with injuries at different times this season. Even going into this game, the Lions will be without Chark. Now Craig Reynolds is on the IR and Swift is playing on a snap count. The Lions are essentially down to Jamaal Williams at running back.

With that said, when this team gets going on offense, they can hang with any team in the NFL. They just need to stay healthy and Jared Goff needs to play better than he has lately.

4. Detroit’s defense seems to have taken a step back this year. What do you think is behind that? Are there any specific players you’re hoping will step up to have a statement game against one of the most deadly young quarterbacks in the game?

This is really where that youth and inexperience that I was talking about comes into play. This is the youngest team in the league. It shows every week. With that said, there’s been stand out performances from some of these players. Aidan Hutchinson has been as advertised this season. He could be even better if he had help on the other side of the line. Malcolm Rodriguez has looked good too.

The biggest surprise as of late is third round pick Kerby Joseph. He had a big game against the Packers on Sunday and picked off Aaron Rodgers twice. His game was good enough to be named the NFL Defensive Player of The Week. On top of that, he’s started five games this season and he’s forced a turnover in four of them.

5. Draftkings has the over/under for this game at 48.5. The Bears have averaged over 31 points the last three weeks. Do you think the Lions are good for 18?

LOL. I think you have to take the over here. These are two bad defenses and I think both should have no problem scoring. I’m taking the Lions to win this one 31-28.

It looks like the NFC’s best defender and best offender of week 9 will be head to head this Sunday. I predict fireworks. As always, if you have any predictions you want to put your money on, our friends over at DraftKings Sportsbook have you covered for this game and all the week’s NFL action.