The Lion's Den

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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