After a bye week that felt like an eternity, the Los Angeles Rams are finally back in action. They’ll hit the road to take on the Detroit Lions, and enter the game as massive favorites. While the Rams are 10-point favorites in the game, there are plenty of reasons not to take the Lions lightly. They’re a desperate team right now, and this is something of a last stand for Detroit.

Here’s what the Rams can expect on both sides of the ball:

Offense:

The Lions overhauled their coaching staff this offseason, but opted to keep offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter on. Judging by the way things have gone for Detroit’s offense this season, Cooter will very likely be out of a job after this season. He has no previous relationship with new head coach Matt Patricia, and the offense has really fallen off a cliff recently.

One thing that nobody really saw coming this year was the sharp regression of Matthew Stafford. Despite having a career high completion percentage, Stafford is averaging just 7 yards per attempt, down from 7.87 last year. That means most of his throws have been short passes, and Cooter has caught a lot of flack for running a very conservative offense.

Luckily for the Rams, they’re catching this Lions offense at exactly the right time. Detroit finally had a great ground game going for the first time in seemingly forever, and then Kerryon Johnson hurt his knee a couple weeks ago. He’ll be out for this game, and the Lions’ rushing attack has gone back to non-existent without him.

LeGarrette Blount doesn’t have much left in the tank, and Theo Reddick doesn’t offer much as a runner, so the Rams won’t have to worry too much about stopping the run here. That’s great news, as the Rams have struggled to contain the run at various points this season.

The Lions’ receiving corps is also depleted at the moment, making things much easier for the struggling Rams secondary. Not only is Aqib Talib back for this one, but the Lions are without Golden Tate and Marvin Jones. They traded Tate to the Eagles at the deadline, and Jones is done for the year with a knee injury.

The Lions don’t have much at tight end, so that leaves pretty much just receiver Kenny Golladay for the Rams to worry about. Talib should be able to handle Golladay, and the Rams would seem to match up pretty well here. Stafford has already equaled his interception total from last year, and really struggles with the kind of interior pressure that Aaron Donald can provide.

All that being said, the Rams should see the best effort possible from the Lions here. They were embarrassed by a backup quarterback on national TV the last time they took the field, and Stafford had one of his worst games of the season, throwing a game-sealing interception late in the fourth quarter. They’ll be coming out highly motivated to try to end their slide here, and the Rams will need to make sure to not get caught sleeping here.

Defense:

The Lions hired Patricia, the longtime Patriots defensive coordinator, with the hope that he would re-invent their defense. So far that hasn’t happened, and they’ve been one of the worst defenses in the league. They traded for Damon Harrison at the trade deadline, which has helped their run defense, but their secondary has been a mess.

Despite the return of defensive end Ziggy Ansah from a shoulder injury, they still haven’t been able to generate much of a pass-rush. The secondary has some pretty good talent in cornerback Darius Slay and safety Quandre Diggs, but they’ve been getting exposed because the pass-rush has been unable to get home.

They have a decent amount of sacks, but the vast majority of those have been coverage sacks and not actual pure pass rush. This Rams offense is absolutely lethal when Jared Goff has time to throw and assuming the offensive line holds up well against the Lions’ pass rushers, which they should, the passing attack will shred this defense.

The Lions have struggled a bit to cover tight ends at times this season, so Gerald Everett and Tyler Higbee could be in for a big game here. Higbee and Everett have both seen their roles increase greatly in recent weeks, and that should continue here.

Patricia hired his old friend Paul Pasqualoni to coordinate the defense, and it’s just never looked in sync. There are frequent miscommunications in the secondary, something Sean McVay should easily take advantage of with his motions and misdirection plays.

The bottom line:

The Rams match up very well here, and it’s perhaps their best on paper matchup of the season. When the Rams play a team that can’t get a pass-rush they’re going to put up a ton of points. The Lions are also missing most of their offensive weapons, which is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Rams defense. While it’s important they don’t overlook this Lions team because they’re definitely going to get their best effort, things should go well here.