Monday, December 24, 2012

Calvin Johnson, Gruden and Meaningless Yards

Congrats to Calvin Johnson for surpassing Jerry Rice's most yards in a season record. An amazing feat when you consider Rice played on a dominant team, with an all-star cast while CJ is on a terrible team, riddled by injuries.

Funny to hear ESPN's John Gruden try to downplay the record breaking performance by calling some of those yards meaningless. Johnson' team has been in many close games and has been trying to either win or catch up to their opponent. Rice was the guy who piled on the yards as his team ran away with victory after victory.

Whatever I guess. That kind of talk will only ever go away if the Lions start winning again, even if only occasionally, like they did prior to the Millen era.

And yes, we still are in the Millen era. His right hand man still runs the show in the same inept fashion as he did. His first two picks still man that overrated o-line. And the only draft pick he ever really hit on remains Detroit's best player by far.

On that note, it is Christmas and we should remember to thank God for small favors!

Monday, December 17, 2012

O-line choke key to this game

O-line. D-line. These needs their own sections ...

I did not realize we were using defensive ends in this game until I saw Willie Young touch down Ryan Lindley after a botched snap in the third quarter I think it was. But enough of that. The DE are horrible on this squad. That's not news anymore.

My main beef today is with the Raiola/Backus led monstrosity called the Detroit Lions's offensive line. The media needs to do a bit more coverage on the atrocious play of the offensive line. Yesterday was classic horror gong show.

Not sure what everyone was looking at but Stafford was mauled yesterday. A freaking joke for a pro team. And against a team giving up 150 yards per game rushing, with Rieff and Heller on every other play ... we still could not run the ball.

People, this team will never, ever be a factor, let alone a winner with two perennial losers like Raiola and Backus 'leading' the charge. This was a huge, huge game for the mental health of this team and its most veteran, healthy unit CHOKED. Spare me the continuity excuse for keeping them. We haven't been able to run the ball in 12 years. The passing game has only ever functioned when A) we had Mike Martz and B) we have Calvin Johnson. In all that time the o-line has stunk in big games and big moments, regardless of the opponent.

Any, any, even the most minute clean-up of this mess starts nowhere else but the o-line. Need cap space for a corner? Start with Backus and Raiola.