GMart's Lions Blog 12-14-08

The Lions are now 0-14 after a 31-21 loss at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts. The Lions were surprisingly competitive in this one and even had the game tied at 21 in the 4th quarter.

With Indy favored by 17 going into the game, playing at home, and on a 6 game winning streak, how the heck did the 0-13 (now 0-14) Lions almost shock the world and get their first win today? A few contributing factors:

1. Dan Orlovsky returned to action today and is clearly the QB who gives them the best chance to win.
2. The Lions coaches actually did a pretty good job today. Colletto actually called a good game on offense. A couple of other things that I liked were that they force fed Calvin Johnson and finally decided to play Landon Cohen at DT.
3. The Lions offensive line played like a real NFL offensive line.
4. Bob Sanders did not play for the Colts today. I want to give the Lions all of the credit for today's game, but the Colts defense is definitely less effective when Sanders is injured.

Now onto those coveted gameballs and loathsome groin-kicks...

GAMEBALLS

Calvin Johnson

110 yards and another TD today for Megatron.

Kevin Smith

119 total yards and a TD for Mr. Smith today. I'm becoming a bigger fan of his every week.

Lions Offensive Line

I hate to give them a gameball because that means that I'm giving Jeff Backus a gameball, but these guys earned it today. They ran for 90 yards but most importantly, did not allow a single sack today.

Dan Orlovsky

DanO completed almost 70% of his passes for 233 yards, 1 TD, and no turnovers.

GROIN-KICKS

Dewayne White

His late hit on Peyton Manning was costly.The Lions had the Colts stopped on a 3rd down, but White's penalty kept their drive alive.. You can't give Manning & the Colts 2nd chances.

Lions Linebackers

They did an average job of stopping the run and made some nice hits, but the LB corps is largely responsible for covering the TE. Dallas Clark is a very good player, but you can't allow him to catch 12 passes for 142 yards.

The Refs

I've seen much worse this year, but these guys weren't great today. They missed a blatant pass interference call vs. Megatron, and I also felt that they should've overturned a call when it appeared that Dewayne White recovered a fumble.

WHAT ELSE?

It seems like I talk QB in this part of the column every week. When I watch Stafford and Bradford play and when I think of how often the #1 overall pick is used on a QB, it's very tempting for me to say that the Lions should draft one. Unless they're convinced that one of those guys is the next Peyton Manning, though, I don't think the Lions should do it. The Lions have some possibilities with their current cast of QBs. Orlovsky isn't a great play maker, but doesn't make mistakes and I think you can win with a guy like that. Culpepper could be good if he loses about 25 pounds and learns the playbook. Stanton's injury history worries me, but I still really like his potential. Hopefully they use the pick on a franchise LT or improve the defense. The offense needs some other complimentary pieces (OG, WR), but not much. The defense, however, needs a lot of work, so I'd suspect that improving the "D" will be the primary off-season objective. Who will be doing this work, though? I have no idea. Rumors are going around that Lewand, Mayhew, and Marinelli may all be back next year. As dumb as Ford is, though, I don't think he can do that. He will face so much pressure that I would be shocked if at least one of those guys isn't fired. I'm betting that Marinelli will get the axe, while Lewand and Mayhew will get to stick around in the front office. Just a hunch.

FINAL THOUGHTS

14 down, 2 to go. I still think the Lions will go 0-16, but after watching today's game, I think they have a much better shot at winning a game than I thought before. The Lions are still playing hard and both New Orleans (next Sunday's opponent) and Green Bay are out of the playoff picture, so they may not be too highly motivated. Next Sunday's game will be the home finale when the Saints come to town. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. The Lions are obviously winless both at home and on the road, but seem to have played better on the road this year. At any rate, I don't see them being able to stop Drew Brees and Pierre Thomas, so I look for them to be 0-15 at this time next week. As always, I hope I am wrong and thanks for reading!

Greg