The Detroit Lions are expected to start David Blough at quarterback when they host on the Chicago Bears for their Thanksgiving showdown on Thursday, the team announced. With Matthew Stafford already ruled out with his back injury and Jeff Driskel's hamstring still hindering him, the Lions are forced to look down the depth chart.
While Driskel, who is officially ruled as questionable for Week 13, is not healthy enough to start, the Lions note that he will still serve as the backup. In his three games as the starter for Detroit this season, Driskel has completed 59% of his passes for 685 yards, four touchdowns, and four interceptions. The Lions are 0-3 in his starts.
As for Blough, he's an undrafted rookie out of Purdue who originally signed on with the Cleveland Browns following the 2019 NFL Draft. He was traded to Detroit in late August and has been with the club throughout the year.
While losing two starting quarterbacks is certainly not a situation that head coach Matt Patricia and company want to be in, they have been preparing for such circumstances to arise as Blough has been taking some first-team reps in practice.
"We've put him in certain situations," Patricia told reporters on Tuesday. "We have different team periods throughout practice normally when we're out there. We'll have competitive periods against offense versus defense, along with our preparation periods that we use each week. We like to take those different kind of chances during the week to mix up some of the huddles, and who is out there and who is not. We do it really at all positions, and certainly, Blough is one of those guys that it's important for us to do that with too."
Blough will get his first ever NFL start against a Chicago Bears defense that has allowed 218.8 passing yards per game this season, ranking ninth best in the league. This news coupled with the already tough matchup for Detroit has quickly caught the attention of the oddsmakers as the the line moved to Bears -5 at the Westgate Superbook within minutes of the news being reported.
