The Detroit Lions (4-6) are back home at Ford Field to take on the Buffalo Bills (7-3) on Thanksgiving Day.

Let’s take a closer look at the key things the Lions need to do against the Bills to continue their winning streak. Check out the odds for this game courtesy of our friends over at DraftKings Sportsbook.

Bill’s basic schemes

On offense, the Bills are led by offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, a former NFL quarterback who took over from Brian Daboll after taking the job as head coach with the New York Giants. As a journeyman quarterback and coach, Dorsey has a wealth of experience across multiple systems.

As a result, Dorsey’s wide-ranging approach, coupled with quarterback Josh Allen’s extensive skillset, allows the Bills to make plans for their opponent as well as change their concepts on the fly and adapt to what’s working. If you stop the Bills in one area, they will simply move away from that approach and try a different route. You can go to all levels with receivers, lean on the tight end as a safety valve, use power in the running game, switch to a fast-paced attack, or involve Allen with his wheels on the ground.

Basically there is no single way to stop them. You have to be able to adapt to them.

As far as defense goes, the Bills’ defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier has been running a 4-2-5 for most of the game. The Bills have built a team that lives in nickel sets — they have more nickels than any other team in the NFL — and have the staff to adapt to any offensive sets that come before them.

They can afford to live in this nickel-based defense all day because of the versatility of their safeguards. If an offense puts a man in motion to determine if the defense is in zone or man, the defense may adjust/shift and show a zone look just for the safety to man mark the receiver. This ability to disguise her intentions in the secondary is a staple for Frazier and has several benefits.

The first benefit of confusion in the high school is that it often leads to turnovers, as is the case this season, where the Bills’ 13 interceptions lead the NFL. Second, since the quarterbacks readjust their focus based on the secondary player’s movement, it buys their attacking defensive line additional time to be aggressive and apply pressure.

Since the bills will adjust as you play, our weekly “4 Keys” probably won’t be enough, so let’s double that number instead and this week’s “8 Keys” lead to victory.

Get Alim 1-on-1 and make him break stuff

One of the biggest catalysts in last week’s defensive effort was Alim McNeill taking another step toward his full potential. At 325 pounds, McNeill’s game always prioritized strength, but he was able to capitalize on his above-average athleticism (RAS: 8.52) on the way to a 10-pressure afternoon against the Giants.

Buffalo left guard Roger Saffold — himself a 325-pounder — is coming off a Pro Bowl season with the Titans but underperformed (PFF score: 50.0) in his 12th NFL season. He’ll be the one primarily tasked with slowing McNeill down, but help from the center is always an option. Unfortunately for Buffalo, their starting center Mitch Morse is struggling with elbow and ankle injuries and did not train at all this week. If Morse plays through his injury, he could have trouble with McNeill’s power. If Morse is unable to play, he will likely be replaced by Greg Van Rotten, who currently has a 39.2 pass blocking score from PFF.

gap discipline

If the Lions can generate internal pressure then it will be important for the rest of the back line to maintain their discipline in the gaps. That ability has been a key part of the Lions’ success over the past few weeks, helping them slow opponents’ rushing attacks, including keeping the NFL’s leading rusher (coming into Week 11), Saquon Barkley, to just 22 yards on the ground.

Maintaining gap integrity is necessary not only for corralling running backs, but also for mobile quarterbacks, which is a concern for the Lions. Bills quarterback Josh Allen is tall (6ft 5, 240lbs), mobile and always a threat to leave the bag if his passing opportunities are taken away.

Attack but don’t compromise your gap.

Prioritize stopping the run

As deadly as a duel as Allen is, he’s dealing with an injury to his throwing arm that has bothered him early in games in recent weeks. The thing that set him on the right track was often Bills’ rushing attack, which allowed him to settle in and run their offense.

“They leaned on that,” coach Dan Campbell said of the Bills’ running game last week. “Those backs did a good job and when you combine that with this quarterback, it’s a whole different element. So I know they traditionally threw it, but we assume they will try to walk it. I mean that was a good recipe for her. So I think they’re going to try to do a lot of those things because they were successful against Cleveland. Well, I still say that this quarterback is obviously a big part of everything. He’s the biggest part, but I mean we’re ready for whatever they throw at us.”

If Allen gets off to a slow start and the Lions can slow the Bills’ rushing attack, they could capitalize on that early on.

Alternate Jerry Jacobs and clip cover on Stefon Diggs

With injuries in the Lions’ secondary – most notably Jeff Okudah – they will have to play the team defense at the back end. The Bills throw the ball all over the field and take aim at all of their players, but the player they have to keep an eye on is Stefon Diggs.

“He’s a good player,” Campbell said of Diggs. “Listen, this is a talented team and a talented team that plays good football. They know how to win, they’ve been in big games, it’s an aggressive defense. Just by the way they play, it’s not a huge pressure team, no pressure, but it’s fairer — man, the kind of disorder they have. But as for that, yes they have receivers and it starts with Diggs. I mean he’s versatile, he’s tough, he’s competitive, he’s got a huge route tree. And yes, we cut our work out for ourselves.”

The Bills have too many guns for the Lions to return to bracket coverage — like they did with Vikings’ Justin Jefferson — but it’s still a tool they have to use in certain situations. Don’t be fooled into using it on third downs — that’s when Allen usually targets tight end Dawson Knox — but it has to be an option for certain down-and-distances.

While I don’t think the Lions should assign a cornerback to travel with Diggs, it would be best if they tried pairing Jerry Jacobs with him whenever possible. Jacobs, simply put, might be the only Lions player in the secondary school who has the speed and moxie to cause Diggs problems.

Stop running sideways, stick to the gaps

The Bills front is athletic and disciplined, and if you try to play them head-on, you’re making life difficult for yourself. Ranked 3rd in DVOA running defense, the Bills hold their own in the trenches by attacking quickly.

“We know this defense is a very good defense,” Campbell said of the Bills front. “They are very disruptive and hit the gaps.”

Add in the fact that the Lions will likely be leaning on their reserves’ backups at guard — the Lions are likely to start their fifth- and sixth-best guards this week — and setting up a running game might seem like a daunting task.

However, for the Lions offense to work, they need to establish the run, and if they play to their strengths, they will create an opportunity to get the ball moving on the ground.

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson must continue to be aggressive with his creativity. Just blocking the player opposite is not enough; Johnson needs to pull his guards and create movement with his lineman to shift the running gaps. This downhill aggression is difficult to stop and will play to the strengths of the Lions Reserve Guards, who are much better at run blocking than pass blocking.

This attacking style also plays to Jamaal Williams’ strength in getting from north to south as quickly as possible. Right now it’s their most productive option and they have to embrace it. D’Andre Swift is the more talented defender, but his insistence on running laterally is to his own detriment and has little to no chance of working against Bills’ front. Expect running backs coach/assistant head coach Duce Staley to have little patience for Swift when he’s dancing instead of going downhill.

Use counters to balance the aggressive front

Many of the same counterattacks the Lions used against the Giants’ aggressive defense should be retained in the playbook against the Bills. Leaning on screens, ties and finals are all tools Johnson can use to slow the Bills’ aggression.

Last week, Johnson showed sharp instincts when he called those counters – see Calif Raymond’s end to seal the win – and he needs to get his instincts on point against the Bills.

Edit the slot and shoot down

Like most NFL defenses, the Bills can be vulnerable to in-slot production. Working through injuries in their secondary and bottom-down, the weakness tends to be in the seams. As is most weeks, Amon-Ra St. Brown should be a priority.

But they can’t just pepper the slot because Buffalo is adjusting their defense, so the Lions need to test the perimeter as well. When the Bills get aggressive with their front six and safeties, they leave their outside corners in one-on-one situations and the Lions have to test them with deep shots. With his workload expected to increase, this will be DJ Chark’s opportunity to show why the Lions have been chasing him freehand.

“I know he came out of the game feeling pretty good,” Campbell said of DJ Chark’s return from injury. So we think he can certainly handle a bigger load this week, which is good.”

Keep enforcing sales

Turnovers have been a big factor in the Lions’ last three wins — they’ve had seven in that span — and they’ll need to maintain that against the Bills if they’re to match.

“It’s huge,” Campbell said of forcing turnovers. “We will need them badly. We’re going to need them and see, that was part of the secret sauce for us. We’re getting her, and that means we’re turning a corner because we’re getting her out. So we have to continue that trend and if we can put him in a position where he feels he needs to get rid of the ball and we can get our hands on it. We have to capitalize, so it’s going to be big for us. It was big for us.”

As Jeremy Reisman noted in our game preview, the Bills have 18 season turnovers — the third most in the NFL — and tend to give the defense opportunities to secure takeaways. Detroit’s defense needs to keep playing with the ball, and their offense needs to turn those opportunities into points.

Sometimes we take flight safety for granted. But we were just reminded by video when United Airlines Flight 811 from Honolulu was ripped apart in mid-air shortly after takeoff. A massive explosive decompression ejected several rows of seats from the plane, and nine passengers were killed, whose bodies were never recovered. The flight departed from Los Angeles and landed uneventfully in Honolulu on its regular daily route to Sydney with stops. Nothing was reported as incorrect by the flight crew.

The event occurred on February 24, 1989, when the Boeing 747-100 cargo door failed shortly after takeoff from HNL. Miraculously, the badly damaged plane was able to return to Honolulu and land safely. The aircraft was later repaired and returned to service with United. The plane had flown nearly 60,000 flight hours on 15,000 flights prior to that day without incident.

After the Flight 811 accident, the aircraft was repaired and returned to service with UAL for another 8 years before moving to another airline where it flew until 1998.

The flight on that fateful day.

The flight was under the control of Captain David Cronin and was to be his last flight before reaching the then mandatory retirement age. The flight took off just before 2 a.m. in Hawaii with a total of 355 passengers and crew on board. As the plane climbed out of HNL at 23,000 feet, there was a loud noise followed by severe vibration. Fire believed to have been caused by a bomb, the aircraft’s forward cargo door had actually been ripped off. The door’s design was to swing outward rather than inward, and its force tore a large hole in the aircraft’s fuselage. Then the plane’s cabin floor caved in and 10 seats were ejected from the 747. Two of those seats were unoccupied, but the remaining seat occupants were killed.

A flight attendant was almost sucked out of the cabin, as happened on Aloha Airlines Flight 243, when it suffered explosive decompression just months earlier. The passengers and crew of the UAL 747 came to the aid of the flight attendant and were able to pull her back onto the plane. However, she suffered significant injuries.

Due to the current events, the flight crew suspected a bomb.

It was believed at the time that a bomb might have gone off on the 747, as happened on Pan Am’s Flight 103 just before Flight 811.

Emergency descent and preparation for landing.

A rapid descent to achieve breathable air was initiated as the plane returned to land in Honolulu. Due to the location of the explosion, emergency oxygen did not work.

Two of the four engines and more were damaged in the explosive decompression.

Flying parts of the aircraft damaged two of the four engines. Both had to be closed as a result. One of the wings was also dented and damaged.

Preparation for emergency landing at HNL.

Preparations were made for an emergency landing in Honolulu. The intercom system failed, preventing communication between the cockpit and cabin crew. The flight engineer went down to advise the cabin crew and find out what had happened. He mistakenly believed it was a bomb blast that caused the damage.

Despite not fully functioning landing flaps, the landing gear remained functional and a high-speed landing could be successfully initiated.

14 fateful minutes before landing.

Only 14 minutes elapsed from the moment of the explosion to the return to the HNL. Miraculously, upon landing, the entire aircraft was evacuated in less than 45 seconds.

Flight attendant heroes don’t have easy jobs.

It was reported that all of Flight 811’s flight attendants were injured during the incident and the evacuation.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The NTSB was initially unable to locate the missing cargo door, but came to their conclusion based on previous problems with cargo doors. Another 747 owned by Pan Am had a door incident at 20,000 feet that resulted in the flight being canceled. The door was open 1.5 inches on one edge. Investigators found that the locking mechanism was damaged. Boeing initially believed that this was caused by an error on the part of the ground crew,

The NTSB first determined that previous malfunctions in the plane’s forward cargo door damaged the door latch. As a result, it appeared to be locked and locked, but actually wasn’t. NTSB blamed UAL for improper maintenance and inspection.

However, further independent investigation led some to conclude that it was actually a design issue combined with an electrical issue that caused the door to open mid-flight. The design of an outward swinging door, which is more charge efficient, has also been seen as largely to blame. It was later reported that Boeing had known about a latch issue for almost 14 years. They had recommended changes to operating airlines, including moving from thin aluminum to heavier steel components. This was followed in July 1988 by a corresponding FAA airworthiness guideline, giving airlines up to two years to comply. After this incident, this was changed to a 30 day policy.

The cargo door was later recovered at a depth of 14,000 feet off Hawaii.

NTSB inspection found the theory of the locking mechanism to be incorrect. Based on developments, including another UAL 747 incident at JFK, an updated final report was issued in 1992, stating that the probable cause of the incident was a sudden opening of the cargo door due to a combination of improper wiring and cargo door defects. As a result of a short circuit, locking devices unexpectedly responded, aerodynamically allowing the door to blow off.

Fascinating reenactment video that reminds us of the incident.

I’m grateful that the Republicans-predicted “red tsunami” failed to take power at midpoint. One of the brightest points of the election was the GOP’s rejection of Donald Trump’s handpicked, underperforming candidates.

Democrats squeezed through to have minimal power in the Senate, and while the GOP may lead the House, it’s only a handful of seats. Most importantly for future election stability, Trump’s abstainers have lost their candidatures for attorney general and secretary of state in key battleground states.

“This was a gut test of Americans’ sanity, and luckily we passed (though not with distinction). There was just enough recognition that the country could not succumb to paranoia and violence,” said Bruce Cain, a professor of political science at Stanford University.

And on the ground, it was uplifting to see that instead of “same old, same old” Democratic dominance, a few Republicans would break through the blue wall and emerge victorious. A rise from five to eight Republicans in the legislature was not a red wave, it was definitely an ebb.

Now Hawaii will have the highest number of Republican lawmakers in office since 2014, when there were nine. It doesn’t matter that 22 Republicans were elected in 2000.

As political analyst Neal Milner says, “It’s a small step forward in saving the Republican Party from extinction here.”

The party takes all the credit for carefully strategizing to win in Oahu‘s purple counties, though two of the GOP wins were likely attributed largely to Democrats Sharon Har and Matt LoPresti’s failed campaigns, which started earlier this year Year after her unrepentant claim, drunk driving cases were dismissed.

Hawaii is unlikely ever to become Republican, but a tiny loyal opposition like the one that has emerged this year offers hope for a critique of the status quo. A few Republican officials – unafraid of political backlash – might be brave enough to prevent the state from being drowned in another sea of ​​corruption.

Although his unlikely Hawaii will ever plummet again to its current depths, as former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha is serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison, his assistant district attorney’s wife is also serving 13 years, and two Honolulu police officers are in federal prison for killing the Kealohas helped the mailbox conspiracy.

Then there are the three city officials charged with conspiracy over their alleged role in a $250,000 payout deal for the disgraced Chief Kealoha. A state senator jailed for three years for taking bribes and a member of the House of Representatives awaiting sentencing in January on similar bribery charges.

Four current and former employees of the Honolulu Department of Public Works pleaded guilty to taking bribes, and former Maui County official Stewart Stant was charged with taking more than $2 million in bribes.

GOP newbies lack sufficient numbers to pass their own laws, but they can stink when Democratic bills calling for tougher prison sentences for corruption are shelved.

“Tackling corruption and building trust with voters are our most important goals,” GOP state chair Lynn Finnegan said in a phone call on Friday.

Finnegan regrets that the GOP hasn’t pushed harder on the corruption issue throughout the election cycle, but says it will be different going forward.

“Corruption is a good issue for us,” she said.

However, nothing will change the way local governments deal with corruption – no matter how many new laws are passed – unless there is a will to enforce them and oversight commissions are willing to do what they are told.

A key problem in curbing corruption in Hawaii is repeated over and over again in interviews by former federal defense attorney Alexander Silvert. Silvert says Hawaii has no more or less corruption than other areas of the country, but lacks whistleblowers and introspection.

On the national front, it’s heartening to think that voters have embraced the Democrats’ message that this election was about protecting the future of democracy — a plea that pundits on both sides have wrongly predicted was would lead to a massive defeat for the party.

Another positive aspect was voters’ push to protect abortion rights in states where abortion was a voting issue. It was moving to see men and women rally in the face of continued attacks after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs case turned on its head nearly 50 years of federal protections for women’s rights.

The country is just as divided as it was before the election, but the fact that things could have been a lot worse is enough to leave the tiniest glimmer of hope for better days.