Detroit Lions Weblog

Lions’ Predictions are futile…

Anybody who could have told me before Sunday’s game what was about to transpire would been a major subject of derision and disbelief from me. I honestly couldn’t conjure up a scenario where the Lions could possibly win three games in a row on the road (maybe four?) and played the best game of the short lived Mariucci/Harrington-era Lions.

First off, Harrington was nothing short of what the Lions hoped they had drafted when they selected in with the third overall pick. He was efficient. He was decisive and got the ball down the field. His 141.8 passer rating was remarkable. Even more so was the fact that he hit six different receivers with passes of 18 yds or more. Two of those receivers were released by the Lions at the end of training camp. Completing 18 of 22 passes for 230 yards and 2 touchdowns, Harrington didn’t even seem like the same player from one week earlier. Most importantly he threw zero interceptions and really only missed on one pass of his four incompletions. Two of them were balls he intentionally threw away and the other was a drop by Roy Williams. My only negative in regards to Harrington would be that he let Tony Siragusa off much too easily after the “Goose” made his regrettable comments during the Eagles game. I know Joey is a natural born diplomat, but really I didn’t need to see him and Siragusa smiling and back-slapping like they had just emerged from the henhouse.

Sunday also was cause for great joy because we finally saw the emergence of a potential running game. Kevin Jones had two runs of 20+ yards in the same drive. If he can get healthy and the Lions can ratchet up their running attack another notch or two, as ridiculous as it sounds, they would be playoff contenders. As a Lion fan, I know I shouldn’t even begin to intimate this possibility, but it isn’t so far-fetched as it may have seemd one week ago.

The Lions’ defense has really come through in the 3 road victories. This week featured more stellar play from it’s rotation of players that configure it’s front four. They provided the relentless pressure necessary to keep Kurt Warner uncomfortable most of the day. The linemen had six sacks, 2 of them by a player I had once so unkindly deemed “Kalimba the Ghost”. I did have one heart-stopping moment, when Shaun “Big Baby” Rogers lumbered off the field and onto the “dead sled” (aka golf cart that hauls players back to the locker room). If their is one indispensable player on the Lion’s roster at this point, he would be it. Most importantly, when a play need to be made, the defense stepped in and made it. The two biggest would have been Chris Cash’s heads-up interception of a pass that Warner lofted in to Amani Toomer that should have been darted in. The other would have been Alex Lewis’s deflection of a pass intended for Jeremy Shockey at the end of the game that turned the ball over on downs to the Lions.

The Lions are an astounding +10 in takeaways/giveaways. They are really a two interception game away from losing many of these games, so their future successes will be dependent upon this remaining a constant. At this point, one thing is certain, Roy Williams is the best draft pick they have made in recent history. Even injured, good things seem to happen when he is in the game. Even better things occur when he touches the ball. The Lions have not had a playmaker with this ability in a few years. He entered hallowed company Sunday. He became the 6th Lion to score 5 or more Td’s in their rookie season or first season as Lion. (The others are rookies Doak Walker, Dorne Dibble, David Hill, and Earl McCulloch. 2nd year player, Willie Green, in his first playing, also had 5 TD’s)

I will have to commend the coaching staff for having the team prepared and not allowing them to get to down after last week’s loss. The team has a relatively small margin for error and any victory they achieve will be earned because of it. The staff made the right decision by rotating David Loverne and Matt Joyce in the second half. This seemed to have a direct influence on their ability to succesfully run the ball. The offense still can be a little conservative and Mike O’Hara is right in pointing out that after making the big interception before the half it was a little strange that Mariucci chose to sit on the ball and go into the locker room with 30 seconds remaining. Especially since it was a similar decision to the one which got him fired in San Francisco.