knee-jerk reactions

I'm back again after not writing last week. Last week, I decided not to write because I didn't want to sound too negative amidst all the good feelings after beating Atlanta. This week, I'm going to sound fairly upbeat compared to all the negative feelings about the 49ers game. The reason for this is that I'm not about to have another knee-jerk reaction to the outcome of a Lions game. Not when I see the same things happening again and again.

Here is the truth about what I've seen the last two weeks - the Lions played about the same against both the 49ers and the Falcons. Now I know everyone will think I'm crazy for saying this, but I do have my reasons for believing this. In quick bullet point form, here's why:

• The Lions are still committing a lot of penalties
• The O still has periods where they don't seem to be on the same page
• The D still can't seem to stop anyone from running between the tackles or making 3rd down conversions
  
• Both games were won by the team that won the turnover battle

That last point is the most critical one. Against Atlanta, the Lions benefited HUGE from the Falcons first half turnovers that led to KJ's TD's. Against the 49ers, the Lions turnovers kept them from getting any kind of momentum going on O until after halftime. Once again, in a game between two teams in the middle of the great 'parity bubble' of the NFL, turnovers will decide nearly every game. And that has held true the last two weeks.

I won't dig into dissecting the O or D this week - it's the same story every game, and it's well enough explained by my bullet points. What I will get into is a few other issues I have a beef with. First, the officiating seems to be at a worse level than I have seen in a long time. I am as confused as ever about what criteria officials use when reviewing instant replay. Both Lions challenges should have overturned calls on the field - Kitna fumbled only after hitting the ground, and Hicks fumbled going to the ground which should have spotted the ball behind the first down marker. Instead, both calls on the field were upheld. I'm curious if the officials are relying on some obscure section of the rulebook that states "A call should not be overturned if it makes a member of your crew look bad". Instead, the lack of overturns made the entire crew look bad. And what does Roy Williams have to do to get a pass interference call? I re-watched the game on TiVo, and it confirmed my suspicions at the game - Roy should have drawn about 5 PI calls, but he only got one whistle on the 49ers. And to hear the announcers, they agree with my assessment. However, the most egregious of the no-calls on Roy's defenders, they seemed blind to the obvious no-call - I'm talking about the no-call on the pass in the endzone. While the announcers were praising the CB for his anticipation, they overlooked a simple fact easily seen on replay - he missed the ball and made contact with Roy's arms before the ball got there. This was easy to see and call, yet even the announcers missed it.

Which leads me to a second beef - can the announcers do a LITTLE homework before they spout off incoherent nonsense? Heard yesterday were these gems. "The Lions have not scored on their opening possession all season" - The previous week against Atlanta, they scored a Field Goal on the opening drive.

And in this situation - Lions down 19-13, 4th and 13 from the 49er 19, they state "The Lions should kick the field goal here and rely on their D for a hold with their timeouts and the two minute warning" EXCUSE ME, but how does that differ from going for it, not making it, and THEN relying on the D for a hold? the only difference is you have a chance for a FG to tie if the D holds. If the D doesn't (and it didn't), it's a moot point. At least this way, they took a chance to win the game.

There were numerous other screw-ups I don't even care to listen to again. But it's typical of the minor-league announcing crews they send to Lions games. I mean if they are going to call the game, they could at least do a little homework before the game. Sheesh.

Finally, I'm going to repeat my concerns with Rod. I'm not going to jump all over his case, but these same points are what has me concerned about this squad.

• They have not gotten any better in reducing the number of penalties per game from last year - if anything they are worse.
• They still are not making any effort to develop the some of the talent that they inherited, instead trying to plug in free agents.
• They are still turning the ball over at a far worse rate than in years past, only this year it's far more fumbles and fewer interceptions.
  
• And finally, the final score is what matters and last year through 9 games, the Lions were 4-5, this year 2-7.

This isn't a death blow to Rod, just that I'm not seeing the improvement I would have expected to have seen by now. What was the main selling point is that Rod would create a new culture, demand accountability, and improve the basic skill level of the players. I still haven't seen that happen.

Again, with all of that, this team is perilously close to being both 8-1 and 1-8. Only the Atlanta and Chicago games have not been in question in the 4th quarter. That still puts the Lions in with the vast majority of teams in the NFL's parity of the middle grounds. The biggest difference between the Lions and a team like the Saints this year is the Lions haven't figured out how to close out games. Until that happens, they'll continue to have a below average record. And we fans will continue to lament the lack of wins.

Back in the Saddle

First off, I must apologize to everyone about the lack of posts recently. When given a choice between investing my emotions on the Tigers in the playoffs and the Lions and their misery, I'll go with the Tigers. It sure feels good to have a winning team that we can all be proud of. The Tigers had a heck of a run, and made me mostly indifferent to whatever was happening with the Lions.

Now that my Tigers related euphoria has faded into the past, I find myself coming back into paying attention to the Lions. Yes, I have watched the last two games, and seen the same things that most everyone else has seen. It's far too late to go breaking down game tape, so I'll just talk today about my general impressions about this club.

I see this season so far as a "glass is half empty / half full" season. The club is very close to being 6-1, and also even closer to being 0-7 right now. As John Madden says (and you likely will never hear me quote him ever again), "a team is what their record is, regardless of how many close games they've had". I find this to be somewhat true, but also I think there is more to it than that. For example, I think both Minnesota and St. Louis – both 4-3 – are absolute frauds that are no where near as good as their records would indicate. Likewise, I think that Pittsburg and Washington – both 2-5 – are nowhere near as bad as their records indicate. This is the problem with NFL parity – there is so little difference between the vast majority of teams in skill or talent that most games are a crapshoot. And our Lions fall right into this great middle area.

I tend to usually be a glass half-full kind of guy. I like to think that things aren't as bad as they look and that they are getting better. I don't know if I can do that with the Lions right now though. I came into this season with certain expectations of what we would see different, and I haven't seen them yet. To be clear, I'm not talking about the record – I'm talking about the way the team plays. Yes, the O has looked a lot better this year, and I'm glad about that. But I still haven't seen the discipline and the penalties being less. I still haven't seen the O-Line and D-Line significantly improve. I still haven't seen the Lions stop shooting themselves in the foot at the most inopportune times. In short, the only thing I see different from past teams is that the O actually is scoring points. And that keeps me from thinking glass half-full.

I do like that the O is scoring points. For the first time in years, we're not wondering if they will be able to put 20 points on the board. And to be honest, I give 100% of the credit for that to Martz. It's about as obvious as can be that the WR's are a LOT more wide open this year. That makes the QB's job a lot easier. There still aren't many holes for KJ to run through, although that has been better in recent weeks. We'll see if getting Tucker and Verba back this week really makes a difference on the O-line. I'm taking a wait and see approach on that one as I'm not sure what the impact will be. Hopefully it's a big one.

Perhaps the biggest question mark on O is why Kitna can't seem to play well in the 4^th quarter. He's done well in the first three quarters of games, but his play in the fourth quarter has directly lost at least 3 games. I don’t even know what to think, but since this season is basically toast already, I do think it’s time to see what McCown or DanO can do in the game.

On D, the injuries to Alex Lewis and Teddy Lehman have hurt us in perhaps our weakest area – LB. Ernie Sims looks to be a pretty good player, but he’s still young. Boss looks OK out there, but he’s still adjusting. Paris Lenon? Ouch. Going with a Packers castoff at LB can’t be good. But as bad as that unit has been, at least they weren’t getting hammered every play because of the play of Shaun Rogers. Now with him sitting for 3 more games for taking a banned weight-loss substance (brilliant one there), it’s going to be VERY rough on our LB’s for the next few weeks. The secondary actually hasn’t been as bad as some people think - it’s hard to defend a WR for 10 seconds because there is no pass rush. And that brings us to another weak spot – DE. Nothing against the guys we have there, but none of them are complete all-around NFL DE’s. We need at least one guy who can generate consistent pressure on the QB from the end. IMHO, this is our #1 need in the draft next year. And since right now we’ll be picking so early, we should get the cream of the crop.

After all of that, you can see why I’m having such a hard time maintaining a positive outlook. There are so many holes, so many problems. There are still lots of penalties. Still dropped passes. And yet through all of that, the team has been in a position to win in the 4^th quarter of every game except at Chicago. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me other than to think in terms of the NFL parity.

So I’ll keep watching, hoping to see something that gives me a hint that maybe the team is finally getting ready to round the corner. I’m not sure I’ll see it, but I’ll let you know if I do.

Not gonna happen

I've had a lot of people suggest that I should send the Ford's and Millen a message by returning my season tickets. The suggestions have tried to be creative in suggesting that I write a nice letter, try to publicize it with the local media, and basically get my 15 seconds of fame for not supporting the franchise. They all hinge on the premise that the action by me could possibly have some kind of impact on Millen's employment or the Ford's ownership.

Let me be clear about this - It's not going to happen.

Here's a particularly good exchange from one thread that I think signifies what I'm talking about.
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Me: "The fact of the matter here is that the Lions are 0-5. They haven't been this bad since 2001. You can try to put lipstick on this pig, but I still ain't kissing it..."

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neveragainlikebarry: "Oh yes you are kissing it;actually you've got your tongue all the way down it's throat! You have season tickets don't you? you have at least one jersey,right? You by their hotdogs.pop and beer correct? Basicly if you go to the games you keep Millen in there, hence no change whatsoever."

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My response: When I first read this one, I was going to post reply with something snarky, but then I came to realize there is probably too much truth in it. Quick summary:

You have season tickets don't you? Yes, just got them this year. In a lot of ways this is the worst year to have gotten them as I missed out on getting a shot at SB tickets.

You by their hotdogs.pop and beer correct? Beer, yes but only to keep my buzz from tailgating going. Hotdogs and pop no as I'm already full from aforementioned tailgating.

Basicly if you go to the games you keep Millen in there, hence no change whatsoever. I don't think this is accurate. The profitability of the team and the stadium more positively reflects on Tom Lewand than Millen. The play on the field reflects Millen, and it's never been this bad. I don't know that my not going to games would have any material impact on Millen's employment, since there is still a season ticket waiting list.

Some interesting ideas in this thread about abandoning my season tickets. But I'll put it this way - Unless there is some benefit to me to get rid of them, it ain't happening. I paid a lot of cash for the tickets. I'm not the kind of guy to spend a lot of money and get nothing for them (please no snarky comments about the Lions haven't given me anything yet - that's why I'm angry).

So if I were to give up the tickets and send them to management and let all the TV stations know, I'd accomplish what exactly? I'd get 15 seconds of fame on the local news, then I'll have realized I have said take the $600 face value for the remainder of my tix and keep it. Not a fair trade in my book. I'd rather keep the seats and be able to @#%$ about the play from a seat in the stadium than have to rely completely on my TiVo for my frustration.

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So there you have it. I'm not giving up my seats. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the people who make these suggestions are still on the waiting list and are trying to free up more seats (note the dripping sarcasm). I don't think giving up my seats would accomplish anything besides keeping me out of the stadium. Besides, it took me too dang long to get these seats, so I sure as heck am not going to give up the tickets now...

Gone in 60 Seconds...

OK, having calmed down from my reactionary phase following the game, I decided to take a look back and try to figure out what happened that drove home another loss for the Lions. Unfortunately, I don't think that I have any really great insight beyond what anyone else has said recently. This was actually a very simple game to analyze.

The Lions lost this game on 2 plays within a minute of each other in the 4^th quarter. It really is that simple. The Lions led 17-3, and Minnesota scored a TD to make it 17-10. Eddie Drummond returned the ensuing kickoff all the way for a TD, but it was nullified by a block in the back by Donte Curry. Two plays later, the O-line forgot to block Pat Williams. Williams hit Jon Kitna from behind just after he made a playaction fake and while his hands were still low, causing him to fumble at the 10 yard line and it was returned for a TD by Ben Leber.

Two plays, 56 seconds apart, a game swings 13 points from being 24-10 to being 17-16.

I wish I had something more in depth to point to, but that really was the ballgame. Minnesota's O only scored 12 points all day, and the Lions O scored 17. Even with Roy Williams hurt and out. Even with Damien Woody hurt and out. Even with only 2 of our pre-season starters playing on the O-Line. Even with KJ getting hit almost simultaneously as he got the ball. Even with Az Hakim dropping 5 passes. It still didn't matter.

This game was in the bag.

And then those two plays completely changed the entire outcome of the game. The D looked decent enough – they only gave up 12 points. The O for all it's injuries scored 17 points. Sure, it wasn't pretty as the O really wasn't moving the ball much beyond the points scored off the turnovers. But at least they had turnovers to score off of this week. The D was giving up yards to Chester Taylor in the run game as well, but he really didn't hurt them too much. The team stats looked skewed due to the Lions inability to run, but it really wasn't an issue. They were still moving the ball enough to win.

Except for those two plays.

On the first, Curry made a slight shove on the guy's back. He should know better than to do that. I heard the announcers say his block definitely impacted the run, but in my looking at the replay, I doubt it. The defender wasn't in position to contain Drummond from getting to the outside as he did. But it was a stupid penalty, and it cost the Lions 90 yards of field position and a score.

The second play has been diagrammed by everyone to death. No one even blocked Pat Williams. It was a complete communication breakdown on where everyone had to go. Kitna never saw it coming and was hit from behind far too quickly for any QB to dream of on a playaction pass.

And that was the ballgame. Sure, you could make an argument that the Lions should have scored more points. Or that Kitna couldn't lead them down the field during the 4^th quarter. Or that Az Hakim's butterfingers came back to haunt us again. But the truth of the matter is that the game went from being a win to a loss in those 56 seconds near the beginning of the 4^th quarter. Had Curry not made that block, the score is 24-10, and the Lions aren't sitting at the 10 yard line for the next play to happen. The second D TD by the Vikes was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things other than it prevented the Lions from scoring a go-ahead TD or FG. But again, without those two earlier plays, the Lions wouldn't have been pressing on 4^th and 10.

The Vikings proved all day long (and all season long for that matter) that their version of the Wet Toast O is just as inefficient at putting points on the board as the Lions was for the last 5 years. It should be painfully obvious to everyone now that the Wet Toast O is an O for a great mobile QB to excel in, but anyone else is dead meat in it. The Vikings weren't going to score 14+ points on O at that point in the game. They had only scored 10 in just over 3 quarters, plus the Lions D showed after that that they could hold them to a FG over 2 more series for the Kikes.

It really is simple. Eliminate those two glaring mistakes, and we're sitting here with a win on the books.

Anger

Hey folks, I'm back after a few weeks off on business travel. So I get back and I tuned in to watch the Lions - Queens game today. It definitely set off some emotions in me.

There's only one way to describe what I'm feeling toward the Lions right now. I'm mad. So mad I had to restrain myself from kicking my dog, that's how mad. Once again, this team of bumbling fools finds a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Tell me honestly - Does anyone really feel better about the team this year than they did any of the last four years with Joey at QB? If so, please send some of whatever you're smoking my way as you are ridiculously high. The team is 0-5. They were NEVER this bad with Joey under center. Yet all I hear is how people have so much better of a feeling about this team.

Get a clue - this is about as bad as it gets.

So the O is a more exciting as they throw the ball downfield. Big deal, they still lose. The D finally looks decent for a game, so the O blows chunks.

2 defensive TD's given up in the 4th quarter? Are you kidding me?

Where is the anger? Where are the calls for Kitna's head? Where are the calls for firing Marinelli? The start this year has me more upset than any other year of Millen's reign. The play is inexcusable. We've seen the same stupid penalties, the same bumbled plays, the same dropped passes. Well, OK that's just because Az Hakim is now a Lion again - didn't we learn that lesson already about his hands?

And please, I don't want to hear any excuses about Roy and Woody getting hurt. We've lost key players every year for the last 6 seasons. Injuries seem to be more a fact of life with this franchise than any other I can think of. The problem is that no one ever steps up when someone else goes down.

I'm mad. First game I've seen in three weeks due to business travel and I had to witness that debacle. It's a dang good thing I have Tigers tickets for next Sunday so I won't have to go to the game. Here I was thinking that based on what I've heard that the O had come around, and the D now had to step up.

Nope. Same Old Lions.

Maybe I'll write something more about the game tomorrow after I've calmed down. What a freaking joke...