Silver linings, dark Honolulu blue clouds

By Os Davis  |   Tuesday, August 19, 2008  |  Comments( 7 )

Detroit Lions
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Surely in the land where optimism about the hometown NFL club will never die, Detroit Lions fans remain happily in the afterglow of the team’s 27-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Why not? After all, this is Detroit and like they say, “a win's a win," even if it doesn’t count.

(Incidentally, is Jon Kitna including exhibition triumphs in his annually brazen forecasts of 10-plus win seasons for the Lions?)

For those further outside Lions Land, though, enough negatives cancelled out Sunday’s happy positives to keep many well off the 2008 bandwagon for now. After all, this is Detroit, where every silver lining comes with dark Honolulu blue cloud. Spotted on the horizon in the team’s win were the cumulus formations listed below.

Calvin Johnson. Silver lining: Brilliant, masterful, literally awesome; looking like the NFC’s answer to Randy Moss out there (Terrell who?), C.J. turned in three receptions, all dandy, for 76 yards and a TD. In Johnson, Detroit would appear to boast the franchise’s biggest gamebreaker since the days of Barry Sanders and – barring the unexpected – looks to be Pro Bowl material this year.

Honolulu blue cloud: Simply put, what happens when the inevitable more competent double-teams come swarming to Johnson? Won’t that pose a bit more of a challenge (and perhaps slightly fewer yards per reception) than burning Dexter Jackson a few times?

Kevin Smith. Silver lining: On his early 16-yard run against the Bengals, young Smith showed his potential; heck, Smith has now officially swung all the hype his way based on this play alone. In the public sphere, the third-rounder has the starting halfback position locked up.

Honolulu blue cloud: Who’s that sitting on the bench behind Smith? Isn’t that Tatum Bell, the guy whose annoyed attitude earned him zero playing time in the second half of the season last year? Wouldn’t that be the sort of personnel distraction Detroit Lions Football Inc. consistently preaches avoidance of? Yeesh.

Jon Kitna. Silver lining: Kitna played well Sunday, connecting with C.J. thrice, plus a fourth completion to Roy Williams that was called back thanks to a line penalty; this to chase his 6-of-7, 106-yard, one-TD performance against the New York Giants earlier in the month. Kitna looks slick while making the most of his big-money offense.

Honolulu blue cloud: Kitna’s stats have been deceptive for his two seasons of 60-plus percent accuracy and 4,000 yards with the Lions. Against his seeming accuracy is an ugly 1:1 interception-to-touchdown ratio (42 picks against 39 scores) and an utterly damning 32.6 percent third-down success rate in 2007, “good” for the NFL’s second worst in the category.

Drew Stanton. Silver lining: With nearly 36-year-old Kitna ancient by NFL terms, rookie Stanton played well enough again on Sunday, making the highlight reel with a swell 50-yard connection with Brandon Middleton off the play fake for six. Hmmm, Stanton to Middleton ... could it be that the Millen era Lions aren’t completely foolish in judging young offensive talent?

Honolulu blue cloud: Wait a minute ... Drew Stanton is the future?

The defense. Silver lining: Defensive pressure in the first quarter kept Carson Palmer on his toes the entire game, and leadfoot Palmer didn’t like being kept on his toes to the off-key tune of 6-of-13 for 50 yards and an interception. On the interception itself, the only ones who loved Brian Kelly’s heads-up play more than Rod Marinelli were fans of Cincy’s mates in the AFC North and T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s owners in keeper fantasy leagues. All in all, the Detroit ‘D’ made Palmer look like Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Honolulu blue cloud: Unfortunately, the lower-string Lions later made Fitzpatrick look like Palmer, once they got all tuckered out and/or plain ol’ lost-looking out there. Extremely negatively, the group that was burned included versatile second-rounder Jordon Dizon, who is expected to start among the linebacker corps pretty much in Week 1. The constant pressure applied early by the Lions looked to be exactly what a Cover 2 defense requires, but this pressure completely disappeared in the second half and left a mere slightly mobile Fitzpatrick to scamper for a first down and/or have just way too much time to throw.

So what’s the immediate forecast call for? It’d be a shame to state “more of the same,” but that meteorology could well be accurate enough. It’s going to take a lot more than one preseason Sunday of thunder and lightning to convince most that gray skies won't predominate in Detroit for the upcoming regular season.

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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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