North Divisions Collide In Week 7; Bengals Visit Lions At Ford Field

A big matchup between the AFC and NFC gets going on Sunday in Week 7 as the Cincinnati Bengals visit the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Kickoff is slated for 1pm ET, with CBS on the coverage of the game.

There are plenty of early implications at stake in this one. Both Cincinnati and Detroit sit at 4-2 on the season. For the Lions, that means a current three-way tie atop the NFC North with Green Bay and Chicago. For the Bengals, it’s a full game lead over the Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns.

Both are coming off of wins in Week 6 as well. Cincinnati squeaked by Buffalo 27-24 in overtime while Detroit handled Cleveland 31-17 thanks for four touchdown passes by Matthew Stafford.

The interesting matchup here will be the Lions offense against a Bengals defense that ranks in the top-10 in the league against the run and the pass. That means that there is no clear area for Detroit to try and exploit from the standpoint of the Cincinnati defense. They are very well coached and very well balanced to defend both. The Lions are more of a passing team, and even their run game is surrounded by a lot of screen passes and dump offs, which technically are pass completions. That is backed up by the fact that Detroit ranks 6th in passing offense and 20th in rushing offense.

Defensively, the Lions will need to figure out a way to stop wide receiver A.J Green. The good news is that the secondary goes up against Calvin Johnson in practice, who is arguably the best receiver in the NFL. The bad news is that Johnson hasn’t played in the last couple of games for Detroit, as he tries to get healthy. In his absence though, Stafford spread the ball around nicely last week against Cleveland.