Detroit Lions Weblog

“Champagne” Joey Takes One for the Team

It appears that Joey Harrington has expressed the willingness to renegotiate his contract so that the Lions will have more money to budget towards their salary cap in future seasons. One has to wonder what factors brought about this decision. The paranoid in me wonders if the Lions/Harrington conspired to present the contract restructure in this manner so that there would be some positive P.R. accrued in the process of Joey swallowing some pride. Even so, it is always respectable when an athlete is willing to return money for the overall betterment of the team.

It would also appear that Steve Mariucci quietly handed over the play calling responsibilities to Qb’s coach, Greg Olson. This is a situation to continue to monitor. The Lions appear to be preparing for next season early by re-signing Punter Nick Harris and LB/Special Teams Ace Donte Curry. Both have proven valuable and will be needed next season. Now, if the Lions could start working on the contracts of “Big Baby” Shaun Rogers, Marcus Bell, Stockar McDougle, and Dominic Raiola.

One addendum to my pregame predictions for this Sunday, if Doug Johnson starts instead of Billy Volek the score will be: Titans 27 Lions 23

I’ve Got a Baaad Feeling About This One!

Their is bad juju going around. This weekend’s game is giving me an incredible sense of impending doom. The Titans, who are a capable of filling an entire hospital ward with their injured, have been playing terribly down the stretch. This is one of those games that the Lions should win with relative ease. Emphasize the word SHOULD! We know how the Lions traditionally have performed in games they should win against outmatched opponents. The Titans, who traditionally play very well at home, are just not a desirable matchup. The gunslinging Billy Volek has to be salivating at the prospects of throwing against the coverage of DB’s such as Andre Goodman, Brock Marion, and Fernando Bryant. After watching this offensive unit roast the KC DB’s over an open flame two weeks ago on Monday Night Football, I experienced all kinds of premonitions about the outcome of this game. If I were a certain famous bard from Hibbing, Minnesota, I might coin tunes along the lines of such favorites as “Talkin’ Those Andre Goodman Got Burned Again Blues”, or “Pretty Joey-O”, or “Brock Marion’s 113th Missed Tackle” or the unforgettable chestnut “Coach from a North Country Town (Once Was a True Love of Ours) (All Apologies, Zimmy)

At any rate, the Titans are about as banged up as any team the Lions have faced all year. They appear to be entering a very transitional offseason and their defense has been scored upon with a high frequency. Factoring into the equation that the Lions have won one more game this season than they did all of last season, this game just reeks of debacle. What more do the Lions have to accomplish? Even though the Titans have been profuse in their allowance of Touchdowns, what makes you think a team as inept as the Lions in utilizing their “red zone” opportunities will be capable of scoring points against the Titans defense like other teams have recently. I just don’t like this matchup. I think that Kevin Jones will rush for over a 100 yds, but yet there will be long periods of time where the Lions forget to hand him the ball. Joey Harrington and his cast of butterfingered receivers should be able to take advantage of the overexposed, depthless, Titan secondary but between crucial dropped passes and the Lion propensity towards the dink and dunk, they will not take full advantage of this situation as handed to them.

On Defense, the Lions should be able to pressure Volek. That will be their only chance to disrupt the Titans passing attack. One factor in the Lions favor, will be the fact that Chris Brown is unable to play at running back for the Titans. Yet, the tandem of Derrick Mason and Drew Bennett facing the Lions secondary gives me the a bad feeling about the game’s outcome. Plus, this team would not fulfill it’s historical responsibility as Lions if they didn’t end the season on a sour note? The Lions are ripe for a good fashioned (insert words that rhyme with Rass-Clicking!)

Titans 38 Lions 23

Lions vs. Titans Tales of the tape

27. Detroit Offense vs./ 26. Tennessee Defense
Yardage
Yards 4,259/ 5,290
YPG 283.9(27th)/ 352.7(26th)
Scoring
Pts 277/ 420
PPG 18.5(23rd)/280(30th)
Passing
YPG 172.3(28th)/231.7(25th)
TD 17(23rd)/27(24TH)
Sack 35(16th)/30 (26th)
INT 12(8th)/18(28th)
Rushing
YPG 111.6(19th)/120.9(18th)
TD 7(30th)/18(28th)

23. Detroit Defense/ 11.Tennessee Offense
Yardage
Yards 5,089/ 5,175
YPG 339.3(23rd)/345.0(11th)
Scoring
PTS 326/ 320
PPG 21.7(20th)/ 21.3(15th)
Passing
YPG 219.8(20th)/226.9(9th)
TD 28(26th)/26(8th)
Sack 38(8th)/44(26th)
INT 14(20th)/19(23rd)
Rushing
YPG 119.5(17th)/118.4(14th)
TD 9(9th)/ 11(15th)

Rushing
player—–ATT—YDS—-YDS/G—AVG—TD
C.Brown—220—1067—97.0—–4.9—–6
K.Jones—-222—1,061–75.8—–4.8——5

Passing
player—–ATT—-CMP—-PCT—-YDS–YDS/G—-TD/INT—Rate
Volek——329—-202—–61.4—2311—256.8—-17/10—–87.1
Harrington-440—-241—–54.8–2701—180.1—-17/11——75.8

Turnovers
Team—–Takeaways———-Giveaways——Diff +/-
———–INT—FUM–TTL——INT—FUM—TTL
Det——-14—-10—–24——-12—-6——18—— +6
Tenn—–17—–11—-28——–19—-12—-31—— -3

AVG. Time of Possession
Lions T.O.P. 27:44—–Opp.T.O.P. 32:16
Titans T.O.P 31:58—–Opp T.O.P. 28:02

Injuries:
DET Ques: Fernando Bryant CB, Alex Lewis LB Prob: Marcus Bell DT, Tai Streets WR
TENN: OUT: Chris Brown RB, Samari Rolle CB, Lance Shulters S, Andre Woolfork CB Ques: Rocky Boiman LB, Carlos Hall DE, Justin Hartwig C, Albert Haynesworth DT, Rich Gardner CB, Brad Hopkins OT, Erron Kinney TE, Derrick Mason Wr, Jason Matthews OT, Drew Bennett WR, Jared Clauss Dt, Fred Miller OT, Cody Spencer LB, Lamont Thompson S, Billy Volek QB, Michael Waddell CB

Best Wishes to Curt Sylvester

Detroit Free Press Lion’s beat writer, Curt Sylvester, recently announced his retirement. He has covered the Lions since the 1978 season. Sylvester was always informative and did a yeoman’s job. He will be difficult to replace. Best Wishes Curt!

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Sunday’s game against the Bears, will stand as exhibit A in the continued frustration all Lion fans have to be feeling as they observe the plodding, near-static, incremental “rebuilding” process of this team. Their is little tangible improvement to be noticed over the course of the last 4 seasons and it is difficult to reserve much hope for the team’s future. If one is seing the glass half-full, the Lions have won one more game than they did last year, that’s progress, right? Those of us who have watched the team perform week in and week out know that this was cheap victory (still a victory, just the same), that the Lions nearly frittered away yet again (and would have lost had it not been determined that Bernard Berrian’s apparent touchdown grab was an incompletion).

If there is a “shining light” to be detected in the organization, it has to be the rapid development of Kevin Jones. Placing him on nearly any other team in the entire league, you have a team who would be preparing for the playoffs, especially in the awfully weak NFC. Still with his emergence, the offense has not flourished. They can’t score touchdowns and even the weakest of defense’s seems to render them ineffective in the second half of most games. Last week’s performance for the Lions offense against the Vikings was clearly anomalous, and that became abundantly clear when the for first play of the game, the Lion’s offensive play call was a WR Slant/Screen for Tai Streets, for about 2 yards. Every team in the entire league knows that the Lions offense first series of downs will ALWAYS include this play. The Lions offense has not progressed over the course of 15 weeks and neither has it’s play calling. Even with one of the better running games in all of football, this team still sputters far too often in the “red zone”, it’s Quarterback still inspires no confidence, and it’s receivers lack the concentration or ability to catch passes, especially when the team most needs them to do so. In the post-game press conference, Steve Mariucci has made a firmer attribution of blame upon Joey Harrington than at any other point in the season. He has said that the receiver drops are an issue, but he qualified that statement by saying that the throws need to be delivered more accurately. I will not disagree with this point, but when a receiver has two hands on the ball, as an NFL player, they must catch it. Mariucci’s hanging Harrington out to dry, is puzzling, their really is no better player immediately available for the Lions to pursue at the position. Drew Brees is a pipe dream. Does anyone truly believe the Chargers will allow him to become available this offseason? If he does become available, at what price? Do Jon Kitna, Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, or Jeff Garcia sound like better options? Sure, I would like for one of these guys to be a capable backup who may have to step in if needed. Do anyone of them really give the Lions an opportunity to be much better than 8-8? I am not solidly in Harrington’s camp either, but now does not seem to be the time to throw him under the bus. Harrington appears to be their best chance for improvement, until they draft another quarterback.

I really don’t want to comment on the Lions defense allowing one of the worst offense’s in recent NFL history to score two (really three) second half TD’s when in the first half it had held the same offense to 60 yds. Nor do I want to ruminate about how pathetic the Lions secondary is. At this point, I again have to shrug and acknowledge that the Detroit Lions are my albatross, and until something drastically changes, mediocrity and failed hopes will be the re-occurring theme for a team that has not won a championship in 47 years and counting!

R.I.P. “Minister of Defense” Reggie White, Congrats to Joe Klecko

The whole NFL has been saddened by the untimely death of one of it’s greatest players, Defensive Linemen, Reggie White. Lion fans will never forget the dominance White exhibited in the 1994 playoff game at Lambeau which rendered Barry Sanders ineffective. Nor will we soon forget the routine maulings he applied to our QB’s.

Congrats to Joe Klecko, who had his jersey number retired in New York this weekend. Klecko, a member of the famed “New York Sack Exchange” and the player to be named All-Pro at three positions (DE,DT,NT) exhibited to toughness and loyalty that would have made him a huge fan favorite had he played here in Michigan.

Robert Porcher on WQTX 92.1/92.7

Robert Porcher talked briefly with host Fred Heuman earlier this week. Heuman asked Porcher how he felt to have his career finished and Porcher replied by saying he was glad that he now had opportunity to pursue other things he hadn’t been able to. Porcher also mentioned that his career went by fast and he wouldn’t trade it for anything. He said he had been blessed because he has not suffered from many injuries. He also mentioned that it had been extremely difficult for him to be an inactive player for those first seven weeks, especially since the Lions didn’t inform him that he would possibly wouldn’t be active when they re-signed him. He said he understood, it’s just a business. He also said he didn’t realize the amount of stress he had been under until his career was over. He said that a lot of the pressure came from having to put a “positive spin” on the team’s situation. He said the last 4 seasons in particular took a toll. Porcher when asked about last weeks loss said that he didn’t realize the Lions were playing their second long snapper of the season until the snap was botched and wondered what else could happen to cause them to lose. Heuman asked Porcher if he was upset that he never got to play in a Super Bowl? Porcher replied that he wasn’t because he was a “champion in his own eyes” and that furthermore, he would experience it vicariously since he is involved in organizing the Super Bowl in Detroit.

Roy Williams Miscellany

Yards Receiving by a Lions Rookie
Player————-YDS
1.Roy Williams—-722
2.Earl McCulloch–680
3.Dave Middleton-663
4.Gail Cogdill——642
5.Billy Sims——–621
6.Dorne Dibble—-613

Receptions by a Lions Rookie
Player—————Receptions
1.Billy Sims———51
2. Roy Williams—–47
3.James Jones——46
4.Dave Middleton—44
5.Gail Cogdill——-43

TD Receptions by a Lions Rookie
Player—————–TDS
1.Roy Williams——–7
2.Doak Walker——–6
3.Dorne Dibble——–6
4.Earl McCulloch——5
David Hill————5

Roy’s 47 catches ties him for 68th all-time career Lions receivers in receptions.

Some things to shoot for:
Lions Career 100+ yd receiving games
Player————–#of games
1.Herman Moore—-35
2.Johnnie Morton—-18
3.Terry Barr———15
4.Brett Perriman—-14
5.Gail Cogdill——–12
6.Leonard Thompson-7
7.Pat Studstill———6
Germane Crowell–6
9. Cloyce Box———5
James Doran——-5
Jeff Chadwick——5
Robert Clark——-5
10.Ron Jessie———4
Freddie Scott——4

Roy has 2 100+ Yd. receiving games.

Most Receiving TD’s season
Player———————TDS
1.Cloyce Box————-15
2.Herman Moore———14
3.Terry Barr————–13
4.Leon Hart—————12
5.Cloyce Box————-11
Herman Moore———11
7.Gail Cogdill————-10
Terry Barr————–10
Brett Perriman———10
Herman Moore———10

Roy has 7 TD’s and could crack this list in the remaining two games.

Merry Christmas and Congratulations to Lion’s All-Pro Selections

Have a Merry Christmas, be sure to drink too much egg nog and eat an abundance of the various confections that we all enjoy so much at this time of the year. Also a major congratulations to the three Lions All-Pro selections: Defensive Tackle Shaun Rogers, Return Specialist Eddie Drummond (who has been placed on IR and will be unable to participate), and Corner Dre Bly, making his second appearance. The Lions also have three alternates who may attend the game in Honolulu if needed:Fullback Corey Schlesinger, Tailback Kevin Jones and Guard Damien Woody. Woody and Bly had been recently selected along with Joey Harrington as among The Sporting News’ All-Overrated Team, so their inclusion is particularly interesting. Best Wishes!

“Unbelieveable”-Joey Harrington

That one word statement pretty much summed up what all Lion fans were feeling after Don Muhlbach botched the snap on the Lion’s final PAT attempt. As the camera panned on the ailing Harrington, the words he mouthed summed up the situation as Lion fans regained the sinking feeling that has permeated our being for years and has become all too familiar. The Lions not only lose games, they are creative in the manner by which they undertake each loss!

Amazingly enough, this is not the only loss this season that is not at least partially attributable to the blunder of a long snapper. If you will recall, Muhlbach’s predecessor, Jody Littleton, attempted to snap while injured against Washington and his poor snaps had a direct outcome on that game as well. As good a coach as Chuck Priefer has been through the years, far too many games have suffered from special teams mishaps and general poor play. This should be a major concern for Steve Mariucci as the team moves forward.

This is a game that hopefully provides the impetus for the team to begin to turn around from the tailspin that has seen the team lose 7 of it’s last 8 games. Joey Harrington, who has been under heavy scrutiny, displayed some of the requisite toughness and fortitude that Lion fans have been longing for. For him to go ahead and play when he could have easily opted out was notable. Even more notable was the fact that he was willing to attack the poor Vikings secondary and at no time did the offense not valiantly attempt to bounce back from a Minnesota lead. Roy Williams also exhibited a great deal of grit, not only playing through pre-existing injuries, but also grinding out an excellent performance while adding a hip injury to his already ailing body.

Other than Kevin Jones’s fumble, for the most part the offense performed very well. Az Hakim was as much a factor as he has been the entire time he has been a Lion. I especially enjoyed watching him have the field awareness to add to an already large gain by pitching the ball to a streaking Shawn Bryson after a second half catch. The Lions receivers still dropped far too many balls, an ongoing problem for more than one season, that MUST be addressed this offseason. Joey Harrington had a pretty good day, even with his two interceptions. One came on a miscommunication between he and Roy Williams and other probably came as a result of Williams being injured and unable to catch a pass that was thrown a little ahead of him. Steve Mariucci called a good game. I still have a problem with the fact that the Lions were unable to score six points instead of a field goal just before the half, but Az Hakim’s drop was equally responsible for them having to settle for a field goal. I also think that Mariucci still is plagued by getting away from the running game too soon. Kevin Jones ran pretty well, but with only 19 carries and 7 in the second half, he was given little opportunity to be the game-changing factor, he has been in recent weeks. I think the Lions would have definitely edged Minnesota in time of possession had they better utilized Kevin Jones and possibly benefited most during the second half as they would continued to wear down the Viking defense.

On defense, I believe the front seven had one it’s best games of the year. The Defensive line rotation consistently effected the running game and applied a lot of pressure to Daunte Culpepper. The linebackers also were very effective, the Vikings really did not have one of their better offensive days if you exclude their 3 big plays that lead to TD’s. Disappointingly, the defense allowed the Vikings to march right down the field after the offense had tied the game, not being stout during crucial situations has been their downfall as a unit. The defense should have rose to the occasion here and the game may not had to have come down to the last minute. The secondary was terrible, the safeties in particular have become a liability. I didn’t count, but there were a number of occasions where Brock Marion missed tackles. On the big plays by the Viking receivers, it seemed that the safeties were unable to provide any over-the-top help to the badly beaten Lion’s corners. Most notably, the Randy Moss 80 + yard touchdown. On a third down and extremely long yardage to go, their is no excuse whatsoever for the most dangerous receiver in the entire NFL to split the secondary and get behind the safeties. That is just plain terrible football. I was glad to see Terrence Holt get some playing time. I have high hopes for him as a performer and have wondered why he has not played more this season.

As a footnote to this season, I can think of no way more appropriate for the Lions to yet again lose a close game. As deflating as the loss was, I still left it feeling more positive than I could have at any other point during the season. As the team moves forward, hopefully it will be able to build upon performances like the one it had yesterday.