Lions Congregation: Week 1
September 11th, 2009 | by detfan1979 |Time again for the Lions congregation:
1. What are your thoughts on the Lions waiver wire finds thus far?
I think that the with Copeland Bryan the Lions brought another stable body in for depth at DE that is an upgrade over IAF. As for the rest, they are upgrades over whom they replaced, but not by a lot. Figurs was brought in solely for his return ability, so we will have to see if they utilize that before I pass judgement. Most impressive waiver pickup to me was netting O’Connell and turning him into a draft pick. Something for nothing — can’t beat that!
2. What’s the most important matchup the Lions need to win on Sunday?(ex. Backus vs. Will Grant, CJ vs. Jabari Greer)
There are two of them — Lions Oline vs Saints Dline. The Lions, like many more talented NFL teams, will be unable to stop Drew Brees on the field. In the movie “A Knight’s Tale”, the antagonist (Count Ademar) asks his advisor how he would defeat the hero (Heath Ledger, in a jousting match.) His answer? In bed, with a stick, while he’s asleep. On the field, with a lance in his hand? Never. Solution? Count Ademar gets the “unbeatable knight” hauled off to the stocks…so he doesn’t have to face him on the field. Now, I’m not saying the Lions should trump up phony charges and have Drew Brees tossed in the slammer.
HOWEVER — they do need to find a way to keep him off the field. Since the defense won’t be able to get him off the field (except when he scores) the key battle will be in the trenches. The Lions need to repeat what they did to Peyton Manning in the preseason and grind out the clock and keep Brees off the field. The Lions will still need to put up points and count on the defense to get at least a stop or two, but if the Lions O-Line can create even creases for Kevin Smith (and Jerome Felton) to hammer away at the Saints Dline then the Saints will be forced to stack the line, and that will leave open the opportunity for some big pass plays to play keep-up with Saints in scoring, as well as slow the pass rush to a crawl by rolling in screens and play action.
However, it will only go as far as the Offensive Line can push the Saints Defensive line back at the line of scrimmage.
3. What’s your predicted score for NO-Det?
No prediction. If I could see the future, I’d be watching the game from a luxury box in the Superdome, and have my own box at Ford Field and live a life of luxury. Since this is not the case, I’ll just have to guess — New Orleans 35 – Detroit 38. (I said a guess, not a good one.)
By Rob Stoker on Sep 11, 2009
UK Lions fan here, I think there may be like 10 of us (of which me and my brother make up 20%).
Been following for a couple of months now, and loving the work,
However, you have you clinched my season long support by quoting ‘A Knight’s Tale’ in reference to football… Genius!
I am the most optimistic Detroit fan in the UK (again I stress there are only 10 of us…) but your ‘confidence’ surpasses mine
By chiefger139 on Sep 11, 2009
WELL
DONT FILL BAD i PICKED LIONS 28-20 BUT HAVE A ROTTEN FEELING IT WILL BE MORE like saints 46-17 or worst
1. team we dont match up well against
2. road game: were notorious for being horrible at them
3. rookie coach: usually takes time for them to get there players use to there plays
4. 1/2 the team is new and are not use to playing with each other yet
5. alot of rookies and 2 year guys starting
6. its the 1st game-we will probably be better later
7. see us making penalities, turnovers, missed tackles and looking sloopy in the beginning
8. drew breeze has our number
9. totally new secondary-no one has a clue how good they will be-most guess they are terrible
10. can we even stop the run?
11. special teams: with hansen hurt-huge edge to the saints
with all this and more against us-even if we get blown out I will not give up on this team and feel its to early to judge them. the odds of us winning this one though dont look brite in my oppinion.
By StreetWorm on Sep 12, 2009
I’m glad chiefger seems to be a voice of reason here. I’m dumbfounded by how everyone can rant about how the Lions have a chance after what happened last season. I understand optimism and all, but we are an 0-16 team until proven otherwise in my mind. Yes, we had some free agent acquisitions and improvements here and there, but overall, this team is really not THAT much improved over last season. And in all honestly some portions of the team that were downright dreadful last season (defensive line) are even worse this season (in my opinion of course).
Yes, there have been upgrades at linebacker which I am a fan of, but even the secondary isn’t necessarily better. I don’t look at our defensive backs and see anyone on there that will scare defenses. Yes, Delmas is there and I can tell he’s good, but he’s still not good enough at this point that I see him being a legitimate threat and game changer at his position.
The same feeling that everyone has right now is what everyone was saying before the regular season started last year (myself included). The O-line looked better, our running game looked much improved, our QB’s were getting good looks and taking advantage of the opposing D, our defense may not have been outstanding last preseason but it surely looked better.
Against other teams I could understand CAUTIOUS optimism. But this is Drew Brees here, he had one of the most trememdous seasons a QB has ever had last year (it’s just that no one talked about it because the Saints didn’t make the playoffs). Even teams that could put pressure on him didn’t change his amazing production and I don’t see how anyone could make a case that our D-line will generate any pressure up front. Further, we’re starting a rookie QB in his first game along with an O-line that has a long history of underachievement and a running game that has largely been a disaster since Sanders retired.
The same people that are blabbering about a 6-10 win season are going to be the ones calling for Stafford’s head come midseason when we’re 0-8 and calling out Schwartz for putting in the kid before he was ready. They’ll be saying Schwartz needs to go and they’ll be saying we’d be better off if the Lions moved to Los Angeles so we could wait a few years for an expansion team.
Respect is something that should be earned and deserved, and in my mind the Lions haven’t done that yet — they simply can’t. In order to do that they’ll have to put some wins on the board and until that happens I simply cannot fathom the blind faith many have put into this team.
By detfan1979 on Sep 12, 2009
Notice I said a BAD guess. I don’t do predictions of scores — I do analysis of players, schemes, etc. The tempering of boundless optimism was what “Honolulu Blue Skies Partly Cloudy” was supposed to do.
I’ve got this feeling that Sunday’s game will, as Streetworm pointed out, over-temper some enthusiasm.
I just want a fun game to watch, where the team is competitive. IF the matchup goes well for the Lions in the run game and they can bleed the clock, THEN they will be competitive.
Competitive enough to win? Let’s just say I wouldn’t be willing to bet on it. BTW — my “optimistic” over/under for wins is 5. It could go +/- one depending on luck, injuries, etc. less than 4 wins, I will feel as is they have underachieved; 6 or more and I will be astonished!
Except in my wildest of “what if” scenarios, I cannot see them making the playoffs this year. I’m a fan and all, but I’m not blind.