Gameday: Home Opener
September 20th, 2009 | by detfan1979 |I will be on the road today, and will unfortunately be missing the Lions game “live”. I will, however, be taping it and trying to watch their first win tonight. {crosses fingers, toes, and does a “Lions to Win” dance}
A big THANK YOU to all of those going to the game; thanks to the game selling out all of us in the blackout zone (which extends way more than 75 miles) will be able to see the game. I will be attending the Cardinals game in December with my brother.
Hopefully, the Lions will come out with a great game-plan, and play hard. Post your initial game thoughts in the comments here as it is going on, or after the game. It’s always great to read the different things that people notice — there are always a few things I seem to have missed!
Heres to a great home opener — GO LIONS!
By RIP on Sep 20, 2009
Matt did improve his game this week, but man does he have a long ways to improve more. He needs to learn to look around. The D in the NFL is mostly eyes on him. No just trying to match up to the reciever and let the ball hit you in the back. If there is no perifial vision, your offense will not consistantly work.
As I mentioned before, it is not the media or fans that will turn him around. Linehan will have to do this, and what a big job this will be. Matt can recall every mistake he has made, bet can he apply it to a game? I am thinking it will take 2 to 3 years to get over his ways. Thinking I am wrong, but can I undure this?
The team did play more as a team instead as individuals. The secondary from what I saw was good along with Hunter and Foote. The score was not bad considering Peterson, Farve, and the Lion’s turnovers.
There is still considerable work to do, and the most improvement has to come from Matt.
By StreetWorm on Sep 21, 2009
I haven’t seen the Lions D play that well for as long as I can remember, specifically in regard to missed tackles. Yeah, there were a few on AP, but there isn’t a team in this league that wouldn’t do the same. When we brought in Foote and Peterson THIS is what I expected from them. Also, it was nice to see the Lions actually capitalize on an opposing offenses mistakes (minus Delmas’ missed interception).
That being said, Stafford really let us down today. I know he’s a rookie and that he deserves some time, and I agree with that sentiment; however, that doesn’t mean making excuses for him every time he throws an interception (i.e.: Kowalski and BVO). I really haven’t seen an exciting down the field play from him yet this season, even his throws to Calvin are usually short or intermediate, Calvin just beats the first defender and then he’s off to the races.
As far as interceptions go, the good thing about this game is that it wasn’t from not understanding the defense or setting his feet wrong or anything like that. As I said in the previous post, he needs to learn how to throw it away when there isn’t anything there. When he was forced out of the pocket on his first interception you could tell he was trying to force it long before he threw the ball. If he learns to throw it away he’ll be MUCH better in my opinion. Even on 3rd down it’s better to give the opponent poor field position than a turnover and offensive momentum. As far as the mis-throws I’m going to chalk them up to performance anxiety and jitters, but if they’re still around by midseason I’ll be getting much more worried.
I’ve gotta say that the coaches executed their game plan perfectly and they did everything you could have asked them to do to give their team a chance to win. The offense underperformed and that’s all there was to it, I don’t think that’s the fault of the Linehan. Cunningham was making great calls and getting results, for the most part defenders were in position to make plays and whenever Peterson was ready to break out there were 2 or 3 more defenders to gang tackle him and take him down. The tackling on this defense looks like it’s actually an NFL team and it’s something I don’t remember ever seeing with the Lions. As a fan, that’s something I appreciate seeing.
By chiefger139 on Sep 21, 2009
I missed 1/2 the game too, our highway trash pickup day. listened on the radio though and then watched the last 2 minutes again. looked much better-like everyone is saying the defense looked the best it has in over 2 years, if they keep it up could beat the redskins who barely beat the rams next week.
By Isphet on Sep 21, 2009
The Lions actually looked like a team in the first half of the game. It was nice to see. I was especially happy with the defense: they had quite a few really good series against the Vikings. The defense is starting to come around nicely, I think. If anything I think the turnaround might be a little ahead of schedule. Still has a long ways to go; but the improvement is obvious.
Stafford’s been pretty bad so far, but I am taking that with a grain of salt. Of course it was going to be bad. Everyone knew it. The point of playing him now is to get him experience. What we need to start looking for is a slow maturation and elimination of mistakes as time goes on. It’s much too tell if he’ll be good or bad. You might as well throw out any results at all until the bye week in week 7; it’s too much to hope for that Stafford will mature and round into form THAT quickly.
Let’s hope for a win against Washington this next weekend. I’d love to have the media finally talk about something other than the streak. It’s got to be disheartening to Lions players; even the ones that weren’t here last year.
By chiefger139 on Sep 21, 2009
I THINK STAFFORD
even being a rookie is much less embarrassing than culpeper was last year with all those plays on both sleeves-all the interceptions, all the fumbles in the sacks-i think stafford is at least as good as dan o already and will soon surpass stanton-he was as good as a fat culpeper who didnt know the plays and fumbles too much from day one-i always wondered why they didnt bring in the qb coach?? the guy who takes these young kids and makes them probowlers?? if we have this guy who is he?? if we dont-why not???
By chiefger139 on Sep 21, 2009
i WAS JUST ON M-LIVE- there new format!! had to reregister and hange my handle slightly im still the chief-chiefger139b now-wouldnt take my new account and now wont even take my comments on my new account like we can put up a picture but hate i cant even get in the conversation now-log in and it ignores me-are similar having the same experience?? if so will soon route the m-live crowd to this site-at least we can voice our oppinions at will!! so sad I love m-live!!