New York Giants vs Detroit Lions: Key Monday Night Football Matchups

Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Giants will travel to Ford Field tonight to take on the Detroit Lions in a week one Monday Night Football match up.  Both teams come into this season with big question marks — like whether or not the Giants’ new offense will be ready or at least close to ready for competitive action.

For the Lions it’s a question of whether or not this team has the personnel on both sides of the ball to finally get this team to the playoffs under the guidance of a new head coach.  I don’t expect these questions to be fully answered in one game, but it will be interesting to see where these two teams are at this point and what we can possibly expect in the weeks going forward.

The biggest question of all of course is who will win tonight’s game?  While I already made my prediction a couple of days ago, I will give you a breakdown of the key match ups in tonight’s contest so you can make your own predictions.

Calvin Johnson vs Giants Secondary

You can’t talk about the Lions without first bringing up the man they call Megatron.  Calvin Johnson is the clear-cut best receiver in the league with his freakish combination of size and speed, he is nearly impossible to cover.  That being said, this Giants secondary on paper looks much improved with the additions of corners Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie from Denver and Walter Thurmond III from Seattle. With Prince Amukamara also in the fold, this look to be one of the most talented cornerback groups in the league. They are supplemented by safety corps of team captain Antrel Rolle and Stevie Brown (who is coming off an acl tear but had 10 forced turnovers in 2012).

I don’t expect this revamped Giants secondary to do the impossible and shut down Megatron, but maybe with a little help from the Giants pass rush keeping him around 100 yards seems fairly realistic.  Let’s face it, Calvin is always going to get his stats no matter who he plays but the Giants have the tools to at least slow him down a bit.

Giants Defensive Line vs Lions Offensive Line

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This Giants D-Line comes into this season under a lot of pressure after a mediocre 2013 campaign.  Thee loss of team leader DE Justin Tuck will take some getting used to, but the pain of that loss can be alleviated by a healthy DE Jason Pierre-Paul, who was a shell of himself last season due to multiple injuries and coming off major back surgery. JPP seems to be healthy this year and he needs to come out with a chip on his shoulder to prove he is still an elite defensive end in this league.  The Giants also lost a major piece in DT Linval Joseph who was great at clogging the middle of that line and shutting down the opposition’s run game.

The Giants do have a lot of depth at DT with Mike Patterson, Johnathan Hankins, Cullen Jenkins, Markus Kuhn and Jay Bromley, which should be enough to make up for the loss of Joseph — especially since Hankins is pretty much the same type of player Joseph was.  Damontre Moore and Robert Ayers will look to fill Tuck’s void, but at the end of the day this pass rush will live or die with the play of JPP.

Detroit’s offensive line has played well this preseason and has a great mix of young, promising talent and established veterans which has created a great dynamic. This could spell trouble for a Giants defensive line that is putting all the pressure on its star JPP to create havoc and draw double teams to open up opportunities for the rest of that unit.  Bottom line, the Lions have a solid offensive line that will prove to be a tough test for a Giants D-Line that is looking to get back on track.

Giants Offensive Line vs Lions Defensive Line

In my opinion, this is the biggest match up of the game and certainly one that all Giants fans will have their eyes on.  Everyone knows about Detroit’s fierce defensive front that has monsters at DT like Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley — arguably the best DT combo in the league — coupled with young DE Ziggy Ansah who has the speed to cause a lot of problems for any offensive lineman.  This is an extremely daunting task for a Giants offensive line that is basically a patchwork unit with the retirement of perennial pro bowler RG Chris Snee and the injury to new LG Geoff Schwartz.

On the bright side, RT Justin Pugh is coming into his own in his second year and rookie C Weston Richburg  is a versatile lineman who is developing quite nicely and will start at LG for Schwartz. J.D. Walton, another lineman coming off a major injury, starts at center and either Brandon Mosley or John Jerry will start at RG.  The Giants line has struggled this preseason along with the entire Giants offense that is trying to learn a new system… and they will have to pull it together quick in order to hold off this very physical and aggressive Lions defensive front which will be, in my opinion, the deciding factor in tonight’s season opener.