Detroit Lions Weblog

The Lions Drop the Ball, Again.

The Lions loss this Sunday was a devastating blow to their season.   There is no way to look at their performance this Sunday that can shed a positive light upon their season up to this point, or for their future outlook for that matter.  The Lions have struggled so mightily to establish a base level of consistency under which they might be able to turn the tide of their organization.   Instead, considering the manner in which they loss Sunday’s game, they now have to regroup from several regressive steps backward that were made during Sunday’s loss.

I am extremely disappointed by the fact that facing an upstart team, in a winnable game, the Lions appeared to be so clearly uninspired.   Where is the hunger for success in this organization reside?   Even if it had been a meager step forward, you can’t discount the potential step forward that would have been achieved by winning two or more games in a row.   Instead, we are now left wondering which team is most likely to show up each week, the one we have seen brief glimpses of, or the more emblematic one, which displayed the type of performance that they exhibited on Sunday.  

No one play serves a stronger notice of the Lions maddening inconsistency than the Frank Gore 61-yard touchdown run on a 3rd-and-16 drive situation.  In a play that  I affectionately have referred to as the “Wayne Fontes Draw”,  the Lions exhibited a lackluster effort that allowed the exciting young Gore to conduct a symphony of missed tackles as he chugged down the field for paydirt.  Several players, if you watched the game on television, were shown quitting on the play and pulling up early rather than giving maximum effort.   In a nutshell, this one play indicates why the Lions continue to languish so mightily. 

Another play which indicates how disastrous the Lions performance can be at times, was the blown blocking assignment which allowed bltzing Niners CB Shawntae Spencer to gain an unfettered, devastating blow on Lions QB Jon Kitna during the 3rd quarter.   In this play, if it had been any other team besides the one that I love, you can enjoy how devastating unimpeded contact can be to a team’s QB.   The Lions certainly can’t make practice of allowing Kitna to absorb these kind of hits, or the next time that they see him he will be in a hospital, under traction.

I was glad that Lions Head Coach Rod Marinelli is quick to dispel the idea that there could be any potential changes made at the Lions Qb position.   Kitna is a recognized team leader who the players appear to be fully committed to.  Kitna’s performance has not been perfect (11 INT’s, 6 fumbles), yet, the Lions are not in a position where they can begin evaluation of the other players on their roster.   Any meager advances that can be made organizationally, need to be seized.  You aren’t going to be able to convince me that the demotion of Kitna would represent any sort of advance no matter what the future holds, or outcomes may that occur as a result of their decision to continue starting Kitna for the remainder of this season.