GMart's Lions Blog 12-28-08

It's official. The Lions are now the 1st team in NFL history to finish 0-16 after a 31-21 defeat at the hands of the Packers. The Lions battled hard today, but predictably came up short once again. The defense finished the season by allowing 517 points, just 16 shy of the record 533 points that the 1981 Colts gave up. I don't care what the stats say, though, this Lions defense is the worst ever. There were several games this season where the opposition got up big on them early and took it easy on them as the game went on. And even in close games like today, you knew the Lions wouldn't get a defensive stop when they needed it. The offense has its issues, too (and don't even get me started on the coaches), but if you can't stop anyone, you can't win. To me, that's the biggest issue among the many issues facing the Lions as the off-season is set to begin. Anyway, onto today's gameballs...

GAMEBALLS

Calvin Johnson

Games like today are why I brag this guy up every chance I get. He had 102 yards and 2 TDs and came up with some clutch catches in traffic.

Kevin Smith

Smith rushed for 92 yards and a TD on 28 carries.

John Standeford

He had 82 yards receiving and a lot of it came vs. Al Harris. He also did the first down signal in Al's face after one of the plays. I can't stand Al Harris, so that pretty much was enough to earn Mr. Standeford a gameball.

GROIN-KICKS

Lions defense

Another horse-bleep performance.

Rod Marinelli

Apparently, Rod thinks that unused timeouts carry over from the 1st half to the 2nd because he inexplicably didn't take any of them inside of 2 minutes when the defense shockingly stopped Green Bay.

Jeff Backus

1 holding penalty and 1 false start today. When Backus has that rare game when he doesn't commit a penalty, you can be sure that he'll make up for it at some point by committing 2 in one game.

Al Harris

Harris is over-rated. He's not very fast, so he just mugs WRs and the refs let him get away with it. It was so awesome to see Plaxico Burress expose him in the NFC title game last year. If he played for a team like Detroit, he'd probably get so many pass interference flags that we'd all forget about Bryant Westbrook. He's always been a big trash-talker, too, and today was no different. Wow, Al, I'm so impressed. You guys beat an 0-16 team, keep talkin'. Have fun watching the playoffs at home because you and your defensive teammates blow. Pardon this long rant, but I despise the Packers and Harris is probably my least favorite player on that stinkin' team.

WHAT ELSE?

According to Jay Glazer (link here: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8996898/Sunday-Scoops:-Glazer%27s-latest-coaching-update) it looks like a long shot that Rod Marinelli will be back. Thank goodness. The real problem is that we're stuck with the most inept owner in the history of sports: William Clay Ford. However, I'm an optimist, so I'm going to continue to hope that bringing in a new coach and another personnel guy in the front office will help the Lions find a way to succeed in spite of Ford's bumbling idiocy.

Marinelli is a great guy and I like the attitude that he tried to bring to this team, but it just didn't work out. Whoever they bring in (assuming they do the sensible thing and fire Marinelli), I hope the new coach abandons the Tampa 2 defense. I absolutely hate that scheme. It's another "bend but don't break" scheme that the Lions have been playing for way too damn long. Let's get an attacking style in here. I wouldn't mind seeing a 3-4 scheme or something like what Jim Johnson runs in Philly, with all kinds of wacky blitzes. No scheme could make this current cast of characters succeed, I understand that. But it doesn't mean that the scheme shouldn't be changed. Please dump the Tampa 2!

Onto some good news now - with the Cowboys losing to the Eagles, that ensures that Dallas will not make the playoffs and that Detroit's 2nd 1st round pick will be somewhere in the late teens. In my opinion, the Lions should either take 2 defensive players in round one or take a LT and a defensive player, not necessarily in that order. We'll see what happens, though. There is so much to discuss as far as free agency and the draft go, but we won't have any idea which direction they'll go until the front office & coaching situations are settled. And even then, there's a good chance of Ford stepping in and screwing up the whole situation (a la drafting Joey Harrington).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thank goodness this season is over. If we can't have a winning product on the field, at least we usually have interesting off-field drama. I suspect (and hope) that we'll be hearing about Marinelli getting fired tomorrow and then hear about prospective front office guys and coaches being interviewed over the next few weeks. Then we'll have free agency and the draft, so that'll all make for interesting discussion and speculation.

There is absolutely no reason to have any confidence in Ford making the right decisions. However, I know that I will just get my hopes up again next year anyway. I guess I think it's more fun to have false hope than no hope at all. Here's to hoping that we have an off-season like Atlanta and Miami did last year. Thanks for reading!

Greg