The Detroit Lions (7-2) are on a four-game win streak as they head to Phoenix to take on the Arizona Cardinals (8-1) who have been on their own five-game win streak.
The Cardinals lost quarterback Carson Palmer for the remainder of the season due to an injury, which makes it all the more vital that they protect backup Drew Stanton. The Cardinals' offensive line has struggled in pass blocking and it will face one of the best defensive lines in the league led by Ndamukong Suh. Left guard Ted Larsen has had a rough go in pass blocking situations (-13.3) allowing pressure on 20 of his 348 pass blocking snaps. He likely won’t have Suh lined up across from him, but the Cardinals catch a break with the Lions being without Nick Fairley here.
The Lions' right defensive end, Ezekiel Ansah is coming off his best overall game (+5.9) in the NFL where he excelled primarily in run defense (+4.8). Across from Ansah will be the Cardinals' best offensive linemen (+7.7) and one of the better pass blocking tackles in the league, Jared Veldheer. Veldheer’s Pass Blocking Efficiency of 96.3 ranks him 11th among all offensive tackles.
Here are some other players to keep an eye on in this game:
Detroit Lions
DeAndre Levy – Levy leads all outside linebackers who play in a 4-3 scheme in Run Stop Percentage.
Glover Quin and James Ihedigbo – the Lions’ starting safeties has been solid in pass coverage all year where they have accumulated the seventh and 11th best ratings, respectively.
Golden Tate – Calvin Johnson returned from injury in Week 10, but Tate was still targeted 13 times catching 11 of those passes for 109 yards. A total of 76 of those yards came after the catch.
Arizona Cardinals
Drew Stanton – In Stanton’s limited snaps he has performed better when blitzed (+0.6) completing 53.1% of his passes than when not blitzed (-2.6) completing only 47.5%.
Antonio Cromartie – Cromartie ranks behind only Richard Sherman for cornerbacks in Coverage Snaps Per Reception allowed with 15.9.
Dan Williams – the Cardinals nose tackle has excelled in stopping the run (+9.3) with 13 stops this season.
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