I looked over at a fellow Lions fan and saw him playing Magic: The Gathering on Sunday. And this was not after the Lions game had ended. It was during the game. Long before the final whistle would blow.
There were so many things wrong with that picture, it’s hard to know where to start. There were many, many more minutes left in the game, you can’t see what’s happening when focused on cards instead of the field, and who even plays Magic anymore?
Golden Tate complained after the thumping the Detroit Lions took from the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday that the fans turned their backs on the Lions.
With all the empty seats by game’s end and fans playing Magic instead of watching, it’s hard to disagree with Tate’s words.
To be fair though, this was one of the worst games of football I’ve ever seen at any level of the game. I watched every snap of this excruciating game, yes, even futilely cheering for the Lions all the way. Sadly, I can fully understand why a fan would turn to a card game over the football game.
The Lions gave up during this game. And not during garbage time in the fourth quarter! No, the Lions gave up in the third quarter. Many would argue that it was already garbage time during the third quarter as the Lions went down 35-7.
The first sign of Detroit giving up was when they benched Matthew Stafford. Of course, after Stafford threw 3 interceptions, it is not hard to understand the decision to sit him.
However, Detroit does not hold much hope of winning games on the arm of Dan Orlovsky. I’ve never felt like I was having more of a flashback than watching a winless Detroit Lions team play with Orlovsky under center. Flashbacks of the history setting 2008 Detroit Lions are not good flashbacks.
Ultimately, benching Stafford after all those turnovers—of course, he was not nearly the only player guilty of turnovers—could have been a good coaching move to give the franchise quarterback a little fire back in his belly and get him focused on taking care of the ball.
Of course, that would be for future games, not this one. The coaching staff had already given up on this game. You need your best players in a game if you want a shot at winning. Perhaps sitting Stafford for a series would get the coaches’ message across and still let them try to battle back.
It was never more obvious that the coaches were long done trying to win this game than when they decided to kick a field goal after being down by four touchdowns near the beginning of the fourth quarter.
You have to go for the touchdown when you’re in that position if you’re trying to win. Yes, the odds of a comeback are extremely small. Can a team even get four touchdowns in a quarter? Well, yes. Arizona proved that’s possible in the second quarter of this very game! But it’s impossible to win if you don’t even try.
Can you blame fans for turning their backs when the team is no longer trying to win? Fans who stuck it out to the brutal end might as well have been watching a preseason game, seeing backups play against backups. Except, unlike in preseason games, this loss counts on the Lions’ record. At least in preseason games, even in blowouts, the game is interesting because players are fighting for jobs.
Fans pay money for games with the expectation of seeing their football teams battle until the end to win. In this game, the Lions turned their backs on the fans when they stopped even trying to win.
Something needs to change fast or Lions fans might as well be playing Magic instead of watching Lions games this season. There are many of us die hards who will watch and cheer for the Lions no matter what.
But long time Lions fans have been through enough. Even when the Lions are badly losing a game, they owe it to their fans not to give up. People still call themselves Lions fans after losing for much, much longer than a few quarters.
Fighting for a win from beginning to finish every game is the job of NFL teams, and that starts and ends with the coaches. It’s a good thing Jim Caldwell doesn’t make excuses because there is no excuse for giving up on a game in the NFL.
What’s amazing is while Jim Caldwell was ready to give up on this game, he is not ready to give up on an ineffective offensive system. Week in and week out for a season and a quarter, Lions fans have watched a poor imitation of the Saints’ offensive scheme combined with extremely predictable play calling squander a highly talented group of players.
I hate to quote clichés, but since Caldwell is so fond of such things, maybe he’ll respond. There’s the old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. You need to make a change when it comes to how the Lions’ offense is run, Caldwell.
If the coaches don’t make a change, management needs to step in. If management fails to step in, then it’s ownership’s responsibility. If things continue as they are, Golden Tate and the fans will continue to feel frustrated and disappointed throughout this season.
And it gets to happen with the most nationally televised games in Lions franchise history.
