Monday, December 15, 2008

1 Williams out, DanO the ManO

First off, just as I was calling for and pointing out over a month ago, Dan Orlovsky is the best QB on the Lions' roster, AND he keeps improving from game to game. He led the Lions to 21 points -- including through the air -- against the 5th rated defense in the league overall; Did I also mention that they had only allowed FIVE TD Passes through the air all season coming into this game? No wonder Rod made him starter again for this week. (That and Lewand doesn't want to pay Culpepper that $1 million bonus)

What I've seen of other news around the league, Dan Orlovsky is going to be leading the ifseason FA QB pool, along with Byron Leftwich who played well in relief of Ben Rothliesburger this season. The Lions need to re-sign him. He is a young guy with upside, who found the holes in the Indy D, and wasn't afraid to throw the ball to CJ even when he was double covered -- and it paid off big time. I heard some complain about DanO throwing it "up for grabs" over CJ in double coverage -- pardon me, but isn't that why you HAVE CJ in the first place?? To out jump 2 DB's, run over a guy, and put his hand down and then launch that huge frame of his into the end-zone? I mean, even Brian Billick was joking that CJ could practically pick up 5 yards just by falling forward. Not too far off.

As for the rest of the game, I'll dive into that bit more tomorrow and Wednesday. I think there is a lot more to be said on this game, as it actually had a lot to take away from it -- much of it good news!!

In Karmic News, one of the Williams boys fractured his shoulder and will be out 4-6 weeks. Is he going to drop his appeal, and serve his suspension while he's injured? Sorry to anyone out there for "innocent until proven guilty" -- any player who claims that he "took the wrong supplement without knowing" at this point is a complete, total, and unabashed idiot or liar. The NFL has said, mailed, in the CBA that if your team represented trainer doesn't give it to you, don't take it - the NFL is not responsible for the labeling/mislabeling of the over-the-counter (OTC) supplements, pills, shakes, treatments, etc.

You are making millions of dollars, have personal trainers on staff as well as attorney's, and agents. If you really feel the need to take something not on the league "approved" list -- send it to the league and get their okay FIRST instead of going "oops" afterwards. (Why they don't all have people drive them to the bar and back to avoid DUI's I'll never know either. People working on the line can even afford a cab or the drunk van, or call/text a buddy. Seriously - no thought)

I hope the NFL lets him get healthy, THEN makes him serve his suspension. Karmic payback is crap, with that court injunction plus the piss-poor calls in the first Vikings game (and the second, come to think of it) they had some coming.

Hope the Vikes lose out against the top 2 rushing teams in the league and miss the playoffs. I'd rather see the Bears go.


Oh yeah, how about that first no-call -- AGAIN -- for pass interference against CJ (it was so bad you could hear the crowd groaning in Lucas Oil stadium in the background until they realized it wasn't going to be called, then they started cheering.) However -- you will notice that the rest of the game, they were calling tight on the pass interference, especially on CJ. I think that they realized it may be the Lions, but that if the Colts won by a slim margin (the game was close, after) that the call they didn't make would loom large in the "Path to 0-16" history. Who wants to be known as the Ref that blew the call which ultimately led to 0-16? They wised up and left that to the guys who worked the first Minnesota game.

Finally, I watched most of Browns-Eagles tonight, and found it hilarious that every time they were talking about "pro-bowl NT Shaun Rogers" they would realize he had taken himself out of the game and was on the sideline sucking air. The eagles apparently watched tape of him from last season, as Westbrook would wait for Rogers to come at him, lateral to the side and run through the gaping hole previously taken up by Mr. Rogers.

I also noted that he had "4.5 sacks on the season" -- but all were in the first 8 games. He'd had none in the 5 games leading up to the MNF game. Hmm....can be dominating at times, especially at the beginning of the season, but he loses it and gets less and less effective as the season goes on. Imagine how useless he would be in the playoffs if a team he's on actually makes it? Would it invigorate him?

This isn't to hammer the Lions' trade by saying they should or should not have traded him. If he played well, as usual, in the first half of the season they may even have won a game. But they got a third round pick and Leigh Bodden (who has been very solid when in man coverage, including against Indy. Dallas Clark and Wayne working on Robinson did most of the damage for the Colts, along with Rhodes) for essentially about half a season of pro-bowl potential. I still think it was about a wash at this point - especially considering he is the "run stopper" for a horrendous Celveland D.

Buster Davis on the other hand, was a mistake to let go. Good enough to start for Indy, but not make Detroit over the since cut gardner, cannon, and the legendary nece or lenon? yeah. Which MLB looked better yesterday -- Lenon or Davis? Now look me in the eye and tell me how smart the Lions coaching staff is, and what great talent evaluators they are. Stop laughing and say it. Now get up off the floor -- you look look silly rolling around like that giggling away.

I'll let you recover and write more tomorrow.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan O really has looked pretty good since that horrible "run out of the endzone" incident. He's been very respectable on a not at all respectable team.

You also have to love what the new guys bring to the table. CJ of course is sick; 1165 yards, and 10 TDs already this season. Wow. Just, wow.

Kevin Smith has been great for a rookie; 773 rushing yards and 279 receiving yards, and he didn't even play the full year. He would be on the verge of a 1,000 yard season if he had played every game and stayed healthy.

Avril has been looking good the last few weeks as well. He's second on the team with 4 sacks in very limited playing time. He plowed Peyton over at least once that I saw (was only partly able to watch the game as I was visiting my parents and my step-father was flipping channels, ugh.)

I still think Felton is the real deal also, in spite of the injury.

With some good coaches next year and a good draft by a new GM, and The Lions could be a pretty good, young football team in 2009.

Roy Williams trade tangent~~~ la

Roy Williams has 13 catches for 177 yards and one touchdown in seven games since the Cowboys acquired him from Detroit in October. I've been saying he's over-rated for the last few years because of all the dropped passes. Need proof?

Bottom 10 players in catch percentage (minimum 5 looks per game): Braylon Edwards (38%, 45/120), Justin Gage (41%, 26/63), Mark Clayton (45%, 30/66), Roy Williams (47%, 30/64), Koren Robinson (47%, 23/49), Santonio Holmes (48%, 44/92), Terrell Owens (49%, 55/113), Marques Colston (49%, 49%, 25/51), Kevin Curtis (50%, 28/56) and Donnie Avery (51%, 38/75).

Even if the Cowboys make the playoffs and the Lions get a low first rounder out of the deal, it still looks like a good trade for the Lions. His production has been squat; I bet if the Cowboys don't make the playoffs; they will look at that trade as one of the major reasons why.

RIP said...

Hey Guys,
Does any out there believe like I do that the Lion's are not that far away from turning this thing around? Is this close to being where they were when Millen first took over an aging veteran team on the decline?
The roster for next year, high 5 round picks, and the flexibility for of the salary cap puts us in prime position for a quick reload for new starters to fill vacant holes.
I also see that our management team may be set too with our past top decision makers being gone. I like to add Schmidt and Thomas into a group with Millen.
Seriously speaking of Lewand. He is a good money man where his biggest fault is being a 'Yes Sir' man. He has always been able to sign and/or restucture contracts so coaches and management can have thier guys. With the Redding contract, his hands where basically tied to meet management's goals to sign him with no training camp missed. They asked him to try and free up as much cap space next year by renegotiating contracts for this year.
Has the Scouting Department really failed, or was it the selections itself. The top picks usually where not what the coaches wanted, and this year Meyhew stated the same with his inputs over the years. The coaches did not want Harrington or M. Williams. They probably did not want a few others like Stanton. With the proper leadership, I believe this staff can do a good job.
I have heard nothing but good things about Meyhew this year. Is he the right guy, or do we take a chance on some other assistant. Why would a guy who has done the job for another organization leave the work he has done to start over again?
The Lion's biggest immediate need is finding a new coaching staff. I like Rod as practice coach and as a person. The things I don't like is his loyalty to family and friends when it comes to putting a good product on the field. Buster Davis was another example of loyalty to friends over talent. Rod knows Lenon is not a MLB. And Rod was not going to cut his guys on the D-line after training camp. He brought to Detroit Cory Smith, Darby, and D. White. Why guarentee a full year's pay to guys like C. Smith and L. Moore? If someone were to get hurt, would there not be free agents available like these guys? This family and friends thing, along with poor skills to manage games, are why we may go 0-16.
If we had better coaches this year, would we have won at least 4 games this year? With better choices with draft picks, and training camp cuts, would our rebuild process be done?
I believe the Lion's, with a new coaching staff only, and the resigning of Dan-O, and Hanson, are ready to improve with playoff potential in 2 years. Upper management is already in place.

DetFan1979 said...

LOL - I noticed the Roy W Stat Line. Tehy just gave him a big fat contract extension too. We'll see if they utilize him more next season after an ifseason with the team. he won't be the reason Dallas doesn't make the playoffs this year, but that 1st and 3rd could well be the reason in the future.

It was definitely a good deal for the Lions, hands down. No question. Even Millen would have been smart enough to take that offer.

I disagree that all upper management is in place, or that the scouting department can work as-is. Don't know a lot about that area, but I've heard many in the front office pre-dated Millen, and he brought in the rest.

Best bet is to start over with a new GM/Coach. They can keep on Mayhew if they like in some capacity if the new GM thinks it's worth it. Lewand will stay on in his role in negotiating contracts and handling operations at Ford Field. I'll be blogging more on this as the end of the season nears, so I won't write a book now.

Roy trade was good, and Culpepper signing only worked out at all, in mind, because Stanton and DanO ended up injured at the same time. Other than that, I really don't think it helped.

DetFan1979 said...

BTW - RIP - I agree with Marinelli letting loyalty cloud his judgement waaaaay too much -- especailly when it came to the roster and game time. Cohen was a 7th rounder, and he still has outplayed Darby when on the field. Why not skip Darby, and play Cohen from week 1? Couldn't have been any worse, and the PT woudl have allowed him to porgress in this lost season, to be a better player for next year.

One of many mistakes that are even clearer in hindsight than they were at the time.

CHIEFGER139 said...

dan-o
WAS MEDIOCRE AT BEST,
everone knows if stanton started the game we would of won it. plus once again the bonehead decision trusting our defense can stop them late in the 4th quarter-when will rod ever learn-I know its his defense and he has trust in the guys-but I think its like the little league baseball coach-who loves his son dearly and starts him every game and still counts on him-no matter how many times the poor kid goofs-cant blame dad he loves his kid-but sorry rod look at your kids as they are-not very good-and quit counting on them in the crunch!!!

Isphet said...

I generally like your rhetoric, Chiefy, but I think you're way off on the Stanton thing. I don't think Stanton's that good right now. I also don't pretend to know if he will ever be good or not.

I would like to see Stanton have a chance at some point these next two games, especially considering Dan O will probably become a free agent and sign some ridiculously overpriced contract somewhere else(re: TJ Duckett), and we'll be better off in the long run if we have a better idea of what Stanton is.

But the bottom line is that Stanton is a complete wild card right now; we don't have a clue if he's better or worse than anyone because we have almost no data to base the decision on. To say everyone knows we would have won if Stanton was in there.. uh, I'm part of "everyone" and I just can't agree with that; and I'm probably not alone.

peace out.

CHIEFGER139 said...

isphet
i dont even know if i believe the stanton rhetoric i put out-its easy going with him cause he wont start until next year, and probably not even then-unless theres as many injuries as there is now-hes the safe bet-cant trash a guy who hasnt played yet!!