Detroit Lions Weblog

Lions Vs. Jaguars-a Season Salvaged or Savaged?

I am still reeling from last Sunday’s performance by the Lions. Can you imagine the excitement if the team were 6-2 or 5-3 at this point? At any rate, the Lions must prove again on Sunday why they continuously have defined the meaning of mediocrity for all of professional sports. To say this is a must win for the Lions, on the road, facing a young team’s #2 QB, is an understatement.

On offense, we are yet again being fed the notion that this is the week that the team will attempt to establish the run. Mariucci stated in press conferences last week that maybe the team would “bring in some double-tight (2 tight ends) or attempt to spread teams out(widening the formation with multiple receivers, spreading the defense acrossed the field), then try to run. Kevin Jones also has indicated that the practice “scripts” have utilized him in some more plays and it appears he might have more opportunities this week after he has openly displayed frustration with the constantly changing personnel packages according to down and distance that have shuffled him on and off the field. The Lions will be well served to develop their running game this season. That being said, they are facing a young defense that features two very good defensive tackles and decent MLB who have not allowed teams to the run the ball all that successfully. Marcus Stroud and John Henderson will pose quite a challenge for C Dom Raiola and Guards Damien Woody, David Loverne/Matt Joyce. The Jags have also allowed very few rushing TD’s this year. It will be interesting to see if Jacksonville will utilize a similar game plan to what other teams have against the Lions in recent weeks by bringing up the safeties and bringing pressure to Harrington. The Jaguars are not to great against the pass and due to injuries at Defensive End they are playing a LB and Defensive Tackle out of position their. They have not been very successful in pressuring the passer so Harrington should have time to find receivers. The Lions injury difficulties at wide out, make it unclear whom Harrington will be throwing to, but the emergence of Reggie Swinton as a target is a cause for hope. This is the third game in a row where the Lions have been provided with a winnable game, they must take advantage of what opportunities they have and capitalize. Harrington, will need to rebound from recent poor performances and establish his leadership and performance levels consistently. Harrington must decide whether he will ever be comparable to players of the caliber of a Steve Young or Jeff Garcia or more than likely to players like Gio Carmazzi, Rick Mirer, or Jim Druckenmiller. His time is drawing short.

The Lions Defense, has been serviceable, if not good. Yet, they have been prone to allowing big plays and of late have been less stout versus the run. A lot of that could be due to the fact that their offense is not controlling the ball well, adding more and more playing time for the defense. Also, in recent weeks the poor special teams performance, has in large part placed the Lions offense in negligible field position scenarios that have a direct impact on the defenses ability to perform. With inexperienced but promising David Garrard at the helm, the Jags have a few decent offensive weapons but possess little flash. Jimmy Smith is an excellent veteran receiver, who is entering the end of his career. Reggie Williams and Troy Edwards are young talents with potential, but are unproven, and you are never sure about their performance week-to-week. The Lions secondary, will have to prevent the big play. The Jags have two decent running backs in Fred Taylor and LaBrandon Toefield. The Jags are suffering from a similar inability to run the ball and it’s essential that the Lions do not allow the Jaguars to get comfortable in their running game with an inexperienced Quarterback at the helm. I think this is the game factor where the outcome of the game will be decided. The Lions must hold Fred Taylor under 100 yards in order to have an opportunity to win this road game. I have a strange feeling that last week’s performance may be indicative of how the remainder of this season will play out. Prove Me Wrong, Lions! Jags 21 Lions 7

Jags Vs. Lions-Tales of the Tape

31. Lions Offense vs. 20. Jaguars Defense

Yardage
Yards 2,067/ 2,735/
YPG 258.4(31st)/ 341.9(21st)/
Scoring
PTS 147/ 146/
PPG 18.4(22nd)/ 18.3(11th)/
Passing
YPG 183.4(24th)/ 233.1(26th)/
TD 13(8th)/ 11(17th)/
SACK 19(18th)/ 12(30th)
INT 5(8th)/ 3(29th)
Rushing
YPG 75.0(32nd)/ 108.8(12th)
TD 3(27th)/ 4(5th)

18th Jaguars Offense vs. 21st Lions Defense

Yardage
Yards 2,570/ 2,754
YPG 321.3(17th)/ 344.3(22nd)
Scoring
PTS 128/ 171
PPG 16.0(29th)/ 21.4(19th)
Passing
YPG 229.9(12th)/ 2308.(24th)
TD 9(17th)/ 12(20th)
SACK 18 (15th)/ 23(3rd)
INT 7(17th)/ 6(15th)
Rushing
YPG 91.4(26th)/ 113.5(14th)
TD 4(24th)/ 6(15th)

Takeaways /Giveaways
INT/ FUM/ TTL/ INT/ FUM/ TTL/ DIFF +/-
Det. 8/ 9/ 17/ 5/ 1/ 6/ +11/
JAX 3/ 7/ 10/ 7/ 3/ 10/ 0/

QB Comparison
ATT/ CMP/ PCT/ YDS/ YDS/G TD/ INT/ RATE/
Harrington 242/ 149/ 59.5/ 1563/ 195.4/ 13/ 5/ 87.9/

Byron Leftwich is injured and his replacement David Garrard has thrown only two passes all season and played in 4 NFL games in his career.
INJURY REPORT

Det:Out:Boss Bailey Doubtful:Stephen Trejo, Donte CurryQuestionable: Jared DeVries, Az Zahir Hakim, Tai Streets (Babilonia)

Jax Out:Byron Leftwich Doubtful:George Wrightster TE Questionable: Daryl Smith LB

Lions vs. Skins:Disgusting!

The great, raging beast that is the “American Dream” is expectorating, urping lost hope upon itself. My favorite collegiate football team, the Michigan State Spartans, have had spectacular late game flame-outs in consecutive games. The Detroit Lions have brought new meaning to the standards of poor effort and dazzling ineptitude. Lastly, Rock and Roll is dead. To say my mood is black about these troubled times is an understatement.

The Detroit Lions lost their third game in a row at home Sunday. That in itself, is palatable. The monumental fashion in which they have been losing these games is the cause for great concern. Losing by a combined point total of 85-33 (an astounding deficit of 52 points or average of 2 TD’s and a FG per game) doesn’t even begin to present the whole picture of the manner in which this team has been dominated in front of it’s loyal home crowd. The Lions have an utterly non-existent rushing attack, a QB and Head Coach/Play-Caller who don’t exhibit the brass to “sack up” and face the difficult circumstances the lack of a rushing attack presents for them. Mariucci, gives lip service to establishing the running game, yet does little to establish the rhythm of the running attack and seems too preoccupied with personnel packages and schemes to utilize the high round draft picks (McDougle, Raiola, and Backus who have been harvested from collegiate backgrounds that have featured ground game-oriented offenses)and run between the tackles. This is partially attributable to the ineffectiveness of the aforementioned Offensive Linemen, two of whom (Raiola and McDougle), are in contract seasons and should be exhibiting better performances than they have thus far. Kevin Jones also deserves some criticism. He has the tools necessary to potentially be a sucessful back in the NFL. That being said, he must learn to grit his teeth, stick his head down, and get a three yard gain by pumping his legs and driving the pile. It is fundamental football, if he is ever going to gain any measure of success, he will have to learn when the situation calls to “gut it out” and when it time to “kick it out”. He is too often looking for yardage on the edge of the defense that honestly isn’t there. Many Lion fans didn’t like James Stewart as a feature running back. They thought he was injured too often, lacked the game-breaking explosiveness, and paled in comparison to the back the organization featured just prior to his arrival in Detroit (Barry, stupid!). At this point, I would gladly take his tough running style. He was fearless between the tackles and always exhibited great effort. In the current Lions running attack, how many second effort yards do you see being gained?

Acknowledging the Lions have a non-existent ground game, the Lions have been very vanilla in the ways in which they have chose to address their offensive situation. A typical series of downs will be: 1st down)Kevin Jones to the oustide no gain 2nd Down and 10 yds)3 yd slant to Streets/Hakim/Alexander that was not thrown accurately so no yards were gained after the catch. 3rd and 7yds)First, a major shuffling of the personnel package,then either a “Wayne Fontes Draw”, Screen to Bryson, or a 5 yd pass after the defense has blitzed causing Harrington to decide to “check down” due to the incoming pressure. Tell me I am wrong about this! Teams are bringing their safeties up and often times are loading 8-9 players into the “tackle box”. They are showing blitz and blitzing. David Loverne and Dom Raiola are blocking like turnstiles and Harrington when feeling the onset of pressure is throwing underneath where the heart of the defensive personnel are lying in wait, to quickly snuff out the play for little gain. Loading players around the line of scrimmage makes the already non-existent ground game even more ineffective. Teams are essentially daring Steve Mariucci and his protege, Joey Harrington to throw down-field against man-to-man coverage over the top of the defense and they are refusing to do it. I realize that Harrington is facing pressure, and doesn’t have the league’s strongest passing arm, but sometimes you have to stand in there and throw the 15-20 yard pass that the defense is giving you. Not to be-labor a point, the increased emphasis on calling a penalty for defensive contact more than 5 yards down field has given the offense a distinct advantage that most teams have had the awareness to adjust their play-calling to. Heck,the Lions got one called for them yesterday when they threw downfield to Reggie Swinton. This philosophically-determined approach to calling plays will be this team’s undoing this season. They are going to have to take the onus off of trying to establish the run and will have to work even harder to throw the ball accurately and efficiently, if they are going to be able to feature any offense whatsoever for the remainder of the season.

After the coaching, Joey Harrington, has to answer why he has so consistently played poorly at home. He has appeared flat emotionally and their was a noticeable lack of urgency throughout the day. How could he, or the team for that matter, be so unaffected by the unexpected and emotionally charged retirement of Robert Porcher. Not only that, seem so flat when they are playing a feature game on the Fox network, where it’s pre-game broadcast team, actually were broadcasting from Detroit. How could they seem so flat when it was a milestone game for their teammate, Jason Hanson, who tied the team record for most games played, with the team’s honorary captain, Wayne Walker. This is utterly inexcusable! Joey Harrington never threw an accurate pass to an open receiver all day. Furthermore, the total lack of time or game management during the Lions 2:00 min drill at the end of the game was an embarassment. Again, there was no palpable sense of urgency, in a situation where they might be able to reclaim victory from the jaws of defeat. Enough Said!

Through all of this, the Redskins played poorly as well. At no point were the Lions ever out of reach of winning but yet they did nothing to improve upon thier chances either. They lost the field position game and time of posession game. They suffered from many costly penalties, though not nearly as many as Washington. Mark Brunell was incapable of connecting with his receivers and other than Clinton Portis the team’s best “offensive” player was Tom Tupa, who kept the Lions in bad field position the entire day. One last thing, why did Chuck Priefer keep sending Jody Littleton in to snap if he was injured and had snapped poorly twice in a row? It was very poor coaching to have Littleton snap on the punt that was blocked. You don’t think the Redskins had taken notive of that situation? I am thoroughly disgusted as a Lions fan.

Redskins Dominance

The Redskins have exercised some dominance over the Lions in recent history. This a link to another blogger’s perception of that dominance. (Redskins Blog:Skins own Lions by Rich Tandler, http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=citadel-2_314436_93&prov=citadel&type=lgns)

He mentions the words Wayne Fontes and brain lock in the same sentence. Who wudda thunk? This is a must victory on so many levels for the Lions organization this week.

Lions vs. Redskins

Thus far the Lions have not enjoyed the benefit of home field advantage. They have actually played quite poorly in two out of their three home games. Many fans and pundits hold different theories in regards to this deficiency. Ford Field is a Xanadu-like monument to football excess. Yet, it has none of the aura (or stench) of the indoor biker rally-atmosphere that defined the Pontiac Silverdome. The fans who attend, are generally, of a higher class than the more blue collar denizens of the “Dome”, too. I think the higher prices, 20,000 less seats, and garish luxury boxes have all altered the demographic of game attendees. All of these factors combined with the poor quality of play, lack of star-quality personnel and poor management over recent years have made Ford Field friendly confines for away teams instead of the hostile hell-hole that was the Silverdome.

It is important this week that the Lions get off to a good start in this game and bring the fans the type of game that might help to generate the atmosphere that often provided the Lions with an advantage while playing in Pontiac. Lion fans are ravenous for a good team and the Lions are teetering on the brink. This is the week that the Lions need to run well and consistently against the top rated defense in the league (2nd in rushing). The Washington front seven is stalwart even without the presence of Pro Bowler LaVar (Don’t call me Jordie) Arrington. The Lions obviously are going to have continue with their trend of not turning the ball over. The Lions have not lost a fumble yet this year, to the credit of Tom Rathman and the rest of the Lions staff. Washington is also a very good secondary even with the trade of Champ Bailey. Shawn Springs is finally starting to blossom into the player he was expected to be several years ago and Fred Smoot seems to be more focused this season. Free Safety Sean Taylor has been a valuable addition but with his DUI arrest it is questionable what factor he may have in the game against the Lions. Harrington is going to have to be efficient and continue to complete a high percentage of his passes. The availability of Roy Williams to play will have a major factor upon how the Redskins play the Lions offense. His ability to make big plays forces defenses to have to game plan specifically for him. The Lions offensive execution will have to attain a high watermark if it expects to be effective against this defense.

On defense, Mark Brunell has been terrible this season. The Lions defense can’t allow him to get out early and successfully start to make plays. The Redskins offense has been very ineffective and the Lions will have to effectively pressure Brunell to keep him off balance. Brunell still has some scrambling ability so the Lions will have to be careful as he leaves the pocket. They certainly were embarassed last week when Testaverde had to successful runs against them. Shaun Rogers and Dan Wilkinson will have to continue to be immovable forces in the center of the Lions defense so that they force Clinton Portis to have to run laterally. The Lions linebackers will have to be quick to the edge of the defense to prevent Portis from making big plays. The Lions secondary will have a major challenge this week with tough posession receivers like Rod Gardner, Laveranues Coles and James Thrash. A healthy Dre Bly and Fernando Bryant can’t afford to give up big plays to the Skins receivers. Even with the Skins’ poor performances of late the Lions really have to execute much better than they did last week. Special Teams and Penalties were in particular factors in the Lions undoing last week. I don’t like this game one bit, this is the type of game we have come to see the Lions lose through the years. Facing an ailing team, rather than giving an A effort with excellence of execution we often see a C- effort and continually costly blunders. That factored with the Lions coaching staff’s continuing conservatism I think the Lions will yet again disappoint it’s loyal fans with a 17-14 loss.

Lions vs Redskins Tales of the Tape

32. Detroit Offense vs./ 1st Washington Defense

Yardage
Yards 1745/ 1766
YPG 249.3(32nd)/ 252.3(1st)
Scoring
Points 137/ 123
PPG 19.6(19th)/ 17.6(8th)
Passing
YPG 172.7(26th)/ 165.4(4th)
TD 12(8th)/5(2nd)
Sack 17(18th)/ 17(10th)
INT 4(6th)/8(6th)
Rushing
YPG 76.6(31st)/86.9(2nd)
TD 3(25th)/4(7th)

Washington Offense (27th) vs./ Detroit Defense(24th)
Yardage
Yards 1952/ 2525
YPG 278.9(26th)/360.7(29th)
Scoring
Points 98/154
PPG 14.0(31st)/22.0(20th)
Passing
YPG 165.7(28th)/253.3(29th)
TD 8(19th)/11(20th)
Sack 17(18th)/23(2nd)
INT 8(24th)/8(6th)
Rushing
YPG 113.1(15th)/107.4(11th)
TD 2(29th)/6(18th)

Takeaways Giveaways
Team INT/ FUM/ TTL/ INT/FUM/TTL/ DIFF
1.Det 8/ 9/ 17/ 4/ 1/ 5/ +12
22.Was 8/ 4/ 12/ 8/ 7/ 15/ -3

QB’s
player ATT/ CMP/ PCT/ YARDS/ YD/G/ TD/ INT RATE
HARR 190/ 118/ 62.1/ 1294/ 184.9/ 12/ 4/ 94.5
BRUN 212/ 111/ 52.4/ 1130/ 161.4/ 7/ 5/ 69.1

Red Zone Performance weeks 5-8
Team OFF DEF
Td/Poss/ RED%/ TD/Opp Pos/ Red%
DET 6/7/ 86%/ 6/13/ 46%
WAS 4/8/ 50%/ 3/6/ 50%

Lions QB genealogy 1979-Present

I have compiled a list of QB’s who thrown passes for the Lions over the last 25 years, my most distant memory of a Lions team. I have the players listed in ranking order of the number of passing attempts per season, the first QB listed having the most, etc. Please if you are prone to depression, remember this is only a list and is not intended to conjure up indigestion, bad vibes, migraines and other ailments associated with being a long term Lions fan.

1979 B.B.(before Billy)
Jeff Komlo
Scott Hunter
Joe Reed
1980 A.B.(after Billy)
Gary Danielson
Jeff Komlo
1981
Eric Hipple
Gary Danielson
Jeff Komlo
1982
Danielson
Hipple
1983
Hipple
Danielson
1984
Danielson
Mike Machurek
Hipple
1985
Hipple
Joe Ferguson
1986
Hipple
Ferguson
Chuck Long
1987
Long
Todd Hons (who the hell?)
1988
Rusty Hilger
Long
Hipple
John Witkowski
1989 (Barry Dynasty begins)
Bob Gagliano
Rodney Peete
Hipple
Long
1990
Peete
Gagliano
Andre Ware
1991
Erik Kramer
Peete
1992
Peete
Kramer
Ware
1993
Peete
Kramer
Ware
1994
Scott Mitchell
Dave Krieg
1995
Mitchell
Don Majikowski(who can forget the Majik Man?)
1996
Mitchell
Majikowski
1997
Mitchell
Frank Reich
Matt Blundin
1998 (end of the Barry Dynasty)
Charlie Batch
Reich
Mitchell
1999
Gus Frerotte
Batch
2000
Batch
Stoney Case
2001
Batch
Ty Detmer (What draft pick was given up for 7 INT’s?)
Mike McMahon
2002
Joey Harrington
McMahon
2003
Harrington
McMahon
2004
Harrington

Sporting News special issue Top 50 QB’s all-time

The Sporting News assembled a group of NFL experts to determine it’s Top 50 NFL quarterbacks of all-time. It was a subjective poll, but it makes a nice read. It will come as little surprise that the Lions only had two members of the team make the list, #16 Bobby Layne and #44 Dutch Clark, neither of whom has played in a Lions uniform since 1958. The issue is worth a look, it also ranks the Top 5 Qb’s for each team.

Sporting News Top 25
1.Johnny Unitas/14.Sid Luckman
2.Joe Montana/15.Dan Fouts
3.Otto Graham/16.Bobby Layne
4.John Elway/17.Norm Van Brocklin
5. Sammy Baugh/18.Sonny Jurgensen
6.Dan Marino/19.Jim Kelly
7. Brett Favre/20.Yelbertson A. Tittle
8.Terry Bradshaw/21.Len Dawson
9.Roger Staubach/22.Bob Griese
10. Bart Starr/23.Joe Namath
11. Fran Tarkenton/24.Warren Moon
12. Troy Aikman/25.Peyton Manning
13.Steve Young

I personally feel this list is slanted a little towards modern day QB’s. I believe the game management skills and play-calling exhibited by early vintage NFL QB’s merits some weight over the modern day QB’s inflated passing stats due to the priority placed upon the passing game in modern day football. I have a very hard time accepting that Brett Favre is better than Terry Bradshaw or that
Troy Aikman is ranked higher than so many great players.

Other notables in the top 50:
#48 Tom Brady U of M grad
#50 Bennie Friedman U of M grad/Detroit Wolverines who were purchased by Tim Mara and became the New York Football Giants.

Lions Top 5 (according to Sporting News)
1.Bobby Layne
2.Dutch Clark
3.Scott Mitchell
4.Greg Landry
5.Bill Munson

This list is quite debatable. Where is Milt Plum? How about Eric Hipple or Erik Kramer. I think Mitchell had one or two spectacular seasons but I do not believe he should be on this list. What do you think?

Lions Passing Yards-Career
1.Layne 15,710
2.Mitchell 12,647
3.Landry 12,451
4.Danielson 11,885
5.Hipple 10,711
6.Batch 9,016
7.Plum 8,536
8.Munson 8,461
9.Peete 8,164
10.Morrall 6,280

TD Passes-Career
1. Layne 118
2.Landry 80
3.Mitchell 79
4.Danielson 69
5.Munson 56
6.Hipple 55
Plum 55
8. Morrall 52
9.Batch 49
10. Peete 38

Comp %-Career (min 500 passes)
1. Peete 57.0
2.Mitchell 56.7
3. Danielson 56.5
4.Batch 56.0
5.Kramer 55.2
6. Long 54.8
7.Landry 54.8
8. Munson 54.5
9.Hipple 53.7
10. Harrington 53.3

Passer Rating-Career
1.Mitchell 79.2
2.Batch 76.9
3. Morrall 76.4
4. Kramer 75.5
5.Munson 75.2
6.Danielson 74.7
7.Landry 73.4
8. Peete 72.9
9. Hipple 68.7
10. Long 64.8

Thank You, Robert Porcher

Robert Porcher ended his 13 years of playing with the Lions yesterday. He is third in all-time games played in franchise history, with 187. He is also seventh all-time in tackles with 673. Porcher should now assume a role among the likes of Joe Schmidt, Chris Spielman, and Lem Barney among others who should be highly regarded among Lion fans.

He is also the ALL-Time Sacks Leader for the Team
1.Porcher 95.5
2.Bubba Baker 75.5
3.Mike Cofer 63.0
4.William Gay 61.0
5.Tracy Scroggins 60.5
6.Doug English 59.0
7.Ken Sanders 39.0
8.Dave Pureifory 37.0
9.Curtis Green 33.5
10.Keith Ferguson 28.5

He also ranks fourth, seventh and tenth in number of sacks in a season all-time.

1.Bubba Baker 23
2.Bubba Baker 18
3.Bubba Baker 16
4.Porcher 15.0
5.William Gay 13.5
6.Doug English 13.0
7.Porcher 12.5
8. Dave Pureifory 12.0
Mike Cofer 12.0
10.Porcher 11.5

I will have to add that if James Hall and Kalimba Edwards resume their current pace they may join this list.

Robert Porcher

After recently missing a practice, and the announcement that the front office and Robert Porcher will meet today, it appears that a Lions legend and true first class individual will be bidding adieu. It is a reflection of the depth the team possesses in it’s defensive line that they could reduce the playing time of such a strong locker room presence and one of the franchise’s finest players. It doesn’t appear that the relationship will end as gracefully as both parties would have initially liked either. As a Lion fan, I hope that the Lions do the right thing and make a Porcher a member of their organization, if he would be interested. The Lions would be hard pressed to find a better example of a “company man” than Porcher. He very much deserves to retire as member of the organization as opposed to being released and ending the final games of his career with a different team. I will be very disappointed if the Porcher is released and appears against the Lions in two weeks in a Jaguar uniform.