Not the 'same ole Lions'

[DougW]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Positives:

1. The emergence of Matthew Stafford. Stafford finally managed to stay healthy this year, which should put to bed all of the talk about him being a "china doll." He had some rough patches. He wasn't good against San Fran or Atlanta. And he struggled pretty badly during the whole "glove era". He ended the season very strong. He has been amazing since the 4th quarter of the Raiders games.

2. Calvin Johnson really becoming a top WR in the game. Calvin took his game to another level this year and it's a level that should be expected when you take a WR with the #2 pick overall. He dominated games at times.

Negatives:

1. Defensive Line. This was supposed to be the Lions strength this season. It was supposed to be the best defensive line in football. The Lions kept almost everyone from the year prior and added first round pick Nick Fairley. Fairley got hurt during training camp and has never really been healthy. Suh hasn't had the same impact he did last year. Cliff Avril has had an excellent season, but the line hasn't dominated as expected. They struggle to pressure the QB at times and teams have gashed them with the run because of their over aggressiveness to get to the QB and because the whole "Nine-Wide" scheme they run that appears to leave a big gap between the defensive tackle and defensive end. The Lions still have a ton of talent on the d-line, but I don't think the unit, as a whole, has performed as anticipated.

2. Discipline. Or, more accurately, the lack of discipline. The Lions take far too many penalties. They take far too many personal foul type penalties. Granted, ever since Schwartz implemented his "no toleranace policy" with regard to post-whistle personal fouls the Lions haven't committed any, that should have never been necessary. That stretch of games against the Bears, Green Bay and New Orleans was particularly bad for that. I think some of this is a result of the Lions feeling that they really need to "fight" hard to gain respect after being a league laughing stock and punching bag for over a decade, but it needs to be reigned in something fierce. They aren't good enough to overcome such nonsenses and good teams don't get that many penalties.

3. The running game. It's been non-existant. It didn't help that the Lions loss 2nd round pick Mikael Leshore in training camp, then loss Best for the season because of concussion and then had Kevin Smith come off the street look good and then promptly get injured again. Still, the Lions need to figure out how to run the ball effecitvely. The fact that they are the league's worst at "3 and 1" proves that the problem really is up front, the line can't create holes or gain ground when needed.


If Fairley and LeShore can come back next year fully healthy if will almost seem like the Lions had additional first and second round picks in the 2012 draft . .

Nice points HB, mind if I grab a beer a pop down next to ya for a few ?

I deleted out some stuff that I really have no comment on, because from my point of view - spot on. The stuff I left in, I either want to elaborate on, or disagree with

The Stafford - Johnson lines. I can't disagree that they were both huge positives this season, but I believe I may have seen it differently than you did. Stafford was solid, but looked a lot better than the QB he is right now by having the luxury of throwing to the most gifted WR in the league. He still has some growing to do - as he should, he's only really had this year. Definitely though, staying healthy was HUGE for him.

Calvin, however, I don't think he 'improved his game'. I know, the stats show differently - but watching him game in and game out the last few years it all looked the same (hard work, great hands, speed, solid routes, not taking plays off, etc) - with one glaring difference to me. The difference to me is that the QB and playcallers said : "Calvin is double-teamed .. who friggin cares, throw it to him anyway". "We need a big play ? Throw it to Calvin". These to me are the changes that were made to Calvins game, and not really anything on his end.

The D-Line. We're PROBABLY on the same page here, but I didn't see them as a negative. I think they are still a better than average D-Line, and I thnk they made the LBs and DBs a little better. No doubt about it though, we can't say "They are who we thought they were". I think many Detroiters were expecting Mean Joe & LC, and I'll admit, I was expecting Mann and Manley - or even Bubba and English. And we didn't get that. They definately didn't dominate, but I also didn't see Yogi and Boo-Boo in the backfield looking for picnic baskets that QBs were leaving behind either. Like I said though, even though they didn't meet expectations, I wouldn't count them as a negative.

Discipline. Yeah, this has to be said again. It costs games & reputation. It was horrible. That said, I'm sure they played the year with a pretty big chip on their shoulder, and that chip should be gone next year. Hopefully with that, and the coaches working on it .. that'll work itself out.

Running game. I don't disagree with anything you said. I think you summed it up nicely. On the other hand, I honestly couldn't "give a whoot". This was actually a hard realization for me to come to. I LOVE "punch in the mouth" football. All my all-time favs are RBs (Campbell, Sims, Sweetness, hell, I even loved James Wilder etc). But, with new rules, and packages .. that just isn't football anymore. Sure, there are teams that are successful and run the ball - but, all of those teams are built on Defense, and their D wins games.

Look at recent perennial winners .. Saints, Colts, Patriots, Packers .. These guys just cart out RBs for ... hell, I don't even know why they send 'em out. The game has just changed so much, that I don't consider a poor running game a liability.

The bolded .. haha, I said the exact same thing at work last night. We're sitting on a playoff team that just added two additional early round picks next year !

In short, I hope they shock me & the world and get a little dance time in the playoffs .. but I'm quite satisfied with this season & what I believe it meant to this squad moving forward.