29-year old running back Maurice Morris has been a bust so far for the Lions this season.  He has played in 7 games for the Lions this year and he has carried the ball 36 times for 136 yards (3.8 ypc) with 1 TD run this season.  He has also caught 7 passes for 69 yards (9.9 avg) this year.  Morris was supposed to provide solid depth behind Kevin Smith but he is not playing too well.  He had a chance to steal the starting job from Smith when he was struggling but he failed to take advantage of it.  Don’t be surprised if the Lions start to phase him out of the offense in the 2nd half of the season.

The best way to take pressure off of a rookie QB is to run the ball well.  That means that Kevin Smith needs to step up for the Lions.  Smith has carried the ball 39 times for 103 yards (2.6 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He has also caught 9 passes for 62 yards (6.9 avg) out of the backfield.  Teams are ganging up on Smith to force Stafford to pass the ball and that has hurt the Lions’ O.  They need Smith to get the running game going and they might have some success this week against the Redskins but they have to stick with the running game and not abandon it if they fall behind.

The Lions might wish that they didn’t throw rookie QB Matt Stafford to the wolves.  The Lions got behind the Saints early and he had to try to play catch up and last week Stafford had to deal with one of the best defenses in the NFL against the Vikings.  This week the Redskins come to town and they also had a solid D.  Stafford has completed 34 of 67 passes (50.7%) for 357 yards with 1 TD pass and 5 interceptions (40.5 QB Rating).  The Lions do have solid receivers but they can’t afford to keep falling behind or teams will send everyone after Stafford.