by Sports Xchange

Wide receiver Calvin Johnson has missed two games with a right knee injury. He was able to practice this week, however, and coach Jim Schwartz said on Friday that Johnson will be listed as questionable to play Sunday at Seattle.

Johnson sounded somewhat optimistic midweek that he would be able to return against the Seahawks.

"We're going to just be careful, do what I can do," Johnson said. "As long as I don't have any setbacks, I think it'll look brighter for Sunday."

Johnson said he felt no pressure to return because of the Lions' struggles on offense without him. But the Lions need him back not only because of the plays he makes, but because of how he opens up the offense for others.

"He's not just a guy that you can bump and run with because he's so big," quarterback Matthew Stafford said. "You've got to put help over the top a lot of times, and teams don't like to single him up. It changes their philosophy."

Running back Kevin Smith could use a safety out of the box. He is likely to play after leaving Sunday's game against St. Louis with a shoulder injury -- the second such problem he has had this season -- and knows he needs to produce better.

Schwartz has talked about breaking big runs. Smith's longest is 20 yards. He averages 3.1 yards per carry.

"We're all looking to kind of quiet the critics that Detroit doesn't have a running game," Smith said. "Because I get the ball first, I want to be that tempo-setter and that lead dog. I think enough's enough."

The Lions are trying to give Maurice Morris and rookie Aaron Brown a few more carries, while keeping Smith as the No. 1 back.

"We've got to, between the three of them, come up with a productive plan in the run game to win," offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. "We haven't gotten there yet."

Smith bristled and declined to comment when asked if the coaches were increasing competition. But earlier he talked about feeling heat.

"The coaches have expectations," Smith said. "Of course you want to prove to them that you can do your thing, but the most pressure is coming from myself, because I didn't come in this league to be a bottom-list rusher. ...

"I've got to stick with it. If it's not going my way, there's two things you can do: You can give up, or you can get better. There's only one option for me."

--The Seahawks are 2-5, and folks in Seattle are squawking about ugly losses to Arizona and Dallas. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has struggled recently. Wide receivers T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Deion Branch have shown their displeasure in different ways.

But here come the Lions, who could make everything better, at least for a week. Seattle is a difficult place for any team to play, and the Lions have lost 15 straight road games -- not to mention 29 of their past 31 games overall. The Lions struggle against the pass, and they seem particularly vulnerable against the type of offense the Seahawks run.

The Seahawks are a West Coast team, meaning they should complete a high percentage of their passes. Hasselbeck hasn't done that so far this season. He is at only 55.9 percent. But there are reasons for that.

Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham thinks it's the broken ribs Hasselbeck had earlier this year.

"His completion percentage is way down, which is surprising," Cunningham said. "It's probably because of the injury. Usually you go 65, 70 in that offense."

Lions coach Jim Schwartz thinks it's the longer passes the Seahawks have mixed in.

"Seattle has worked some deeper routes into their concept, and they're taking more shots down the field," Schwartz said. "I think that's where you're seeing the reflection of the lower completion percentage. So they still have West Coast principles, but they also have some play-action deep balls that traditionally you're not going to complete as many."

Seattle coach Jim Mora Jr. thinks it's a poor performance against Arizona that skewed Hasselbeck's stats.

Whatever the reason, it might not matter against the Lions, who are allowing opponents to complete 70.5 percent of their passes, second-worst in the NFL. The Lions' secondary is a mess, and they don't match up well with the Seahawks' receiving corp.

The Lions have lost yet another defensive back, with Demarcus Faggins (groin) joining Daniel Bullocks (knee) and Eric King (shoulder) on injured reserve.

Will James and Phillip Buchanon likely will start at cornerback Sunday. Anthony Henry is still in the doghouse, practicing as a starter on special teams but not on defense.

But the Lions have signed a new cornerback, Jason David, and are trying to get him up to speed as quickly as possible.

"We get a new guy every week, it seems like," Cunningham said. "And it was funny, Jim asked last night or the night before: 'Has anybody talked to the new guy yet?' And both secondary coaches said: 'We met with him for five hours.'

"We're doing everything on the run. We'll see later on the week how we're going to use him."

The good news for the Lions is that they are coming off their best performance on pass defense this season. They held St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger to 17-for-35 for 176 yards, no touchdowns and an interception.

"I think we're seeing improvement in the secondary," Schwartz said. "I think guys are learning the defense better. We've tackled better in the secondary. We had a couple incidents against the Rams where we didn't tackle well, but ... it took away from some really good efforts out there.

"Guys are settling in. We've dealt with a lot of injuries. We have a lot of IR guys from the secondary. We need to stay on that track and settle it down and move forward from the second half of the season."

SERIES HISTORY: 11th regular-season meeting. Seahawks lead series, 6-4. The Seahawks won the last meeting, 9-6, but it was a bit of a moral victory for the Lions. It was the Seahawks' first real game since playing Super Bowl XL in the Lions' home stadium, Ford Field.