Another week, another loss. This time it was a 38-20 beat-down at the hands of the Tampa Bay Bucs. The Lions actually got off to a fast start again this week and had built up a 17-0 lead, only to get outscored 38-3 the rest of the way. Ugh. Daunte Culpepper got off to a great start, hitting Calvin Johnson on a 41 yard pass and then a 15 yard TD pass. Things quickly unraveled for him, though, as he finished a wretched 8-20 with 2 INTs. And after some early success, the defense also payed a visit to the land of suck. Huge, no, make that gargantuan breakdowns occurred in the secondary and the special teams also chipped in by allowing a 70 yard punt return TD by Clifton Smith. Now onto the gameballs....
GAMEBALLS
Calvin Johnson
66 yards and a TD today for Megatron. Though he only had 3 catches, the Lions at least made more of a conscious effort to throw some deep balls his way. Hopefully that trend will continue.
Kevin Smith
I don’t care if Smith “lacks speed” according to experts. The guy is a solid RB (much like the banks at Rose City Motors - SOLID). He had 86 yards on 16 carries today (5.4 avg) against a tough Tampa defense.
Daniel Bullocks
A defensive player getting a gameball? What!?!?! Bullocks was in the right place at the right time to recover a Jeff Garcia fumble and return it 44 yards for a TD.
Corey Smith
2 defensive players getting a gameball? That’s just wacky! Smith gets one because he had 2 sacks today.
GROIN-KICKS
Daunte Culpepper
Daunte, you’ve gotta take better care of the ball than that. I’m pullin’ for ya, buddy, but please cut down on the turnovers.
The Offensive Line
The whole line sucked today. They did a pretty good job of run blocking, but that was negated by their atrocious pass blocking and numerous penalties. And guess who committed another penalty today? Jeff Backus. Twice. Note to Lions: Please draft a LT to replace Backus!
The Defensive Backfield
Everyone in the secondary (besides Bullocks) blew chunks today. The Bucs could’ve thrown on them all day if they had wanted to, but they were content with pounding the rock and running time off of the clock.
Paris Lenon
The coaches like Lenon because he’s smart and has a lot of heart. The problem is that he’s slightly above average when he’s at his very best (which isn’t too often). He showed that today, specifically with his lousy pass coverage.
Cory Redding
Not only did he not make an impact with any positive plays, but he committed a costly roughing the passer penalty. The penalty happened on a 3rd down when the Lions had seemingly forced Tampa to punt. Instead, they kept the ball and received an automatic 1st down. Fellow “franchise player” Jeff Backus probably nodded in approval from the sidelines as this play occurred.
WHAT ELSE?
Lions QBs were beat up pretty badly today. Culpepper looked bad (aside from his first drive) and Stanton also had a rough day (he looked shaky before leaving the game with a concussion). Hopefully this was brought on by a Tampa defense that’s still pretty darn good and not a sign of things to come for the rest of the season.
Why Jordon Dizon isn’t starting at LB is beyond me. Paris Lenon and Ryan Nece are not good. Not only should the Lions be using the rest of this wasted 0-11 season to develop young players like Dizon, but I think he would actually be an immediate upgrade over Lenon or Nece. I know Dizon blew coverage on the TD to Stevens today, but that's a mental mistake that he wouldn't have made at this point in the season if he had gotten more playing time earlier in the season. He has a lot of talent and I think once he finally sees significant playing time, we’ll all be wondering why he wasn’t on the field sooner. Sort of like when Calvin Johnson finally started getting more opportunities on offense, and when Kevin Smith & Gosder Cherilus got to start, and when Cliff Avril got more playing time on defense. Hmm, I’m noticing a pattern here.
The Lions need to make significant upgrades on the defense in the offseason. Also, they need at least 2 more starting offensive linemen. After trying to fill those spots, they aren’t likely to have a whole lot of money/draft picks to spend on other areas. Sadly and ironically, another area that needs to be addressed is WR. After spending 4 1st round picks on WRs between 2002 and 2007, the Lions still need help there. Shaun McDonald will likely leave via free agency after this season, leaving them with Calvin Johnson, Mike Furrey, and not much else. Even if a guy like John Standeford steps up, the Lions will probably have to acquire 2 more WRs in the offseason through free agency and/or the draft. I think another speed threat on the outside to go with Calvin Johnson would really make their passing game difficult to defend. We’ll see if the Lions have the resources to make this happen. It’s one of the least of their problems at this point, but definitely something else they need to think about after this season.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Unfortunately, the Titans lost to the Jets today, so they will not be undefeated heading into the matchup with the winless Lions on Thanksgiving this Thursday. Instead, it will be a battle of 0-11 vs.10-1. I was really pulling for the clash of the winless and unbeaten. Regardless, this game has “disaster” written all over it; but then again, how many Lions games don’t have “disaster” written all over them these days? I just hope they can play a close, entertaining game. With all of the Thanksgiving day blowouts they’ve had in recent years, I worry that the NFL may one day take this tradition away from us. No matter how badly the Lions stink, they belong on Thanksgiving. This has been a tradition of theirs since 1934 (with a few years in the 40s missing due to WWII). Hopefully they will never lose this great tradition. No matter how bad of a season the Lions are having, I always look forward to the Thanksgiving day game.
I don’t see the Lions winning this game, but I think they might be able to keep it close. The Titans like to run the ball a lot. With the emotion of playing on Thanksgiving, I expect the Lions defense to tackle better than normal and defend the run reasonably well (for part of the game, at least). If Daunte can hit Calvin on a couple of deep ones and not turn the ball over, then they’ve got a shot to at least be in this game. I can’t envision them winning it, but a close game is all I ask and hopefully they can at least achieve that. Thanks for reading and happy Thanksgiving!!!
Greg
No comments:
Post a Comment