The Lion's Den

The Detroit Lion's are done for the year and I hope they fire the entire coaching staff and start over from scratch. That was a horrendously played football game from ineffective clock management to poorly disciplined players.

The Lions who are 4-7 and the lowly 2-9 Packers went into overtime tied 13-13 and after the Packers won the coin toss it was all Bret Favre. Well, add in a stupid bonehead move by DL Shaun Rogers that gave the Packers an additional 15 yards for throwing the Packer running back out of bounds in frustration when it looked like the Lion's had them held.

The Lion's actually had a chance to win the game before the overtime period, but Roy Williams couldn't hold on to a simple slant pass that would have easily been 6 points. That was the Lion's 31st dropped pass of the season which puts them just behind the Eagles in that category.

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So with a coaching change I definitely think 8-8 is possible, but it looks like 6-10 is more likely.

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It is being reported that Steve Mariucci's job is till safe despite much speculation that he would be canned after the loss to the Falcoln's on Thanksgiving Day. I was one of those fans calling for the coach to be replaced.

After the post game meeting between President Matt Millen and Coach Mariucci that the two have after every game no change was made. Steve Mariucci still thinks he can turn things around despite winning only 15 games in his first three years with the Lion's. When asked if he thought he could turn things around, Mariucci said, "Yes, I do."

Mariucci only has 2 more years left on his big 5 year contract and just like a NFL player if he doesn't show improvement at the end of his contract he won't get an extention or new contract with the Lion's.

I just think that we need to cut our losses and can him now and give Dick Jauron (Defensive Coordinator) a shot in an interim basis.

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It sure looks like the Detroit Lion's are done for the 2005 season and it doesn't look like they will even reach the 6-10 record at I predicted. Nothing the offense has tried seems to be working.

I have backed off my heavy criticism of Joey Harrington after it was brought to my attention by my fellow Lion's blogger Frank that the playing calling has been horrible along with poor offensive line play.

The Lion's were soundly beaten by the Atlanta Falcon's yesterday on Ford Field in downtown Detroit. The Lion's have been playing on Thanksgiving Day every year since 1937 in Detroit.

I would love to be able to put all the blame on Harrington, but I know that would be totally unfair to him so I won't do it. It just looked like the offense was totally in chaos and I am sure the fingers will be pointed this morning in the Detroit papers and on the radio stations.

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I have pretty much written off my Detroit Lions for another season. They have had dismal play from the QB, Offensive Line and play calling by the Offensive Coordinator. I hope the front office has been paying attention to the games and makes a big change for next year.

I have been playing all or most of the blame on the QB (Joey Harrignton, mostly) and I guess it has been a bit unfair. I don't get to actually watch the games on television since I live outside of the Detroit area. I have to follow it online so I don't get to see what my fellow Lions fans get to watch every Sunday. I guess that could be a blessing since I don't have to watch them play poorly just about every Sunday.

I will however get to watch my team play on turkey day tomorrow, since they have been playing of Thanksgiving Day every year since 1937. So I will be hoping for a good game, but I will not hold my breath. I will not say anything else bad about Joey Harrington until the game starts and he gives me any reason to.

I had a lot of hopes for the offense with us having Roy Williams, Charles Rogers and Mike Williams at WR and Kevin Jones at RB. I guess I was being overly optimistic about our offense and it has born out so far. The offensive line has been a disappointment so far and that has not allowed our offense to reach its full potential. I have also noticed another disheartening occurrence this year and it brought back memories of when Barry Sanders was roaming the back field for my beloved Lion's. For some reason the Offensive Coordinator would pull him off the field and put in a worthless running back on third down (obvious passing down they would say) and we would get stuffed and have to punt. Well flash forward to the present and they are doing the exact same thing with Kevin Jones, they but Shaun Bryson in the back field on third down and he wouldn't do anything 8 out of 10 times. He may make a great play one time and then he would get stuffed the rest of the times. I have a good idea, keep Kevin Jones the game and run the play to him and even if he makes it 5 out of 10 times we are far better off.

Just imagine how many yards Barry Sanders would have run for if the Lions wouldn't have pulled him out of the game just about every third down play. Wake up and smell the coffee before another good running back slips away from us.

Now I know it is unfair to put all of the losses on the offense since the defense if giving up way too many points every game. We need to fix the problems and build a formidable defense that will stand up to even the best offenses in the league. We don't have to look anything further than the Tampa Bay Bucs to see that a potent defense and adequate offense can win games in the NFL.

I would just like to see the Lions go after top notch defensive players more often. Instead of going after Ty Law this past off season we signed R.W. McQuarters who hasn't proven that he even belongs in the NFL.

Please Matt Millen, bring us some top notch players and coaches and prove to us that you deserved to be the President of the Detroit Lions franchise. As of yet I haven't seen anything to show you deserve it.

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Well, it looks like no matter who the Lion's coaching staff puts under center the result seems to be the same; no offense. Head Coach Steve Mariucci tried to jump start the offense by benching loser Joey Harrington and put in Jeff Garcia who returned from a serious leg injury during training camp. It looked like it was a great move when the Lion's were able to win in his first game as starter.

That was very short lived when he struggled last week in a loss to the Chicago Bears. So Mariucci went back to Harrington and as I expected we lost again. Thanks in large part to Harrington, two INT's and a fumble lead to our loss against the pathetic Viking's who were without their starting QB (Daunte Culpepper) due to a season ending knee injury in last weekends game.

The Viking's started Brad Johnson and the Lion's defense laid down and we got beat like a dog. I have decided that it pretty much doesn't matter who they put in as the starting QB we aren't going to win. I think we need to shoot for the top 1 or 2 picks in the draft and go after Matt Linert or Vince Young and dump both Garcia and Harrington. 

We lost starting running back Kevin Jones indefinitely due to a shoulder injury and that leave to worthless running back for Detroit. I doubt both Artose Pinner and Shaun Bryson could combine for 30 yards rushing on a good day.

For the second straight game WR Stevie Vines played a great game at receiver, but when he is all we have got at receiver it just isn't enough.

I hate to be the one that told my fellow Lion's fans that our record was going to be 6-10 at best and if we continue to play poorly it could be 3-13.

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I am not as optimistic as my fellow Lions team blogger with Joey Harrington being put back in the starting role. But I guess coach Mariucci gets paid the big bucks to make that decision and I trust his judgment.

I will predict an easy win for the Lions this Sunday, but just not as a wide margin. I think Joey Harrington will be his usual inept self and we may score a couple of times on the ground as long as they don't continue to put Shaun Bryson in and pull out Kevin Jones.

The Lions pulled this same stuff with Barry Sanders his whole career in Detroit and it never worked out the way they intended it to do for the most part. It is nonsensical to pull your best running back out of the game and put in Bryson who hasn't proven he deserves to play even a limited role.

Detroit 21-10

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Jeff Garcia made a rookie mistake in overtime that cost the Lion's a win. The problem is Jeff Garcia isn't a rookie and he shouldn't have made the forced throw that was picked off and ran back for the winning TD by Chicago.

I was fully expecting a double digit win and what we ended up with was a 6 point loss. I could sit here and point fingers at different people and say they cost us the win, but in the end it was a total team loss. It was an extremely low scoring game not having our top receivers playing was definitely a factor, but our running game wasn't spectacular either.

I want to address something that has been bothering me about the Lions for many years and it just seems like they have always done it. What is with our offensive coordinators that they think they have to pull our star running back in 3rd down or obviously passing situations and put some bum of a running back that ends up doing squat for us. I am sorry Shaun Bryson can't run to save his life. He may have a brilliant play once in a blue moon, but I don't see pulling out Kevin Jones and putting in Bryson. The Lions did the very same thing to Barry Sanders and it didn't work back then and it certainly isn't working now.

I could see if the Lions had a 245lb. punishing RB and they wanted to put him in on 3rd down and short just to pound out a yard or two, but not to put in Bryson who they think is a better receiver. How about giving Kevin Jones the opportunity to catch the ball out in flat and make a few moves and pick up big yards. I would much rahter see the Lions give Jones the chance to prove that he can catch the ball and run.

At the very least the Lions should get a better back than Shaun Bryson who has been a total disappointment for the job they have him playing.

Since I have been hyper critical of Joey Harrington in his entire career with the Lions, I will not let Garcia pass without coming down on him for the absolutely horrible decision to force that ball in and have the defensive player just read him like a book. It looked like he was throwing it to the Bear player instead of his own receiver.

My hat is off to Scottie Vines who stepped up when his team mates needed him to start the game since our receiving corps are pretty much depleted. He had a big day with 5 catches for 61 yards. The Lions were without Charles Rogers and Roy Williams again and it showed. Talented rookie Mike Williams only managed a couple of catches.

It just seemed like the Lions offense just never did get on track and they couldn't put together enough to score points when we needed them. They were forced to kick a 30 yard field goal at the start of the fourth quarter instead of punching it in for what would have turned out to be a winning TD. So maybe it really isn't all on Joey Harrington, but I still think Coach Mariucci made the right call in benching Harrington and bringing Garcia. I think Garcia gives a better shot at winning then Harrington does and in the long run we will win more with him as QB.

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The Detroit Lions (3-3) play the Chicago Bears (3-3) this Sunday and it should be a decent game. I htink this will be a crucial game for Jeff Garcia to show that he is able to lead the Lions in consecutive games which is something that Joey harrington had a hard time doing.

It isn't that Harrington never had good games, but they were sporatic and we just couldn't put enough wins together with him as the starter. I fully expect a double digit win for the Lions.

Lions 31-10 over the Bears

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The Detroit Lion's finally made a change that I have been waiting for since the start of the season. Coach Mariucci finally pulled the trigger and benched the loser Joey Harrington.

Jeff Garcia who returned to practice after breaking his leg during preseason was given the start of todays game against the Cleveland Browns. The result was a 13-10 win for the Detroit Lions.

I am not going to say that Jeff Garcia had a super game. but he did one thing that Joey Harrington couldn't seem to do; protect the football. Jeff Garcia didn't throw a TD, but he didn;t fumble or throw any INT's. He did however, have a rushing touchdown that capped off a scoring drive.

Garcia finished with pretty impressive stats minus a passing TD, but he did complete more than 50% of his passes. He finished with 22-34 for 210 yards and 0 TD's, but he did have a rushing TD.

The defense again was the big story with 3 INT's and a forced fumble recovery. The defense held the Browns to 174 total yards including a a mear 56 yards threw the air.

"Jeff does things Joey can't do," left tackle Jeff Backus said. "I mean, that's obvious....

"Don't get me wrong. I love Joey. He's a great guy. But Jeff, he's 35 years old. He's been around the block. He's got something about him. He definitely helped us out today."

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