Jim Schwartz’s Coy Attitude on Injuries Creating a Motown Monster

Does anybody know how bad Matthew Stafford’s knee injury is?

Does anybody know when anybody on the Detroit Lions’ injury list will be available to play?

Yes. The players, the training staff, and head coach Jim Schwartz.

But nobody else.

What started as a smart tactic of withholding all but the most essential injury information to cloud opponents’ game-planning has become a behemoth of misinformation.

It seems that Schwartz’s philosophy with injury is that everybody is either out for the season or day-to-day and a game-time decision.

Of course, that’s a lie.

He knew Stafford and Calvin Johnson wouldn’t be ready to go against the Packers. He knows what each player’s injury is, the severity of it, and how long it will keep them out.

But you’ll never hear him say, “It looks like Stafford’s injury will keep him out for two or three weeks.” At best, he’ll rule a guy out of Sunday’s game on Thursday or Friday.

That was fine for a while. Lions fans would watch whoever showed up to play, anyway. Anything that might improve the Lions’ chance for a win was okay.

But now it has gotten out of hand.

To compensate for Schwartz’s lack of information, we are now seeing a flood of misinformation.

Now there are reports about Stafford possibly needing knee surgery.

And rebuttals to said report.

And speculation about the future of Stafford’s season.

And even confusion as to whether or not Stafford is practicing because of fake Twitter accounts.

If Stafford doesn’t play against the Rams after the bye, things only figure to get worse.

Next we might see a photoshopped picture of Stafford’s severed leg on the turf.

The sad thing is, fans are so in the dark about Stafford’s injury, they might believe his leg has actually fallen off.

Keeping opponents off-balance by playing the injury report close to the vest is one thing. It’s a good idea.

But this has gotten out of hand. Nobody knows whether Stafford is going to back on the field in a day or a year.

And is it worth it? Is Schwartz getting enough of a leg up on opposing coaches to justify throwing the entirety of the Lions fan base into purgatory about the players they pay to see play football?

It’s not just Stafford. I can buy that Schwartz isn’t sure about Stafford’s knee just yet.

He had complications, so they’re having Dr. James Andrews look at his MRI. I have my doubts as to whether we’ll hear anything concrete about the results, but I’ll believe he doesn’t know much right now.

But Schwartz is playing every single injury like this. Ernie Sims.  Calvin Johnson. Sammie Lee Hill.  Dewayne White. Grady Jackson. Gosder Cherlius.

All of them, the same thing. To paraphrase everything Schwartz has ever said about an injury, “We’re going to see if they can practice, and if they’re good to go, they’ll play. It’ll be a game-time decision.”

Right. A game-time decision that he has made by Thursday.

At 1-5 and coming off an embarrassing shutout loss, the Lions should have shaken any straggling asylum-dwellers of the notion that the Lions are playing for the playoffs this year.

So at the very least, maybe they can show the fans a dim glimmer of information regarding the guys on the injured list to slow this downward spiral of misinformation?

The attachment of Matthew Stafford’s leg might depend on it.

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Detroit Lions’ Loss at Lambeau an Optimism-Shatterer

There’s no good news this week.

As Lions head coach Jim Schwartz said, “You’ll have a hard time finding the silver lining in this one.”

Wait, check that. The only good news is that the Lions didn’t play the New England Patriots this week. Apparently shutouts come in much more humiliating packages.

Still, that’s little consolation in a game where the Lions were shut out for the first time since 2001, and against an average defense.

For every positive you can think of, there’s an accompanying negative.

The Lions managed five sacks and an interception on Aaron Rodgers…but he still went 29/37 for 358 yards and two touchdowns.

The Lions avoiding allowing any special teams touchdowns…except for the opening kickoff that was taken to the house and called back by a holding penalty.

The Lions were able to hold Ryan Grant under 100 yards rushing…but he still had more than the combined rushing total of the entire Lions team.

The Lions forced four fumbles…but only recovered two, and capitalized on zero.

See, there’s no good thing you can point to in this game that doesn’t have an ugly shadow cast over it. But that’s the nature of a shutout.

I’ve made it my mission over the first five games to point out the good things.

Even in the losses, there have been strides taken. The offensive line stepped up, or Matthew Stafford made strides forward, or a certain player (Louis Delmas or DeAndre Levy, for instance) performed well.

None of that happened here. This was a shellacking at the hands of an above-average (but not great) football team that played a sloppy game.

What happens in two weeks will be a testament to Jim Schwartz’s coaching ability.

In his postgame press conference, he himself said that he wished the Lions could have entered the bye week “with a good feeling.”

Not likely.

The Lions continued losing streaks of 19 and 15 games at Lambeau Field (including playoffs) and on the road, respectively.

They failed to score any points, something that didn’t even happen during last year’s nightmare of a season.

Worse yet, Daunte Culpepper started the game as inadequate, and ended it injured, as a hamstring injury took him out in the third quarter.

Now, though injury is always bad, this might not be so bad. Stanton showed greater awareness, more mobility in the backfield, and a greater ability to read the defense in his quarter-and-a-half of play.

He threw two interceptions, but one was a good throw that was tipped off the receiver’s hands. The other was an end zone interception, where Stanton tried to force the ball on third down during garbage time.

Schwartz has lots of coaching to do during the bye. This is, arguably, the only game the Lions have played all season with nothing positive to build on, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Now the Lions have two weeks to stew over their worst loss of the season, with a stretch of vulnerable teams (vs. St. Louis, at Seattle, vs. Cleveland in three of their next four) coming up.

It will be up to Schwartz to insure that the Lions come out with the will and drive to win those games, rather than allow this loss to get them in a funk.

Hopefully, his optimism is more resilient than mine.

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Detroit Lions-Green Bay Packers: Five Big Questions

The last time the Detroit Lions won a game at Lambeau Field, Brett Favre was an Atlanta Falcon, Wayne Fontes was coaching, and Erik Kramer was starting for the Lions in place of the injured Rodney Peete.

That was 1991.

Since then, the Green Bay Packers have protected their home field 17 consecutive times against the visiting Lions, and will be heavily favored to run it to 18 this Sunday.

Green Bay started the Lions’ recently snapped 19-game losing streak in 2007, then was the team to send Detroit from 0-15 to the infamous 0-16 mark in Week 17 of 2008.

This is the first time the teams have played since then, which brings us to one of the five biggest questions this week.

 

1. Will There be (Bad) Blood?

As I mentioned earlier this week, the Lions feel a great deal of animosity towards the Packers to begin with.

They have even more of a problem with Lambeau Field.

Most of the Lions organization, as it stands now, has no history with either the Lions or the Packers.

Over half of the roster and coaching staff are different from the group that made history 10 months ago at Green Bay.

The rest are guys who are sick and tired of losing to the Packers, and guys whose most recent (or perhaps only) memory of Lambeau Field is…less than pleasant.

For those guys, does the motor run a little higher? With a new team, a new attitude, and a winning percentage of .200 already, does vengeance factor in for the Lions this week?

More importantly, would it matter if it did?

 

2. Who Wins the Line Battles?

The Packers have allowed a league-worst 20 sacks on Aaron Rodgers this season.

Despite getting a bye last week, the Pack has still allowed more sacks in four games than anyone else has in five. We’re talking five sacks a game, here.

The Lions have given up the third-most sacks with 17.

Rather than a quarterback slug-fest, we’re probably looking at a quarterback slugging-fest, right? Well, maybe not.

The Packers have a mediocre defense in just about every area; the Lions have a squad trying to claw its way up to mediocre after being one of the worst in league history last year.

Both defenses have struggled to get pressure on the quarterback thus far this season. The Packers have managed only five sacks this season, the Lions 10.

The Packers are struggling to adjust to Dom Capers’ 3-4 scheme, while the Lions have a blitz-happy coordinator in Gunther Cunningham who has been handcuffed by poor secondary play.

And it’s not just about pass protection.

Both teams have exhibited disappointing and inconsistent running games thus far this season, with each averaging right around 100 total yards rushing per game.

This is a matchup of weakness vs. weakness on both sides, and somebody, mark my words, is going to come out of it looking good.

Come Monday, we’ll be talking about a “resurgence” of one of these units.

But which one?

 

3. Can Aaron Rodgers Continue His Detroit Dominance?

Aaron Rodgers has played two games against the Detroit Lions thus far in his career.

To date, they’re two of the best games of his career.

Rodgers’ 2008 stat line against the Lions: 45/69, 636 yards, six touchdowns.

The Lions’ secondary is much different than it was when it faced Rodgers last season, though. It was rebuilt in the off-season, in much the same way you repair a car with spare junkyard parts.

And then it breaks down.

And then you find whatever’s hanging around to duct tape everything back together long enough to get to work and back.

That’s the Lions’ secondary this year. The entire group is effectively new, outside of veteran Kalvin Pearson.

And aside from solid-thus-far Anthony Henry, and reigning Defensive Rookie of the Month Louis Delmas, the entire group is either broken, e.g. Eric King, or disappointing, e.g. Philip Buchanon.

The Lions’ solution? This week, it’s a practice squad addition: DeAndre Wright.

In other words, if the Lions are going to slow down Rodgers, they’ll likely have to do it with pressure. A tall order when Cunningham is too afraid of the big play to bring consistent heat.

The question this week might instead be, “How dominant will Rodgers be?”

 

4. Who is Detroit’s QB? And Who Does He Throw To?

On the other sideline, the quarterback question is a little more precarious.

Is Matthew Stafford practicing? Will he play?

And perhaps more importantly, will Calvin Johnson be available?

I won’t say it doesn’t matter who plays quarterback. Though their skill sets are different, Culpepper and Stafford are playing at approximately the same level.

But Culpepper is gone after this season, and Stafford is making lots of money as the future of the franchise. Culpepper is on the downswing of his career, and Stafford will only get better.

But both guys need Johnson.

Culpepper made a valiant comeback attempt last week with only a rookie (Derrick Williams) and a couple of career No. 3 receivers (Dennis Northcutt and Bryant Johnson) to throw to.

But it fell short, and things could have been much different with the big 81 on the field.

At this point, the question of whether or not Johnson plays is more significant to the health of the passing game than the question of who plays quarterback.

So who will it be? Stafford to Johnson? Culpepper to Johnson? Or Culpepper to John Standeford?

 

5. Rhythm or Rest?

It’s the question in the second round of every postseason.

One team is hot after playing itself into the playoffs and winning its wild-card round matchup.

The other is a dominant team, well-rested after getting a week off. If that team wins, it’s because it has rested. If it loses, it’s because the team is rusty and out of rhythm.

This is like that, only in Week Six of the season, and between teams with winning percentages of .500 and .200.

The word out of Green Bay is that the Packers have taken the time off to work on protection issues.

Part of that is Rodgers himself giving the line a vote of confidence. No big surprise, since a quarterback can almost always be expected to not throw his own offensive line under the bus.

But the question remains: Will the Packers come out rested and refined, given a bye week to regroup and practice out the kinks?

Or will they be out of sorts, given two full weeks to think about losing to Brett Favre the Viking on Monday Night?

It bodes well for the Packers that the Lions are in no kind of rhythm, having lost two straight after their first win in nearly two years.

In fact, the Lions are in severe need of an off week themselves (and will get one next week), with a good percentage of the roster on the injured list, and no shortage of issues to address in practice.

That being said, the Lions performed much better against the Steelers last week than the Bears in Week Four, and actually seemed to perform better in the second half—a first for this season.

So will the Lions build on their performance? Or will the Packers come out rested and fine-tuned and run away with it? Or some combination of both?

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Detroit Lions Look For Redemption in Return to Lambeau Field

This Sunday, the Detroit Lions will suit up to play the Green Bay Packers on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

Lambeau Field is not a friend to the Lions. They haven’t won a game there since 1991, chalking up 17 straight losses while surrounded by cheeseheads.

This year, though, there’s something extra going on.

The Detroit Lions’ final game of 2008 was an away game against the Packers. Do you remember what happened to the Detroit Lions in their final game of 2008?

They do.

A little more than half the Lions’ roster has been turned over from last year, so this doesn’t apply to them. But as for the holdovers?

Don’t think for a moment they’ve forgotten the feeling they had in the freezing cold air at Lambeau Field as the final seconds ticked away on their last chance to save face.

It was a cold day for the Lions in more ways than one. That was the day 0-16 went from a rumor, a murmur in the media, an abstract number, to an inescapable reality.

Kevin Smith remembers that. Cliff Avril and Ernie Sims, too. Dominic Raiola definitely does.

Now, it’s true that they had to lose to 15 other teams to get to that point, but Lambeau Field is where it culminated.

That’s where that sickening feeling struck them in the pits of their stomach. That’s where they could only stand there, speechless, knowing it would be another eight months or so before they could even attempt to remember what winning felt like.

With a 14-game road losing streak, a 17-game Lambeau losing streak, and memories of 2008 looming, the Lions returning to the place where the clock struck 16 could be like a death call.

Or it could be a new beginning.

Head Coach Jim Schwartz has done a fine job distancing this Lions team from last year. For starters, he’s new. Most of the rest of the coaching staff is new. The offensive and defensive schemes are new. The starting quarterback is new. Half the roster is new.

Most importantly, the Lions have a number other than “zero” in the win column.

Though Schwartz will deny it, and any players who lost 16 games last year will deny it, the Lions have a great deal at stake this week.

And those players know it. This is their chance to really, truly put December 28, 2008 behind them.

A win, however unlikely, snaps both of those nasty double-digit losing streaks, and gives the team a win in the very place where they showed they couldn’t last season.

And maybe they’ll show that the new Lions really aren’t the same as the old Lions.

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Lions-Steelers: The Good, The Bad, and The Unusual

Don’t worry; it’s not all bad.

After shouting random profanities to an inanimate object (my TV screen) for about 15 minutes following the final tick of a Pittsburgh Steelers victory at Ford Field, my mind started functioning in a less primal way.

That’s what I started thinking about something other than a new person to curse (George Yarno).

I started analyzing the game, and what I came up with was basically bipolar: “It wasn’t that bad. Wait…yes, it was. And what was up with that?”

Know what? It’s just easier if I break it all down for you. So see if you can make sense of my musings on the game any better than I can.

 

Good: Eight Points

A loss is a loss, and the score, after Sunday, doesn’t matter.

But this Sunday, eight points separated the lowly Detroit Lions from the defending champion Steelers. I’m not one to celebrate moral victories, mind you, but one thing the Lions proved today is they can play with anybody.

Talent gap be damned, the Lions are playing to the level of their competition every week.

Which brings me to my next point.

 

Bad: Lions Still Can’t Close

Know what the scary-yet-frustrating thing is about the Lions?

Every game they’ve played has been winnable. With the exception of the Saints in week one, the Lions have matched the teams they’ve played nearly punch-for-punch.

The Bears and Vikings pulled away in the second half, the Steelers got a last-minute stop deep in their own territory, and the Saints volleyed with the Lions after going up early.

But every game they’ve lost could have turned had a third-down conversion, a defensive stop, a turnover, a special-teams play, something gone differently.

They put themselves in a position to win every week, but they don’t have those big players making big plays in big moments. They are perhaps the most anti-clutch team in football.

And once they blow one clutch moment, they snowball their mistakes like a college team with rattled confidence.

Overcoming that alone will put up an additional 3-4 wins a year. Until they can, they’ll continue to lose close ones, and make close ones look ugly.

 

Unusual: The Announcers

I don’t know where Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts rank on CBS’s totem pole of game-calling duos, but it can’t be very high.

In my opinion, announcers are at their best when they become like somewhat informative background noise. I don’t really want to notice them; I want to notice the game, and have them chime in with an occasionally useful opinion.

These guys? I noticed them.

Fouts was still going on in the fourth quarter, as he had all game long, about a decision the Lions made to take a field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-inches on their opening possession.

The ball wasn’t even in the red zone, and the score was tied at zero. The field goal gave the Lions the lead, and were the first points the Steelers had given up in the first quarter all season.

Yet Fouts, with the score 28-13, was still talking about, “if the Lions had taken the offsides penalty, gotten the first down on fourth and short, and scored a touchdown…”

Then what, Dan? If the Lions scored a touchdown (BIG if), the score is 28-17, and you’ve turned a two-possession game into a two-possession game. Leave the coaching to the coaches, please.

Enberg did a decent job, but he had an abnormally high rate of getting tripped up on names.

A couple of times he called out the wrong receiver making a reception, and once he made reference to injured Steelers star safety, “Troy Polamu.” An innocent mistake, I thought… except he also put the emphasis on the wrong syllable, i.e. PO-la-mu.

He corrected himself shortly afterwards, but it made me notice.

And that was a bad thing.

 

Good: Derrick Williams

As I pointed out last week, this game against the Steelers was going to be a good opportunity to try some guys out who hadn’t seen much time thus far in the season.

One such guy was the third-round rookie out of Penn State, Derrick Williams. He single-handedly made the Lions’ special teams look competent (credit where due: coverage teams were improved, as well), and made a pair of clutch catches during the Lions’ final comeback attempt.

Both catches were just under 20 yards for first downs. One was along the sideline, where Williams made an absolutely veteran move of catching the ball and tapping his feet inbounds.

The Lions were down to only three receivers available late, and of Williams, Dennis Northcutt, and Bryant Johnson, Williams is the one who came up big when it mattered.

Of course, Williams’ emergence as a possible receiving threat is ignoring the elephant in the room…

 

Bad: Calvin Johnson

Batten down the hatches, the worst has happened.

Calvin Johnson came up lame on a play in the first half with an apparent knee injury, and was gimpy on the sideline the rest of the day.

Suddenly, the Lions’ best offensive weapon has nullified.

The bright side is that the Lions were able to mount a significant comeback attempt without him… but anytime the Lions play without Johnson, it’s not so bright.

If the injury is half as bad as it seems, Johnson won’t be ready until after the bye.

 

Unusual: Daunte Culpepper’s Decisions

This is more of an undecided.

On one hand, Culpepper is clearly in his best shape in years. When he rolled off a 32-yard run on third-and-11, my jaw dropped. I was trying to remember if I’d seen him move that fast, even in his prime.

Culpepper made mostly good decisions, and again, was only 20 yards and a two-point conversion from tying the game late, without the benefit of Calvin Johnson.

But just as I’m ready to jump on the bandwagon, he throws the ball, falling away, across his body, across the field, directly into the numbers of Steelers safety Ryan Clark.

That’s when I remember he’s also fumbled three times, been called for 16 yards’ worth of intentional grounding, and overthrown a number of open receivers. He took a couple of shots downfield, but never actually had a man open when he did.

Then, upon reaching the Steelers’ 21-yard line, he takes three consecutive sacks. All of them featured poor protection and Culpepper looking completely lost.

After 10 years in the league, isn’t he supposed to know what to do against a blitz? Once in a while?

When it matters, perhaps?

 

Honorable Mentions

Good: Will James’ Pick-Six

When’s the last time you saw a Lion corner jump a route like that?

Bad: Fan Turnout

Way too many Terrible Towels in Ford Field Sunday afternoon. I’m glad they helped sell out the stadium, because that means I get to watch the game. But still.

How much you want to bet Ford sees this as an opportunity and starts marketing Lions home games to fans of opposing teams?

Unusual: The Officiating

An Eric King interception negated on a roughing the passer call…that involved a Lion defender getting blocked into the quarterback.

Ed Hochuli initially calling delay of game on the wrong team for kicking the ball out of bounds.

Then forgetting to mention the Lions wanted to decline an offsides penalty on a successful field goal.

Think Hochuli still has jitters from blowing the call in that Chargers game last year?

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Detroit-Pittsburgh: First Team to Overcome Second Half Stumbles Wins

The Detroit Lions and the Pittsburgh Steelers had very different fortunes last season.

The Lions reached a historic low. The Steelers, a historic high.

The Lions finished out their season 0-16, the first team ever to do so. The Steelers won their sixth Super Bowl, making them the team with the most Super Bowl wins in NFL history.

If you didn’t already know that the league makes schedules on a rotating basis, you would think it was somebody’s cruel joke pitting these teams against one another.

And yet, a quarter of the way into the season, these teams seem more alike than different.

Both teams are built around running and defense, although Pittsburgh has a storied history of it, and it’s sort of a new idea (or the return of an old one) in Detroit.

Both teams enter this game with major players on the injured list, and several questions about their respective returns.

And most importantly, both teams have shown an inability to close out games in the second half.

In the last three games, the Steelers have allowed 58 second-half points. The Lions have allowed 61.

Both teams gave away a pair of winnable games in which they played well in the first half, and forgot to show up for the second.

They also both nearly gave away a victory that seemed to be in hand, before allowing a major comeback attempt that fell just short.

In Week Four, the Steelers led the San Diego Chargers by 28 points heading into the fourth quarter. After holding the Chargers’ offense down all game long, they allowed 28 points late, and barely escaped with a 38-28 victory.

In Week Three, the Lions, leading by 12 with just over five minutes to play, were unable to stop the Washington Redskins from scoring, getting the ball back, and driving to within 30 yards of a miracle comeback. The clock was the Lions’ only salvation.

So the question, then, is which team will take charge in the second half? Somebody has to win it.

Chances are, the Steelers, being the superior team, will be comfortable enough by the end of the first half to play a sloppy second half and still come out with a victory. That’s roughly how they played against San Diego, so why would they not get away with it against Detroit?

Not so fast.

The teams that have beat the Lions this year have a combined record of 11-1, and the Lions had moments in each game where they appeared to be on equal footing. They held a halftime lead on the Vikings, and a couple early leads on the Bears.

So is it really inconceivable that the Lions are able to hang around with the 2-2 Steelers for a half?

If they can, then we’re in for an entertaining show, as we find out which team steps up in the second half, when neither team has proven capable of doing so.

If it’s the Lions, then they’ll have one more thing in common with the World Champion Steelers: their record.

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Detroit Lions Beginning to Show Some Bad Habits in Loss to Bears

If you’re a Detroit Lions fan, Sunday’s game sure looked familiar.

Just like the home opener against the Vikings, the Lions looked almost playoff-caliber in the first half. And then the second half rolled around, and they didn’t.

In the Vikings game, it was the defense that performed admirably in the first half, then let up and allowed 27 unanswered points.

This week, it was the offense, which put up 21 first-half points against the vaunted Bears’ defense, before notching negative total yardage in the third quarter, and three points in the fourth.

All the while, the Bears went on a scoring rampage, putting up 48 points.

Now, it’s tempting to say this isn’t a trend. After all, the Lions beat Washington, right? They must have held up in that game, right?

Not exactly. The Redskins charged back in the last five minutes of the game, before the clock ran out on their comeback attempt about 30 yards short. The only difference is that the Lions decided to wait until the middle of the fourth quarter to check out of the game.

But second-half collapses are not the only problem plaguing the Lions through the first quarter of the season.

Poor special teams play, an inconsistent rushing attack, spotty offensive line work, and suspect secondary are among the issues the Lions have had all season. After four games, we can safely call them trends.

Despite starting kick returner Johnny Knox’s injury, the Bears still managed a kick return average of over 47 yards.

The Lions’ defense has been strong at times, but no matter how good a defense is, it’s going to give up some points when half the field is gone before they can go to work.

Kick coverage has been an issue since last year, and while the Bears have an elite special teams unit, the level of domination they had over the Lions Sunday.

If things don’t improve drastically in the coming weeks, expect calls to fire special teams coordinator Stan Kwan to reach a fever pitch.

Anyone who took a chance on Kevin Smith and started him in their fantasy league was rewarded with two touchdowns (I should know… I made a game-day decision to bench him for Tashard Choice). But anybody who was expecting him to help set the tone against the Bears was very disappointed.

Smith was able to kick-start the Lions’ running game against the Vikings and Redskins, but stalled badly against the Saints and again this week against the Bears.

Much of the reason for that falls on the offensive line, which has been equally inconsistent this season. The interior line has allowed too much penetration on running plays, and Jeff Backus has looked dominated at times, and no better than average at others.

Head coach Jim Schwartz’s vision for the future of the Detroit Lions is a tough, physical team that can rely on its running game and defense. Both areas need to step up if the Lions are to win more football games.

Despite a couple of explosive plays on the ground, the Lions have done a reasonable job stopping the run overall. The secondary, however, has allowed an NFL-worst completion percentage of 72.5.

Every quarterback to face the Lions so far has had a career day. Drew Brees threw six touchdown passes. Brett Favre went 23-for-27. Jason Campbell threw for 340 yards. Jay Cutler had an average day, but still threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.

The Lions have the reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month in Louis Delmas, but the rest of the secondary’s starters are not even constant from week-to-week. Regardless of who starts the game in the defensive backfield, the Lions need to cut down opponents’ passing numbers.

Changing these bad habits and trends goes hand-in-hand with the less tangible task of “changing the culture” of losing in the Lions’ locker room.

Maybe it will happen this year, maybe not.

But this season has never been about this season, has it?

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Detroit Lions Math Class: Four Steps for Turning One Win Into Two

Alright, that’s enough.

If you’re still hungover from the Detroit Lions’ victory over the Washington Redskins, grab some coffee.

We’re getting back to business. There are 13 more weeks of football to be played, so pay attention.

The Lions played a good game last week, but it was full of holes. Even the most dominant win leaves room for improvement. While they were strong, the Lions were not quite dominant, no matter what I may say.

So, what lessons from their victory over the Redskins can the Lions use against Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears?

 

1. Keep Matt Forte Down

One of the most disappointing feature backs in football this year is Matt Forte.

Heralded as the Bears’ new star after a sensational rookie campaign, he has rushed for less than 200 yards total in three games this season and spearheads the league’s 28th-ranked rushing attack.

In their last two games, the Lions have been up against two very high-profile backs in Clinton Portis and Adrian Peterson. Peterson was held under 100 yards, Portis under 50.

If they can continue that kind of containment on the already-slumping Forte, it should force the Bears into some 3rd-and-long situations, where the Lions may be able to capitalize on some Cutler turnovers.

 

2. Keep Pressure Off Matt Stafford

Matt Stafford is flying high after his first NFL victory, which happens to also be the first for the Lions since he was a sophomore at Georgia.

So, what was the difference between the Washington game, as compared to New Orleans and Minnesota?

Reduced pressure.

I’m not just talking about pocket pressure, though it’s important that he stay upright against a strong Bears’ defensive line.

I’m talking about game pressure. Stafford played well because he was comfortable.

He played much of the game with a lead, which allowed him to calm down and not force the ball as much as he did in his first two starts. He had less 3rd-and-long situations to contend with, his running game backed him up, and never did the team have to put the ball in his hands to win it.

These factors combined allowed Stafford his strongest—and only turnover-free—start of the season so far. Perhaps it is also a sign of him maturing.

That game was a necessary confidence-builder for him, and he should be able to carry that momentum over to Soldier Field…as long as he doesn’t feel forced to do too much with the ball.

 

3. Continue to Target Bryant Johnson

Calvin Johnson has had a fairly quiet season thus far, compared to expectations. Granted, expectations were pretty lofty, but in three games, Calvin has yet to notch a 100-yard game.

Much of that is because he’s drawing all the coverage. The perception, when a team gameplans for the Lions, is that Calvin is the only threat. Everyone else in single coverage is okay, as long as everyone else covers Calvin.

In response, Stafford started targeting the other Johnson.

Bryant Johnson had a comeuppance against the Redskins, leading the team in receptions and yardage, including two of the biggest offensive plays of the game: catching the first touchdown pass of the game on a 21-yard lob, then drawing a pass interference call in the end zone for 47 yards.

If Stafford can continue to make defenses pay for leaving other receivers in single coverage, then some double coverage should lift from Calvin Johnson, which will open him up to make more plays.

 

4. Don’t Let Up

As well as the Lions played against the Redskins, it still ended up a close game that came down to the final play.

How?

Well, after going up by 13 against the Redskins with five minutes to go, and shutting down the offense for most of the game, they let the Redskins sneak back in with a quick score to Santana Moss, then failed to hold onto the ball to run the rest of the clock out.

Consequently, what would have been the Redskins’ game-winning drive ended in Lions territory, a mere 30 yards from a 20th straight loss.

The Lions have been notorious this season for failing to play solid football for 60 minutes.

In week one, the Lions came out flat and allowed the New Orleans Saints an early double-digit lead, which they would keep for most of the game.

In week two, the Lions had a phenomenal game against the Vikings…in the first half. In the second, they looked like a different team, allowing 27 unanswered points.

Last Sunday, of course, the Redskins charged back with five minutes to go, and may have completed the comeback if they had an extra minute on the clock.

If the Lions are able to get ahead of the Bears, it will be imperative that they sustain their efforts.

The Lions’ secondary is average on their best day, and the Jay Cutler-Devin Hester connection has proven capable of putting up numbers in a hurry. They’ll want to make sure their lead is as comfortable as possible.

Of course, if they keep the pedal down, then there won’t be any concerns over a late comeback, will there?

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Jeff Backus Not Winning Anybody over with Hustle Points

There are many reasons for Lions fans to dislike Jeff Backus.

He seems like a nice enough guy, and I’m sure he is. You never see him get into trouble, and he has quietly been a Detroit Lions starter for almost a decade now.

But he gives up a lot of sacks, and tends to personify the entire Matt Millen era by being his very first ever draft pick.

It’s not his fault, but it’s the truth. He has worked to overcome that by starting every game since his draft date.

But last week against the Vikings, he made no friends and impressed no fans with his now-infamous “phantom block” play.

In case you missed it, in the first play of the second half, Backus allowed Vikings pass rusher Jared Allen to go by untouched, making a beeline for quarterback Matthew Stafford. Seemingly, he was waiting for some other, invisible man to block.

After a cartoonish scene in which Allen crunched Stafford from his blind side, leaving the ball suspended in midair for a moment where Stafford was holding it, the ball fell as a fumble at Backus’ feet.

Despite the mantra given to all lineman in a fumble situation, “fall on the ball,” Backus decided staring at it was sufficient, while Brandon Pettigrew came across from the other side of the line to recover the fumble.

It was as if Backus was unaware the second half had started.  Or that he didn’t care.

Regardless of the reason, it was decidedly the worst hustle play anybody watching the game has ever seen.

Yes, sometimes wide receivers take a play or two off, maybe they don’t run their routes very hard. Maybe a running back runs out of bounds to avoid a hit, rather than trying to cut it back upfield.

But when you make lots of money to play the left tackle position in the NFL, you cannot take plays off. Not like that. And even guys who do take plays off would still fall on a fumble that landed right in front of them. So he thought it was an incomplete pass? That’s fine, but if the whistle doesn’t blow, you fall on the ball, period.

According to Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com, the bizarre sack is not Backus’ fault, but Jerome Felton’s. Felton slipped up the middle on the play, hesitated, then ran toward the sideline in a pass pattern.

I can see how that would be if he missed his assignment, but if you’re coaching a team, why would you put your young fullback on one of the league’s top pass rushers, while your big-money left tackle stands and watches?

There was no blitz on the way, and no extra rusher for Backus to block. Even if Felton drew the assignment of blocking Allen, that still doesn’t excuse Backus for not diving on the fumble.

Now, this one play is not really indicative of the way Backus’ career has gone, or even his game against the Vikings. But nobody in Detroit is a big Backus fan already, because he doesn’t play very well, but nobody seems willing to replace him.

There are lots of players who become fan favorites despite a low skill level, though. Know how they do it? Hustle and effort.

Baseball players who run hard on pop-ups and grounders; basketball players who hustle back to get on defense every play; quarterbacks who dive for a first down instead of sliding a yard short—these are the guys fans like to see.

Backus’ own fellow lineman Dominic Raiola is one of those guys. What Raiola lacks in size he makes up for in attitude, heart, and hustle, and even though he’s too small to be effective against stronger defensive tackles, he leaves everything on the field every game.

If Backus played like that, he would be a much better player, and fans would be a little more willing to keep him around.

But he’s not, and if he was trying to create the illusion that he was, he ruined his chance last Sunday.

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Detroit Lions Notch First Winnable Game, First Disappointing Loss

Now you can be disappointed.

At the end of the first half against the Vikings, the Detroit Lions were in complete control of the football game. They were up 10-7, and the seven didn’t come until after the two-minute warning.

Final score: Vikings 27, Lions 13.  That’s something to be angry about.

Last week, at New Orleans? Not so much. That was a game the Lions were supposed to lose, and while they hung around, they never gave the impression they were a better team than the Saints.

That has since been confirmed, as the Saints went on to torch the Philadelphia Eagles, a trendy preseason Super Bowl pick, by a greater margin than they beat the Lions.

Against the Vikings, though, the team was different. The Lions were getting pressure on Brett Favre, stopping Adrian Peterson, and moving the ball with consistency on the ground. They were forcing turnovers. Matthew Stafford had his first career touchdown pass.

More importantly, they led for roughly half of the game. As in, they had more points on the board.

Lions fans have become accustomed to twisting stats to make themselves feel better about all the losses, but not often can they speak favorably about the one that counts.

And because of that, I’m not going to go on about all the things that went well. Don’t get me wrong, there were a bunch of them. But that’s not what I’m focused on.

I’m focused on the two Lions teams that showed up on Sunday. The first half team, which resembles the one Lions fans have been hoping to see for years; and the second half team, which Lions fans have seen for too long.

I’m used to seeing the team we saw in the second half. If that’s the team that had shown up for four quarters, I would focus on the bright spots and say we were just outgunned.

That’s what happened against the Saints. The Saints had too much raw talent in too many areas, and the Lions couldn’t match up.

That’s not what happened against the Vikings. If the Vikings were so superior that no game plan, no adjustments, no amount of execution could overcome the talent gap, the Lions wouldn’t have dominated the first 25 minutes of the game.

Instead, they showed the team they could be, then regressed to a 19th consecutive loss.

I’d rather they get blown out, wire-to-wire. Because losing by 40, at least there’s no rollercoaster. After a quarter or two, it’s easy to see which way the game is going, and hey, it’s not like we’re not used to it.

But the way the Lions played Sunday? All it shows is that the team is capable of winning games, it just isn’t doing it.

That, Lions fans, is something to be disappointed about.

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