Detroit Lions Weblog

Turn out the Lights, the Party’s over….

Sunday’s loss in Minnesota, a game in which they had posessed a commanding lead, rang the death knell for the Lions hopes in 2004. Any team playing for it’s playoff life who can’t preserve a 12 point lead in the 4th quarter of a football game, must yet again resume it’s rightful place among the rest of the leagues have-nots. The same elements that have factored into most of the Lions losses this season (and many in the past) again came into play in this game.

T.O.P.
Team 1st Half/ 2nd Half/ TTL/ +/-
DET 18:04/ 9:32/ 27:36/ -4:48
MINN 11:56/ 20:28/ 32:24/+4:48

DET +6:08 1st, -10:56 2nd

The Lions have now scored 3 offensive Tds in 14 quarters of play. The special teams have scored an equal number

Third Downs
Minn 8/15 or 53%
DET 4/11 or 36%

Passing
Minn 22 cmp/ 32 att/ 1 INT/ 212 YDS/ 6.1YDS/pass
DET 12 cmp/ 19 att/ 1 INT/ 67 YDS/ 3.0 YDS/pass

Penalties
Minn 7/51-7.3 yds/penalty
Det 9/116-12.9 yds/penalty

The Lions don’t have the margin of error to continue to play this poorly and hope to win games. There has been a lot of discussion over Mariucci’s decision to accept a pass interference penalty that turned a fourth-and-2 yards play to a third-and-12 yards, which Minnesota converted. Mike Tice later revealed that he was going to kick a field goal on fourth-and-2 yards to go. Mariucci didn’t think the Vikings would kick a field goal and he had hoped his defense would hold on third and long, which of course they did not. This one call, may have lead to Minnesota’s eventual game-winning touchdown, yet it was the poor, uninspired play of the offense and three very stupid penalties that were the team’s undoing.

Damien Woody, upon realizing what all Lions players eventually understand (and most fans, too), said that he had “never seen anything like that. So many different ways of losing football games, it’s amazing. It’s so bad I’m laughing (probably to keep from crying) I don’t understand it. I’m trying to laugh it off. It’s like we’re bipolar, and we forgot to take our medication. The first half is exactly how we wanted to do it. The second half-totally the opposite.” In a first half where the team played well enough, to control the ball and was able to spring Kevin Jones for 95 rushing yards, it appeared the Lions had a convincing 10 point lead going into the half. No Lions fan in their right mind could believe
that the Lions were in complete command of the game at the half, though. The scenario for the game’s eventual outcome has been played out far too often during the Lion’s history not to expect the worse. Even more difficult to swallow, may be the fact the Lions have yet to defeat a team quartebacked by Daunte Culpepper (8-0).

Again, at the center of all the debate in regards to the state of the Detroit Lions is quarterback, “Champagne” Joey Harrington. I am beginning to believe that Tony Siragusa’s comments were more prescient than we all wanted to admit when he originally uttered them. Harrington hasn’t been able to withstand the questions about his performance or leadership capabilities, he has yet to rise to the occasion like all great QB’s eventually do and lead this team with conviction to victory. It maybe a different time and place, but these comments from Yale Lary seemed to best represent the failure of Joey Harrington as much as any.

“When Bobby (Layne) said block,you blocked. When Bobby said drink, you drank.” taken from Michael MacCambridge’s “America’s Game”

Again, I realize these statements were made in a different era, but when have you seen Harrington’s presence command the respect and confidence for the rest of the Lion’s to overcome the odds and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? The reason I believe Siragusa’s comments may have some weight in regards to Harrington I have also taken from Michael MacCambridge’s excellent book:

Brian Billick: “I was at Stanford (as Bill Walsh’s asst.), and that’s a great place to coach and it was an enjoyable place to recruit and you interacted with a great class of people. But one of the difficulties at Stanford, was you had in large part a bunch of kids who when it’s fourth-and-goal on the one yard line against Notre Dame, know in the back of their mind, ‘You know, if this doesn’t work out, I’m going to be okay anyway. I’m going to go make my money. I’m going to have my career. I’m going to have my Stanford degree.’ And that’s all well and true, and in the bigger perspective that’s the way it should be. But at that point, I want them to have a little more at stake. Kids from less-advantaged backgrounds take more of that perspective. ‘This is my way out’”

A recurring theme of MacCambridge’s book is that many NFL personnel people have found it advantageous to acquire players from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and broken homes. As calculated and implicitly racist these views may be, you can start to see the validity of this view in regards to the career of Harrington. He doesn’t appear to have experienced the adversity in his life and lacks the motivation by which someone can become successful as a player in the NFL. He doesn’t exhibit the fierceness or resolve to overcome adversity. After the game, Harrington revealed the depths of his denial by stating that he felt he had played a good game (90 yards passing and a game losing interception?) and that he just wished he had that one pass back.

This season is a couple of losses away from being a complete wash. Any tangibly perceptible improvements over last season’s performance are now gone. This team must do what it can to salvage respect for the remainder of the season. As it begins it’s evaluation process for 2005, it may be facing it’s greatest challenge yet in their interminable rebuilding process.