If the Lions are going to leave the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with a win on Sunday, these four guys will be critical to it happening.
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The Detroit Lions sit at 3-1 coming off their Week 5 bye, and they'll travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys on Sunday. This is the third straight season the Lions will be visiting Arlington, having lost the first two. Of course last year's game in Week 17 had quite the controversial finish.
The Cowboys have won two in a row, but neither was very pretty, to put themselves a 3-2 on the season.
It should be a high-scoring game late Sunday afternoon, and the betting odds surely back that up with the highest over-under (52.5) on FanDuel Sportsbook for this week's NFL slate. This is were we might say to start all your Lions and Cowboys in fantasy football this week, but there is one on the Lions' side that feels iffy automatically.
How good the Cowboys are this year is debatable. What isn't debatable is how meaningful a road win on Sunday would be for the Lions, as they would then head into a matchup against the currently undefeated Minnesota Vikings in Week 7.
If the Lions are going to have their best chance to win on Sunday, these four players have to shine.
4 Detroit Lions who must shine in Week 6 against the Cowboys
4. DE Josh Paschal
Sunday is something of a full circle moment for Paschal. After surgery to repair an injury from his final season at Kentucky delayed the start of his rookie season, he made his NFL debut against the Cowboys in Week 7 of the 2022 season.
In Week 4 against Seattle, unsurprisingly after both Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn pointed to him having a clear opportunity in the wake of Marcus Davenport's likely season-ending injury, Paschal played as season-high 53 snaps with three quarterback pressures.
Heading into this week's game. Glenn set the bar for Paschal.
"That's something that I talked about when Davenport went down, that (Paschal) is going to have to step up. I expect more from that player and he's expecting more from himself," Glenn said, via Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News. "And yes, he did a really good job against Seattle, but the thing is we have to consistently be able to do that, week in and week out. I'm looking forward to seeing how he's going to come out this week, and I know he's going to do a good job.
Campbell and Glenn have both hinted that Paschal's impact doesn't necessarily show up big on the stat sheet. But he primary lined up on the right edge against Seattle, and if that holds against the Cowboys that means he'll be regularly lined up against Cowboys' rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton. Guyton enters Week 6 with a 49.0 pass blocking grade from Pro Football Focus.
If Paschal is going to have a breakout performance, this sure looks like the week that's ripe for it to happen.
3. C Frank Ragnow
Ragnow is set to return to action after missing Week 4 with a partially torn pectoral. If he had his way he wouldn't have missed even that one game, but the bye week spent rehabbing has helped him be healthy enough to go against the Cowboys.
With the pieces the Cowboys will be missing from their pass rush this week (Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, Marshawn Kneeland), defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer will have to get a little more creative than he already might to generate pressure on Jared Goff.
Going back to when Zimmer was the Vikings' head coach, Ragnow has seen what Zimmer can throw at a protection scheme as the proverbial "Godfather of the A-Gap blitz". On Thursday, via Tim Twentyman of Lions.com, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson spoke about the importance of having Ragnow back this week.
"He's got a lot of experience against this type of scheme," Johnson said of Ragnow. "Before I even was here, he was going against Zimmer's defense (in Minnesota), so he knows what issues that particular scheme can bring up. It's interesting, Year 1 for them in this scheme, how much is going to dive back into his Minnesota years, but that's where we have a little bit of familiarity with him, particularly with Frank because he's been able to see all of this. And so, he knows exactly what we want to do."
Ragnow's status as the league's best center is rooted in three equal folds: physically superior, mentally acute and tougher than a two-dollar steak. As the literal centerpiece of the Lions' offensive line, he's impossible to totally replace (even if Graham Glasgow does so very well when called upon).
Keeping Goff clean in the face of what'll likely be a blitz-heavy gameplan and creating space for the ground game starts with Ragnow on Sunday. As it usually does, but there's an extra layer of importance this week facing a defensive mind who's very well-known to the Lions' center.
2. CB Terrion Arnold
1. CB Carlton Davis
A 92-yard touchdown naturally skewed things, but Cowboys' wide receiver CeeDee Lamb simply owned the Lions' secondary in last year's matchup (13 receptions for 227 yards and that touchdown).
No one was totally immune from Lamb's abuse in that game. But he had seven catches on as many targets when the now-departed Cam Sutton was covering him, with half (48) of his 96 yards when Sutton was covering him coming after the catch (according to Pro Football Focus).
Arnold's penalty issues early in his rookie season have been well-documented, but Davis is not far behind him with four pass interferences. Three of those came in Week 4 against Seattle, along with a defensive holding, after which Davis was not kind in his assessment of the officiating.
That said, Davis is generally doing well in coverage. Entering Week 6, he is the 10th-best corner in PFF's new Separation Prevented metric. Arnold has improved in coverage, penalties aside, in recent weeks.
The Cowboys, smartly, line Lamb up all over the formation in an effort to get matchups they like. So Arnold and Davis on the outside, and anyone who lines up in the slot (Brian Branch, Amik Robertson), will get a dose of him on Sunday. But if Dallas finds a profitable defender to target with their No. 1 receiver, you can bet they'll keep going after whoever it is. To that end, expect Arnold to be tested early and often.
Lions fans should take the penalties from Arnold and Davis with some grain of salt. At least they're close enough to receivers to invite penalties (ticky-tack or not) for trying to impede them. If Lamb is going to be held in somewhat in check on Sunday, and he will make some plays no matter what, it'll be driven by Detroit's perimeter corners on each end of the experience spectrum having top-notch performances.
