Detroit Lions Weblog

Harrington Talk/Rob Rubick on 92.1/92.7 WQTX

The local media was abuzz over the speculation whether or not Joey Harrington will remain the starting QB against the Vikings on Sunday at Ford Field. Mariucci has helped to add fuel to the fire by refraining from extending Joey any sort of vote of confidence in his abilties. Many sources think that Harrington will start, although it is undetermined at this point. The fact that the Lions are even in this situation is becoming increasingly alarming. With the likelihood that Mike McMahon will leave as a free agent this coming offseason, it seems to make more sense to stick with Harrington, come hell or high water. Sunday’s performance was about as bad as any the Lions organization has ever seen from the quarterback position. Their are two schools of thought here: A) it can only get better (or how could it get any worse!) B) The Lions need to begin thinking about next year and start evaluating their personnel strengths and weaknesses as determined on the field of play.

Rob Rubick, was a featured guest on Fred Heuman’s 10 a.m to 12 p.m show today(12/14). Rubick, a former Lion, is always engaging and very open about his perceptions of the team. Rubick stated that even without the ringing endorsement, the Lions should probably stick with Harrington. “Harrington has the better shot of being here 2 to 3 years down the road,” Rubick said. He also mentioned that he felt that the Lions were dropping more balls than any team in the league at this point. He mentioned that he felt in particular after Roy Williams hot start and subsequent injury, that he has been a disappointment, due to dropped passes. He felt that the receiver personnel as a whole should be adjusting and making efforts to make catches that other players in the league will often make and they seem to routinely drop. He also said that he believed that when watching the Lions receivers they are less “open”, that Harrington has difficulty finding someone to throw it to. He did say that Harrington has still been a disappointment, but he wasn’t ready to call him “Andre Ware”, either.

Heuman has asked many of his Lions related guests about Quarterbacks who posess the traits necessary to be successful, he describes them as having “it”, an essential and indescribeable quality. Heuman asked Rubick if he thought Harrington had “it”? Rubick replied that he definitely did not have “it” and furthermore, he believed that Harrington needed to stop sounding so much like a coach and putting a spin on things. He says that he wants Harrington to get “pissed off”. He recalled a situation where Gary Danielson would often dress down receivers for making mistakes in their routes that lead to interceptions or passes being broken up. Rubick also said that as a former Lion, and a television journalist who covers the team exclusively, that he was very frustrated. Finally, he stated that he thought Mariucci has made a lot of game and time management errors as a result of having to call plays for the offense. Rubick believed strongly that Mariucci has to relinquish control of the play-calling so that he could handle other apsects of the game better.