Sunday, September 19, 2004

Lions vs Texans - down at the game...

Well, yesterday I stumbled on a link that mentioned that there were tickets available to the Lions game, so I quick scooped up some tickets and headed down to the field. It's always fun to see a game in person. The only downfall is that my Wife decided that she wanted to watch something else, so my TiVo wasn't functioning for the game. No replays, no down-n-dirty analysis, no reliving the good feelings. Just have to suck it up and go from my memory while at the game. So... Here are my impressions of what I saw at the game today. I came away with a few things that I saw that I really liked...

Fernando - the dude is a SHUT-DOWN corner. He played flat-out AWESOME today. It seemed like every time they came to his side of the field he made a play. he just looked fantastic...

KJ - Enough already - get the man 20 carries. There were at least 4 runs today that had the entire crowd standing on our feet. I haven't felt like that watching a game since #20 was lacing em up for us.

Roy - Thank god we got him in the draft. Joey needed a #1 receiver. CRog is still a #1 next year, but so is Roy. These two should strike genuine FEAR into our opponents next year.

Joey - I think Joey's starting to get used to all his new toys. It looks like this year could be really fun to watch him silence his critics...

SRog - ProBowl Starter. Mark it down. Dude must still be pissed that the Sporting News didn't have him in it's list of the top 100 players this year. He wants to be top 10 next year, and at this pace, he may be. He's dang near unstoppable.

Eddie - OK, I can handle you returning kicks for us. Sorry I wanted the team to cut you. My bad...

With all that good stuff, there are some negatives. Here goes...

- Our outside LB's need to learn FAST where they are supposed to be. There is no way that Dom Davis should get nearly 200 total yards on us. His success was more an indictment of our LB's than it was of him being great...

- Still too many busted up plays by the interior of the O-Line. I couldn't tell at the stadium who was to blame, but I do know that the Texans down linemen shouldn't be getting into the backfield like that. KJ and Pinner each got hit in the backfield several times...

- I'm a bit miffed at the next to last drive - 2 incompletes, then a draw play on 3rd and 10 from the 18? With how Joey was doing prior to that, you'd think we'd at least take one more shot at a first down...

- I'm not sure if it was play calling or Joey being nervous in the first half, but the offense was VERY tentative out there. Almost like they were afraid to try anything other than a basic play. Thank god it got a lot better in the second half.

But in the end, we are 2-0, in first place (maybe alone after Monday night), and have a chance for a statement game next week vs. Philly. If Philly comes in 2-0 and we beat them, people will HAVE to respect the Lions. I surely don't want to see them drop 3 places to 28th in a power poll after a win like I did this week in the Fox Sports NFL Power Poll after week 1...

Dang it feels good to be 2-0..

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