A Win and Mike Thomas

That was a great weekend and the so far its been a good week. Loved that win against the mouthy Seahawks. Stafford looked like Stafford. Broyles emerged and Young woke up big time. I wasn't too impressed by that start though. It seemed like the Lions were asleep. 

As for Mike Thomas, I wish he had not cost a fifth rounder but let's face it, with the loss of Burleson and Best, this offense needed a little something. Thomas can provide that little extra spark.  

I hope that they use Thomas as a CFL like slot back or how Minny uses Harvin. Line him up in the backfield or move him around all the WR spots.  

To me this was a pick up to replace Best, not Logan. Another really fast, difficult to cover 1 on 1 guy that forces the defense to go man on CJ. 

As for CJ, I think it is just a mid-season slump coupled with a sore knee. He'll be back, he is too good not to.

 

 

 

How I would run the offense ...

Stafford is inaccurate this year. He has looked bad on several throws. However his receivers, including CJ, have been ball dropping machines in the first six games. What is so different?

Last year we had no run game, instead we had a very short passing game. With Best it was fantastic. With Kevin Smith it was pretty good. For some reason this year, we are trying to force the ball everywhere instead of just using the short stuff to the backs and TE's. Get Stafford into rythm early with some cheapo completions, draw in the LB's and Safties that way.

This teams has the weapons for this style of game. Scheffler, Pettigrew, KSmith and now Broyles. Even Leshoure and Bell can be effective used this way. I think that Young, who has more speed than Burleson, will also be a better complement to CJ. Just send him deep every other play - tax the defense that way. Clear out space underneath like the Patriots do for Welker. 

As for CJ, just do what he and Stafford do best. Keep going deep. Do it with criss crossing patters, do it by going trips left or right. Who cares? Just keep taking those shots and make sure you put the ball high where only he can get it. Teams fearing the deep ball will surrender the short stuff. But for it to work, CJ and Young need to keep pushing the corners deep.

The wild card here of course is Stafford. He has to hit the short stuff. However, now that the margin for error is zero - I think we will see a different guy....

Stafford, CJ stink on Monday Night

The Lions lost a close one 13-7, but this was really much worse than that. This was a deflating defeat on prime time.

Calvin Johnson, our best player, did not show up yesterday. Yes Tillman played great, but on our first series, he was open by a huge margin, the Bears D was totally fooled, Stafford hit him in the hands and CJ dropped it. Funny to say, but I think that deflated the offense right off the bat. The rest of the game CJ could not beat coverage and Stafford looked lost for most of the first half.

Suh and the defense did show up. To be quite honest, I wasn't all that impressed with the Chicago offense. If the Lions had played better in the Red Zone or at least gotten three field goals from Hanson instead of three turnovers, they would have won this game.

But this team is just not ready for prime time. It really does not know how to win and sadly its best two players cannot seem to lead them to victory on a regular basis. They need help. They need someone to show them how to win slugfests like this. I don't think that person is on the roster.

On the positive side, Broyles looked pretty sure handed out there and Titus Young looked like he was finally beating coverage.

On the negative side you have to list the loss of Burleson and the missed blocks by Sims, Peterman and Backus that always seem to occur at the worst possible time. Not to mention Backus had another false start.

On the mystery side of things, how the heck does Kevin Smith not get back in the lineup? This team needs to exploit the middle of the field and Smith excels at that. Leshoure and Bell don't seem to offer the same options to Stafford.

Lastly, I can't understand the criticism of the coaches. No OC can succeed when his QB is playing as poorly as Stafford and his elite WR drops easy passes. What can Cunningham do better than he did yesterday? As for Schwartz, he needs to be a bit more of a cutthroat coach. He should start with Logan - who had a brutal performance. Mind you, with the loss of Burleson, Logan is probably safe. Sucks.

....more

Kevin Smith doesn't fit - Rieff does

It was sure strange to see Kevin Smith in street clothes during the Philly game. But it's pretty simple to understand if you ask me.

The Lions cannot run block to save their lives. That is why they have to use Rieff as an extra tackle/TE - to get a push (he makes a great decoy too if it becomes a pass play).

Because they stink at run blocking, the Lions need the bigger backs to punch through small cracks in the d-line and to then run over LB's and DB's coming up for support. Leshoure and Bell are well suited for this. Kevin Smith is not.

Smith is the best blocker and receiver of the bunch but he sadly does not hit the hole very hard, nor does he show great vision. He doesn't really run over people, nor does he make them miss. Leshoure can make some miss and he can run them over. Bell runs them over. They both can be as good as Smith catching passes so its a wash there.

In this scheme, Williams is a better replacement for either Bell or Leshoure. Smith is thus the odd man out. A good safety net, but still the odd man out.

Bottom line is while I am sad that this is happening to Smith, I am very happy to see the Lions do something unusual with their offense. Bringing in Rieff looked like it really confused the Eagles. LB and Safeties had to come up to play the run, but Rieff is also a solid pass blocker so Stafford could easily turn it into a pass play. Wow, the Lions confusing their opponents?

Miracle!

Great win, horrible game

The Lions had at least 10 offensive penalties. Each o-lineman had at least one each. Their QB was horrific in the first three quarters missing wide open guys left, right and center. The defense played great but still managed to surrender a huge 70+ yards play at the worst possible time to go along with what seemed like a world record for off side penalties.

The ineptness of Stafford (6 for 19 after 3 quarters) made the Eagle's D look pretty good. The refs helped too as Eagle DB's Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie should have been flagged at least twice each for defensive holding. Things looked pretty bleak.

Then it happened. Just like last year. Calvin Johnson and Matt Stafford decide to get going.  Once they did, they beat the Eagles' defense quite handily. Scheffler and Burlseon seemed to be always open.The Eagles looked gassed in the 4th Quarter and OT and Stafford, Johnson, Burleson and Scheffler did not.

Onto the Bears!

Why no Rieff or Broyles?

Mlive had this quote from Jim Schwartz today (October 10):

"A lot of times you get graded on a rookie class right after the draft, and then you get graded at the end of the year," Schwartz said. "I think it's probably a little too much to be grading those guys after four games. I think we have some very good players in that class, and I think they're going to help us. All those guys are going to help us. Time will bear that out."

Sadly ... the comments from Schwartz are starting to sound like Millen era drivel. Guys like Boss Bailey, Jordan Dizon and Ikaika Alama-Francis never did play on teams with horrific defenses.

This is what we do know about the 2012 rookies ...

Broyles was a standout at OU going over the middle and beating man coverage. However, in the NFL he cannot get on the field even though we have trouble getting open in the middle of the field and getting seperation on tight coverage.

Rieff was a tough blocker, mobile too and able to handle speed or physical DE's despite short arms (joking) ... the guy ahead of him has looked awful the past two games, giving up ridiculous sacks at atrocious times.

Bill Bentley is the guy that really needs more seasoning. Green, Whitehead, Lewis and Lewis haven't shown much so far. Green needs a 'mercy' removal from special teams before he is seriously hurt.

Yes it is early, but this team was beaten by the atrocious Titans and the very beatable Vikings. The team folded on back to back weeks because of poor veteran play - Schwartz needs to ACT! Guys like Backus and Raiola are to comfy in their roles. Pettigrew is a bust this year. Does anyone think a winning org like NE or PIT would put up with those ridiculous lapses in concentration if they had a couple of top picks sitting around waiting for a chance?

Finnegan and Jenkins would have been nice ...

Watching St. Louis beat Arizona last night, it was kind of sickening to think the Lions might have been able to get both of Cortland Finnegan and Janoris Jenkins. Even one would have been nice.

Jenkis has unbelievable cover skills and recovery speed. Finnegan is a real tough guy back there and a big hitter. Both can tackle. Even one of those guys paired with Houston would have been a tremendous upgrade.

But it is what it is. And what it is ... is a defensive line that is undermined by very soft coverage and poor tackling. Jacob Lacey so far has shown why the Colts dumped him - he cannot tackle or locate balls in the air. That is the same problem with the two rookies, Green and Bentley. The play of the safeties Spievey, Wendling and Coleman is really worrisome. Missed assignments, bad angles and missed tackles are more common than not.

Overall, I would say that the Lions issues on defense at DB are really a function of poor player procurement. That is on Mayhew and Schwartz. And it is clear they know they have problems or they would not have traded for one guy (Kevin Barnes, who they now have cut) and then claimed a guy off waivers (Jerome Murphy who they also ended up cutting) since the start of September.

Delmas will certainly help, but this team will have to score a ton to even get to 8-8.