Detroit Lions Weblog

Lions Unimpressive in 1st Pre-Season Game, Yet Still Find Victory

I attended last night’s Lions pre-season game versus the Bengals.   One impression that is awfully hard for me to shake is just how unimpressive the Lions 1st team looked on both offense and defense in their limited playing time.  

Watching my first football of the year, live and in person, was admittedly disorienting upon arrival.   Once I got my bearings, I realized these things:

1) The Lions pass rush still appears to be non-existent.   Carson Palmer would have lit them up had been able to play more of the game.   Shaun Rogers and DeWayne White were absent due to injury, but the Lions D-Line still was unimpressive.

2) The Lions will struggle to have a running attack if Mike Martz doesn’t attempt to establish it more.   That being said, the running backs did not seem to have much running room the few times that they carried the ball.  The Lions offensive line could eventually become better, but last night didn’t change my opinion about whether or not they have improved from last season.

One thing you may forget in the 6 long months without football, is how bad teams often can look in their first pre-season game.   There were a number of times where both teams appeared unorganized and exhibited sloppy play.   Each week, a bit of that gets cleaned up, as the players develop cohesiveness and regain game shape.  

Although it is difficult to suffer through multiple offensive drives that are flat, watch numerous missed tackles on defense, and see plays where clearly there was some sort of problem in communication, which leads to poor execution, yet, we have to remind ourselves that this is all part of the process and refrain from making too many quick assumptions about what we have seen.

However, Calvin Johnson’s two catches brought some electricity to the game.    In particular, his jump ball catch over an over-matched Bengals DB was particularly scintillating.   Johnson looked so fluid that the catch appeared effortless.   Hopefully, that is a sign of things to come.

The 5000 remaining fans who watched the Lions fourth quarter comeback were given a nice reward for their patience.   It was fun to watch both of the teams third and fourth strings battle it out until the end of regulation.   The miniature Ford Field crowd was surprisingly loud as the Lions mounted their unexpected comeback.   The maddening mini-throng got even louder when the Bengals were driving the ball during their last possession, hoping to spur their Lions towards victory. The Lions sideline celebration after Shayne Graham’s missed field goal reflected that this game was not entirely meaningless, especially in the manner in which they fought back to win in front of the home crowd. 

The recent reports indicating that Kevin Jones will be on the Physically Unable to Perform list entering the season were a little disappointing.   The potential tandem of Kevin Jones and Tatum Bell, battling it out to establish their role as featured back in the Lions offense, is an intriguing one, in which each individual party has publicly expressed confidence that they would in fact be the lead horse when the season begins.    Jones will now miss 6 weeks, which places a great deal of pressure upon Tatum Bell to solely carry the load, something he has never done throughout his playing career.  Jones exhibited a lot of promise within Martz’s offense last season, hopefully this delay does little to forestall his continued development.

The Detroit News Mike O’Hara posited an interesting question yesterday in his Friday column, now that Charlie Sanders has been inducted in Canton, who will be the next Lion to be enshrined?  He mentioned that Dick LeBeau will likely get a long look from the veteran’s committee next season.   Many would suggest that Calvin Johnson has the type of athleticism and passion to eventually achieve such a great honor.   Over the last 25 years, has any player in a Lions uniform, not named Barry Sanders, earned the right for legitimate consideration?