Every week during the regular season Tim Twentyman will answer 10 good questions from his X account @ttwentyman in a feature we call "10 Questions with Twentyman."
20man: Lions quarterback Jared Goff is playing the best ball of his career. He's second in the NFL in passing yards (3,759), completion percentage (71.4) and passer rating (110.4) and is top five in touchdown passes (30). But this offense is most dangerous when they are balanced and the play-action pass game is clicking on all cylinders.
Goff has attempted more than 50 passes twice this year. Week 2 vs. Tampa Bay and last week vs. Buffalo. Anything stand out about those two contests? You got it, both Lions losses. It's not to say the Lions can't win relying mostly on Goff's right arm, but when they have this season, it hasn't been a recipe for team success.
20man: It's a good question. The current format of seven teams qualifying for the playoffs in each conference with only the No. 1 seed getting the bye through the Wild Card round has been in place for four seasons starting in 2020. Over that span, half of the No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Super Bowl – Kansas City (2020), Kansas City (2022), Philadelphia (2022) and San Francisco (2023).
I went back the previous five seasons in the old format where six teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs and the top two teams got a bye through the first round. All 10 teams that played in the Super Bowl over that stretch were afforded the bye through the first round.
So over the last nine playoff cycles, 14 of the 18 teams playing in the Super Bowl were helped there by a first-round bye.
20man: The players the Lions could technically get back during the playoffs include linebacker Alex Anzalone, wide receiver Kalif Raymond, linebacker Derrick Barnes, linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, safety Ifeatu Melifonwu, cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. and defensive end Aidan Hutchinson.
Of that group, Anzalone, Raymond, Melifonwu, Rakestraw and Reeves-Maybin seem the most likely to potentially be back to start the playoffs. The No. 1 seed and the bye would be big for this team in that regard.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell didn't seem as optimistic about Barnes when he was last brought up. Cornerback Carlton Davis III could potentially be back around NFC Championship time and Hutchinson was obviously in the news this week saying he's on schedule to play if they advance to the Super Bowl.
Getting Anzalone back would be big because teams are going to watch the Bills tape and are going to attack Detroit's linebackers in the passing game. He's the Lions' best cover linebacker. Melifonwu would give them some versatility and the ability to throw offenses a curveball, and Raymond would bring a spark back to special teams.
20man: It certainly hasn't been up to the Lions' high standards the last two weeks. Detroit's averaged 3.3 and 3.2 yards per carry the last two weeks against Buffalo and Green Bay. Not good enough.
Talking with Campbell and some of the players this week about that, they believe it's correctable. It's been a back-side tackle missing a block here, a tight end getting beat there, a receiver not holding his block here. It's been a lot of different little things, which makes me feel better than if it had been a consistent issue with one group/player.
I got the sense they are pretty frustrated about the lack of consistency on the ground the last couple weeks. That's been their identity all year. I think it gets back on track Sunday vs. Chicago, a team they rushed for 194 yards against on Thanksgiving with a 5.9-yard average.
20man: I could be wrong, but I don't think the Lions are there just yet.
Melifonwu still has to be activated from IR. They just began his practice window Wednesday and Campbell said he has to see Melifonwu practice a few days to determine if he's ready to play as soon as Sunday.
When Melifonwu is back, I feel this coaching staff has usually eased players back into the mix. I think we could maybe see some packages with that or certain situations, but I'd be a little surprised if that's a wholesale change for Brian Branch. If you watch the film, Branch comes down and plays in the nickel more than you think, but he's more of a playmaker at safety. Branch and Kerby Joseph are two players who really need to step up and create some takeaways — Detroit has just one in their last four games — down the stretch to help stem the injury losses on defense.
It could get to that point, but I think they still roll with the combination of Terrion Arnold, Kindle Vildor, Amik Robertson and Emmanuel Moseley at cornerback unless their play forces the coaches to mix it up.
20man: I really don't see it changing a lot. The Lions have a ton of faith in Jahmyr Gibbs to carry the load. I think Gibbs sometimes gets lumped into being this speed and finesse back, but if you really watch him, he's a physical runner who can deliver a blow and break tackles. Not like Montgomery, but enough to be an inside/outside threat.
Craig Reynolds has been a proven commodity over the years as a tough runner and I could see him getting some short-yardage and goal-line carries if they need to spell Gibbs. Jermar Jefferson could also be elevated from the practice squad.
There's a lot of trust in the players in the running back room and I don't see much changing in the running schemes.
20man: I thought Aaron Glenn got away from it a little more last week than what we've seen this year, especially early on. That was obviously the plan coming in but I thought Josh Allen made them pay for it early in that game.
The Lions have blitzed 178 times this season, fourth most in the NFL, for a blitz percentage of 32.4, which is also fourth most behind Minnesota (38.9), Kansas City (33.4) and Tampa Bay (32.7). It's part of their DNA on defense and I'd expect to see more of it this week against Caleb Williams and Co.
20man: They better. Chicago's offense has really struggled since the second half of the Lions game the last two weeks. They've gone three straight games without scoring in the first half and have struggled to protect quarterback Caleb Williams.
Chicago has scored 25 points combined in losses to Minnesota (30-12) and San Francisco (38-13). The Bears have weapons on the perimeter and always seem to play the Lions tough, but I would expect to see a much better defensive effort this week from the Lions.
20man: I'm usually not much for predictions. One thing I've learned over the years is how truly unpredictable this game is, but here's one: Even with all the injuries the Lions have upfront, Detroit's defense will have at least five sacks on Sunday.
20man: It's a fair question. All the players on the 53-man roster for the Super Bowl get one as do those players who have played during the season and land on IR. The most recent CBA allows for practice squad players on the roster at the time of the Super Bowl to get a ring.
Obviously, all of the coaching staff and front office get one too. Then it's up to ownership to hand them out to players who may have played for the team but been traded away or to club employees and beyond.
