It’s now official Lions fans, Detroit is the biggest disappointment in the NFL this year.
The Lions left Arizona a broken football team as they were embarrassed by the same Cardinals team that suffered their worst loss in franchise history to the Seattle Seahawks 58-0 the week prior.
After starting 1-3 the Lions battled all the way back to a respectable 4-4 only to lose the next 6 games in the most creative ways a team can. Enter Arizona the previous owners of a nine game losing streak and a team that didn’t even score 38 points if you combined their three games leading up to Week 15. But leave it too the Lions to be what an ailing team needs.
So now Detroit limps forward with fans asking where they go now from here?
There is nothing more to learn from this season, it’s over. The Cardinals unlike the Lions came out to prove they didn’t quit on their coach while the Lions undoubtedly did. And I ask the question once again, why dance and celebrate after a sack? What are you celebrating coming into this game having lost your previous five games? Not to mention your down 21 points late in the 4th to the Arizona Cardinals. There were 3 separate incidents in the game I saw this which wasn’t a fire up the troops move but a “Look at me” moment.
What’s even more dejecting in all of this though is the Cardinals didn’t even play a good game, in fact they were terrible, it’s just the Lions were worse.
The Cardinals put up 38 points on less than 200 yards of offense and got a lot of help from the Lions especially quarterback Matt Stafford. The Detroit QB who may of had the worst game in his career was picked off 3 times in the game as Arizona returned two of the interceptions for touchdowns.
At no point of the game did Stafford have what looked to be the measure of a good quarterback. He was erratic and wild and it was clear the constant pressure Arizona was able to muster was a problem. But on the bright side of things Lions WR Calvin Johnson did manage to tie an NFL record with his 7th straight game with at least 100 yards receiving. Yet beyond that everything about the Lions in this game was sad and depressing.
The Detroit offensive line which had received praise two weeks ago fell flat on their face this past weekend as they providing almost zero opportunity to run the football up the middle or even pull off some successful trap blocking. But beyond that It’s the pass blocking that’s alarming. The offensive line is getting Stafford hit often and hard with the age of the line really beginning to show. To add to this Gosder Cherilus has 3 false starts while last year’s first round draft pick in Riley Reiff continues to sit on the bench. There’s no accountability on this team given Cherilus’ mistakes and that’s on Schwartz. But it’s not just Cherilus, Schwartz continues to turn a blind eye on Logan who has been awful, Pettigrew leading the league in drops and KVB’s offside penalties. And all of this doesn’t even include the multiple chances Titus Young has received, what Aaron Berry did in the offseason and special teams coach Danny Crossman continuing to get by with a lackluster special teams unit.
No free agent will come to Detroit with a coach not in control of their team, no free agent worth having anyway. It’s so bad that the Lions can’t even get guys to buy in to showcase themselves as they prepare to become free agents in the offseason. Plus Detroit will have questions to ask themselves internally, do they want to bring back Backus and Vanden Bosch? Both are older players making a decent salary something the Lions may not be able to do with them being up against the cap.
So to answer the question I asked earlier, where do the Lions go from here? The answer is anywhere. There are so many holes any flux of talent would help. They need secondary help, they need a defensive end, a return man, a linebacker and yes even another wide receiver. Detroit even needs a guard or center but the offensive line is ok based on how bad the rest of the team needs help.
Finally looking at this roster, I can’t let Schwartz and Mayhew off the hook. How is it a defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans teams in the 2000’s and a member of the Super Bowl winning Ravens secondary concentrate so hard on an offense and continue to ignore the defensive side of the football. To go a step further, how is it after all the draft picks that have gone into the offense it still come up short?