### **2\. HOW WILL CAROLINA SCHEME IT?**
Carolina placed their two starting outside cornerbacks – Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson – on Reserve/Injured this week and have a couple other injuries on defense to navigate through ahead of tonight's contest.
How much will the changing personnel affect the schemes that Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero wants to deploy against an explosive Lions' offense that averages 31 points per game this season?
"It adds to the unknown. There's an element of, 'Do they change? Do they not? Who's going to be in the game? How are they going to organize it? What personnel packages do they want to play with?'" Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said this week.
Detroit's first three opponents have been mixing it up pretty good schematically when facing the Lions vs. what they've shown defensively on film, per Lions wide receiver [Amon-Ra St. Brown](https://www.detroitlions.com/team/players-roster/amon-ra-st-brown/).
"I feel like honestly we've been getting a lot of different looks than what we've seen on tape with a lot of opponents we've seen this year," St. Brown said. "We're expecting one thing, but also, you can expect the unexpected, too. We've got to be able to make adjustments in-game."
Defenses have played the Lions with a lot of shell coverages trying to keep everything in front of them and making quarterback [Jared Goff](https://www.detroitlions.com/team/players-roster/jared-goff/) and the offense earn their points by driving the football.
Detroit has nine completions of 20-plus yards (ranked 14th) and just one run of 20-plus yards this season. In 2025, the Lions finished third in the league with 66 completions of 20-plus yards and sixth with 14 runs of 20-plus yards.
It will be interesting to see how Carolina schemes it up defensively tonight and how it might look vs. what Detroit scouted on tape from the Panthers the first three weeks.