Detroit Lions Weblog

Lions Brutalized by the Bears, Leinart Sweepstakes Begins?

Leave it to the Lions. Whenever this team takes a step forward, it takes two gi-normous steps backward. Whenever this teams faces adversity, it whithers under the pressure. The Lions coaching staff didn’t have the team ready to play in any facet of the game on Sunday against the Bears. Ultimately, even with the Lions overall poor execution in every aspect of the game, I still believe the blame resides with a coaching staff that has become too conservative and has nurtured a team that is too soft, too passive and lacking in aggression to overcome it’s place as an NFL bottom dweller. The Steve Mariucci jobwatch is in full gear. Recently, Matt Millen has stated that he has major disagreements with the Lions offensive philosophy. He believes that it needs to be more aggressive. This difference of philosophy may be the beginning of the unraveling of the Millen/Mariucci alliance.

Thus far, we have seen no deviation from the prolonged impotence of the Lions offensive system. If the team strings together a few more of these type of performances, they will be more than a bit player in the Matt Leinart QB sweepstakes next spring.

In my most recent post I mentioned that a few things had to happen in order for the Lions to win against the Bears:
1) The Lions would have to shut down the Bears ground game and place the burden upon Kyle Orton to win the game. They would also need to pressure Orton into making rookie QB mistakes.
2)The Lions would need to be effective in the ground game. They would also need for the offensive line to dominate the Bears defensive line so that Joey Harrington could operate efficiently. The Lions would need to pound the ball and wear out the Bears defense.
3)The Lions could not afford to turn the ball over to the Bears defense, the Bears have done an excellent job in recent years of turning turnovers into points.

The Lions did none of these things. It is a struggle to isolate one area where the Lions did anything with effectiveness yesterday. The Lions allowed a rookie QB, with one of the worst offenses in professional football to soundly beat them. It was no secret to anybody that if the Bears stood any chance to win, they would have to control the game by running the ball effectively with RB’s Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. Why were the Lions unable to prevent this from happening? Why didn’t the Lions do everything within their power to make Kyle Orton have to throw the ball to win the game? The Bears scored 28 points off of Lion turnovers, where were the turnovers that would help Lions on their side of the ledger? Where was the incessant blitzing of lead-footed Kyle Orton?

The Lions offense was equally pathetic. Joey Harrington was continually pressured. He performed like a rookie quarterback, running scared. While Orton had all of the time in the world in which to operate, the Lions never gave Harrington the time to burn the Bears as they blitzed continuously and forced him into making mistakes. The Lions had to abandon the run early since the team suffered a meltdown so early in the game. They were unable to utilize their best offensive asset, Kevin Jones. Is there one NFL team out there who will casually allow Kevin Jones to beat them? I don’t expect for him to even get a chance at gaining 100 yards at this point. Every team will load up the box and allow Harrington to meekly complete 3 and 4 yard pass plays and pressure him into mistakes. The Lions have a ridiculously timid offensive scheme, and when you factor in the inability of the offensive line to protect Harrington, the team can ill afford to open up it’s offensive game plan. The Lions will have to use their TE’s and FB’s to help against the edge rush and blitzes just to buy a little more time for Harrington. There is no opportunity for the Lions to spread out defenses and utilize their receiving talent if Joey Harrington has no time in which to operate. Joey Harrington completed 8 passes of 5 yards or less for a total of 26 passing yards. Name one team in all of football who is not salivating at the thought of facing the Lions offense. Jeff Backus, in his contract year, needs to be benched. His inability to make blocks on Harrington’s blindside is destroying this team. I don’t care if they have to try out practice squad linemen for the job, until they shore their offensive line their inability to score will continue.

The play that will be most remembered as indicative of the Lions performance, was the blundered pass in Bears territory intended for Roy Williams and interecepted by Bears CB Nathan Vasher. According to reports, Joey Harrington audibled the play at the line of scrimmage, calling for a fade route into the corner of the end zone. Williams, either missed the audible or broke off the route trying to find an opening for Harrington to complete a pass to him. At any rate, not only was the play loused up, but it caused a 14-point swing in the game because the Bears marched down the field and scored. The most disappointing aspect of the play, was Roy Williams’s complete lack of effort on the play. It is elemental when a pass is obviously going to be intercepted that the receiver becomes a defensive back and tries to deflect the ball or disrupt the intereceptor’s focus so that the ball is not turned over. Williams just quit on the play. His lack of effort is a reflection of the lack of intensity and focus from the top down within the entire organization. Good teams find a way to prevent that interception. Bad Teams rollover and allow their asses to get kicked! The team has a long two weeks to prepare for another road game against 2-0 Tampa Bay. Have fun,losers!