Game Notes - vs Packers: Most important stat - W

One down, a win, and 15 more to go. That game wasn't too pretty, but it did show us how this Lions season might turn out. Here is my quick summary of what I saw.



- The O-Line once again had a rough day. Last year it took them until nearly the mid-point of the season to gel. I hope it's much sooner this year.

- Joey again was somewhat inconsistent as well as being victimized by drops. The Lions team site claimed 3 drops, but I counted 5 by Roy myself, and the Pollard drop in the endzone. I can understand that some of the plays - Pollard's for example - were probably labeled as good D plays by the Pack hitting the receiver. I still view those as passes that should have been caught.

In addition to that, Joey was off on a few throws - about 5 by my count. Out of 32 pass attempts (including 4 no-plays), that's not a bad number.

One thing I'm confused about is what game people were watching who complained about a lack of passes to our WR's. Out of the 32 pass plays I mentioned, 16 went to our WR's. That's 6 completions (don't forget KJ2 caught 2) and 10 incompletions. Roy had a lot of action his way - 10 throws to him, and only 2 catches. If people want to complain about our WR's not catching more passes, I can agree. But they definitely had opportunities.

- KJ looked like GB was daring the Lions to beat them through the air. There weren't too many 8-men-in D lineups, but they played a close bump-n-run on the WR's and stacked the middle to stop KJ. Again, it will take the WR's making a name for themselves and some different playcalling to really open things up for KJ. Plus Smith was a waste of a positional player while he was in there. They'd be far better off to use Bryson as a FB as at least he is a receiving threat.

- As every newspaper article written has indicated, the D looked good. It wouldn't have looked quite as good had GB not shot themselves in the foot so many times. Javon Walker had a 55 yard completion wiped out by offensive pass interference. Had he not had a brain fart, he likely still would have caught the ball based on where Favre's throw was - high and outside - where Bryant couldn't defend it. That could have set up a score, and the botched field goal was another woulda-shoulda-coulda had points. That being said, Favre looked average and Ahman Green had all of 58 yards rushing. A lot of the credit for their performances has to go to our D.

Where we go from here is uncertain. I know if I was Joey, I'd be making a pitch for CRog and Roy to switch spots for the next game to see how they respond. Mooch had hinted that he would rotate the receivers around the positions, so this just might happen. Roy was very disappointing IMHO. He dropped several passes last year, and was let off easy because he a) was a rookie, b) was playing injured, and c) made some spectacular catches. Yesterday, he dropped several easy ones, ones that could have kept drives alive. I'm not saying dump him, but we have three guys who all could be #1 receivers. Roy's status as #1 WR for this team should not be set in stone - more like sand.

The Hanson situation worries me. The Lions have almost never had to worry about the kicking game in my memory. In the last 25 years, we've had Eddie Murray and Jason Hanson as kickers. Now, if Hanson can't go, it suddenly becomes a worry. I'm keeping my fingers it's just a soreness issue, and that Harris can handle kicking for one game, giving Hanson until October 2 against Tampa before he has to kick again.

Next week, it's Chicago. I'm not sure what to make of that game just yet. I'll think more as we get closer to gametime...

The great unknown...

One of the questions that has been making the rounds is 'Why do the Joey-Lovers have all this love for Joey?' The arguement is that he has shown nothing in his nearly 3 years of starting that give any indication that he'll be even mediocre. I tend to disagree with that assessment, but I'm not ready to annoint him the Lions savior either. Here is my opinion on Joey...

It's not love for Joey, it's common sense that as much as we want to, we can't separate the QB from his team. It's a classic chicken and egg scenario - were his stats mediocre because he is a mediocre QB, or because he had mediocre talent to work with? Based on imperical evidence, I lean toward the later - that the talent had a lot to do with it. I just don't know if it was all of it, most of it, or slightly more than 50% of it.

Think of it this way - If his receivers the past three years were that good, why can't any of them that have left the team get and hold an NFL WR job? Where is Scotty Anderson playing? Az Hakim? Bill Schroeder?

How can you judge the QB when his two best receivers have played a combined 9 games between them at full strength? CRog played 5 full games at 100% his rookie year, Roy played 4 full games at 100% his rookie year.

How can you judge a QB when his starting receivers change every game? When you run a timing passing game like the WCO, you often throw the ball before a receiver makes his break. If you don't know from week to week which receiver you'll be throwing to, and therefore when that receiver will make their break, and where they'll run the route to, it sure does make a QB look like they're throwing a bad ball, simply because they can't anticipate their WR's route because they haven't worked enough with that receiver.

How can you judge a QB when he has only just begun to get a running game? When KJ finally broke 100 in week 10 last year, it was the first 100 yard rushing game by a Lions RB in Joey's 2.5 years starting.

How can you judge a QB when their O-Line is a sieve? This pre-season has been a microcosm of the past few years - Joey running for his life on a 3 step drop. Only in the past he would throw the dreaded 'checkdown' or throw it away instead of taking a sack - something I always thought was a ridiculous criticism.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying Joey is a great QB, or that he even will be a good QB. I'm saying that we still have no idea how good he can or will be. And we really won't have a good idea until after a few games into this season. If he isn't running for his life and has an OK running game (a step down from what KJ did last year), and he stinks up the joint, then I think we have the evidence we need. If we see a marked improvement from previous seasons, I think we'll also have an answer. But it's foolish to think that we know the answer yet.

Lionbacker Fantasy Football Blog

I'm considering an informal tie-in of my blog to the guys at Lionbacker. They have a blog here on Blogger as well, related to fantasy football. It's at Lionbacker Fantasy Football Blog and they have some decent stuff on there. If I were to tie in, I'd likely get a Lionbacker logo and a few of their additional links Since I'm anything but a html genius, it may take a while before anything happens. In any case, I'll probably be posting more often with my Lions thoughts. Especially now that I've found a few of these new tools - the Blog This button and the e-mail new posts methods. Should be fun...

Upon further review...

Looking at the TiVo again, I came away with the following items...

- We need to work the next two weeks on one subject - BLITZING. Both the Defense doing more of it and the Offense learning how to pick it up. We got killed last night because of our inability to do either. And here's the thing - I think they are directly related to one another. Since Juaron doesn't send people that much, the O gets very limited work in picking up the blitz. The O-Line looked completely out of sync, and KJ looked lost in picking up the LB's. I think this is likely more of a matter of repetition than a systemic weakness. But it begs the question - why haven't they gotten enough practice time against the blitz? I think it may have to do with Juaron not wanting to blitz too much. It's just my thinking, but it seems to make sense.

- The D really missed Baby and Hall. When you don't play with your two best D-Linemen, you definitely lose something up front. And we had NO pressure on Bulger last night. Plus, their guards were able to quickly get to our LB's on sweeps. Add those two back in, and it would likely create a much different look. Without them, I think it shows just how vulnerable we are at D-Line.

- I'm more convinced than ever that if you ring Joey's bell early in the game that it will throw him off for the rest of the game. The Rams got to him early and often, and Joey never felt comfortable back there after that. You really can't blame him for hurrying throws when he was taking that kind of a pounding. That's why it's imperative that the O-Line figures out how to handle the blitz. With all that being said, he didn't look too bad during the game. If CRog and Pollard make their catches, he goes 12-18 with a TD or two instead of 9-18.

- One of the reasons our receivers can't get separation is because of how aggressive the D was against us. They simply never had time to get down the field and get open. The D was attacking on all fronts and had the Lions managed to pick up that blitz, it's pretty likely that at least one of the receivers would have gotten open for a big gainer. Again, it all goes back to the Line.

- As I predicted, the Rams were in their full regular season mode for the game. Martz had some very creative play calls on O that took maximum advantage of his personnel. Their D was stunting and blitzing from multiple angles, overloading sides, delaying bltizes, and generally creating havoc. The Lions opened up the playbook some, but still ran mostly vanilla plays. Our blitzes never seemed to get near Bulger, and based on the Rams O-Line, I guess that shouldn't be a surprise.

It is still preseason. They do have time to work out the kinks before the regular season opens. Hopefully they can figure some of them out...

Game Notes - Preseason vs Rams: UGH-LY...

Looks like it's paper-bag time again in Motown. That had to be one of the worst performances I've seen in a long time. I must keep reminding myself "it's only preseason", but it's hard to believe that the team can flip a switch and be significantly better in 2 weeks against Green Bay. Where to begin...

Well, Where I always say the game starts and ends is with the O-Line. This game started and ended with our O-Line forgetting this this was a game, not a 'no-touch' practice. Dominic Raiola got owned in this game as he completely missed his assignment at least 3 times, got called for a holding on a screen pass, and just didn't get anything done. Backus whiffed a few times as well. Butler looked like the inexperienced guy he is, and DeMulling had another sub-par game. There was no decent pass blocking, no decent run blocking, and a lot of stupid penalties. Ouch.

The next problem is something that must be remedied - KJ couldn't pick up fat ass Claiborne on a blitz. Here we dumped that ball a few years back, and he's proven to be worthless with the ViQueens, and then he bowls over KJ. I just don't get it. KJ has to improve there, and soon.

Now we get to the pitch-n-catch game. This looked like last season in a microcosm. There were a few balls that were dropped, Joey threw behind a few receivers, and everything just looked off. It appears that one of my biggest fears about JH is a valid one - he gets gun-shy when he gets hit too often. He absolutely got pounded back there, getting hit on 3 step drops, sacked several times before he could even set his feet, having the pocket collapse on him. When he gets into his gun-shy mode is when he is throwing off his back foot, and starts underthrowing his receivers. And with the pressure the Rams put on him, it shouldn't be any wonder that he got gun-shy. And after all of that, the dropsies came back. Here I thought Pollard was supposed to have sure hands, and he let one hit him on the shoulder pads and bounce off. CRog lost concentration a few times as well.

Finally we get to the running game. Perhaps the only game facet that didn't look too bad was KJ. Unfortunately, when he gets blown up behind the line of scrimmage, it's kinda hard for him to get any positive yardage. Of course he positives were severly brought down by the bad blitz pickup. Ugh.

On the D side, I am going to make this my calling card - WE NEED COREY SIMON!!! Millen - go get the guy and sign him NOW. And while you're at it, would you care to find a few more CB's as well? And perhaps a backup safety as I never want to see Bracey Walker on a football field again. Once again, he got toasted for a quick six for Isaac Bruce after he missed a zone coverage switch. We saw him miss that play enough times last year, did we really need to see it again? Speaking of D-Backs, where the heck were they? The Rams receivers were consistently open all game. Bulger had not only plenty of time to throw, but he had receivers without defenders within 10 yards of them on several occasions. I turned off the game around the start of the 4th quarter, and the Rams still had not punted. That should say it all.

Were there any positives? Off hand, I'd say no. Well, maybe the D did look like they forced a few turnovers, only to have a few called back by stupid penalties. The penalties were hideous. We may have the only team I know of that can get 1st and goal on the 5, and somehow run two plays and end up with 1st and goal on the 25. And Hanson looked good kicking those field goals. Ugh.

Is it too late for me to change my season prediction?