GMart's Lions Blog 12-21-08

The Lions are now one game away from 0-16 after suffering a 42-7 defeat today vs. New Orleans. Like we've seen from most opposing offenses all year, the Saints did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do it. The Lions had absolutely no answer for them. I didn't think the Lions would win today, but I was actually expecting a close game. The Saints have a bad defense and the Lions played with a lot of intensity last week. I thought they'd at least score some points and make a game of it. Nope. The offense was pretty inept today to say the least. There's not much more to say about this debacle. Onto the gameballs...

GAMEBALLS

Kevin Smith

Smith had 111 yards on 24 carries today. He was one of the lone bright spots today for the Lions. In fact, I'm only going to give out one gameball this week because the Lions sucked so incredibly bad. Calvin Johnson should get one, too, but since Colletto & Orlovsky were too friggin' dumb to figure out how to get him the ball, I'm just going to stick with Smith as the lone gameball recipient.

GROIN-KICKS

Gosder Cherilus

Goz wiped out a nice TD grab by Calvin Johnson with a bone-headed illegal formation penalty. He was also doing his best Jeff Backus impression on a few pass plays today. I still think he has had a pretty good rookie season, but he was awful today.

The defense

There's just too many guys to mention here. Leigh Bodden recovered a fumble, which turned out to be the only big play the defense made all day. That's not an exaggeration, either. I really can't stress enough just how bad the defense was today. Did I mention the defense is terrible?

Dan Orlovsky

I heard that Dan was fighting through a battle with the flu today and over the last few days, so that may partially excuse his poor play today. He was pretty atrocious, though. He was inaccurate and often made Harrington-esque decisions (throwing dinky garbage passes on 3rd and long).

The Coaching Staff

I have to blame all coaches in addition to the players when the Lions get blown out this badly. Specifically, Jim Colletto deserves a groin-kick with a steel-toed boot. He was somewhat imaginitive last week when they played Indy and I was absolutely shocked. The reason I was so surprised is that what we saw from the Lions offense today is what we've seen most of the season: terrible play-calling and an inexplicable inability to get the ball to Calvin Johnson. I'm looking forward to the day when Jim Colletto is relieved of play calling duties. Heh heh heh...duty.

WHAT ELSE?

William Clay Ford, Sr. announced today that Tom Lewand and Martin Mayhew will be back next year. In a related story, Mr. Ford recently took an IQ test and scored lower than Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants.

Anyway, Ford did say that he will hire another person to help with football operations, but that the person he hires may not have total control over personnel decisions. Personally, I don't think anyone he hires will have "final say" on personnel matters - not in that dysfunctional front office. I think this means that you can say goodbye to the dream of hiring Scott Pioli away from New England. I do think that the Lions can still find a guy who can help them in this role, but there are 2 big questions that remain: "Will Lewand continue to be part of the problem in the front office?" and most importantly "Will that bumbling fool William Clay Ford Sr. stay out of the way and let everyone do their jobs?" We'll see.

By the way, Ford also said that he hasn't made up his mind on bringing Rod Marinelli back next year. Seriously? I know the epic struggles of this team aren't 100% his fault, but Marinelli's record in his last 23 regular season games is 1-22. I could debate this issue further, but I think that 1-22 record pretty much speaks for itself.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We have a chance to witness NFL history next week. The Lions travel to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers next Sunday. Despite Green Bay's struggles this season, it will be a very tall order for the Lions to win this game since they haven't beaten the Packers on the road since 1991. Want another reason why the Lions probably won't win this game? Well, they suck really bad. With that in mind, an 0-16 season looks like it will be a reality at this point next week. I gave up expecting wins a long time ago in this disastrous season, so I'm just hoping that they can at least provide a little drama. A lot of people around the country want to see the first ever 0-16 season, so it would be pretty cool if this game was at least close and intense. It might be. I would think that the Lions will be highly motivated and leave it all on the field for this one. You know the drill by now, though: I don't think they will win, I hope I am wrong, and thanks for reading. Also, Merry Christmas!

Greg