Horror story: The return of Mike Martz

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, September 18, 2008  |  Comments( 7 )

Detroit Lions
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It almost seems like a rhetorical question at this point: Can things get worse for the 2008 Detroit Lions? Rhetorical, that is, until you consider this week’s slate and realize that the Motor City Kitties are drawing the San Francisco 49ers; hardly an over-threatening squad, to be sure, but one loaded with motivation for revenge.

Commentary: Oh, boy, are the Lions – already looking like the pathetic, scrawny alley cats they’ve not so slowly become in the Matt Millen era – in big trouble this week, beginning with the excommunicated Mike Martz.

Made the scapegoat for Detroit’s 2007 woes despite getting the Lions' offense into a middling respectability, Martz was unceremoniously dismissed from the club while the smoke from the season-ending firing gun was still a hanging cloud in the cold December air. (And head coach Rod Marinelli is supposed to be a Semper Fi guy – yeah, right.) In two games with the 49ers, Martz has shown that, while he’s nowhere near recreating The Greatest Show On Turf of lore, the man still has a trick or three up his sleeve.

The Lions go into San Francisco against a team high from a stirring 33-30 win over the Seattle Seahawks, a team currently ranked ninth in the NFL in passing yardage despite a receiving corps consisting of old (old) St. Louis Ram Isaac Bruce, former Arizona Cardinals washout Bryant Johnson and a cast of thousands.

At the helm is J.T. O’Sullivan, a dude die-hards may recall as the guy who subbed for Jon Kitna briefly in a September game last season while the hand of God was healing Kitna’s concussion. After seemingly coming into his own in that final tragic 2007 season of NFL Europa – at least enough to earn him the No. 2 spot at QB in Detroit – O’Sullivan was released in favor of perpetual project Dan Orlovsky. (Note to Marinelli: Orlovsky’s never going to work out. Give it up already and ... oh, to hell with it.)

While hardly a Peyton Manning in 2008 – a bit more realistically, he’s not even an Aaron Rodgers – O’Sullivan has proven a competent quarterback even while facing constant undue pressure. (Come on, San Francisco linemen, 12 sacks allowed already? You guys are playing like ... oh, the Detroit Lions or something.) Of course, O’Sullivan will probably be getting a break against Detroit’s front seven, what with the “constant pressure on the QB” preached by Marinelli and his super-soft Tampa 2 defense resulting thus far in a mighty two sacks on the season for the Lions.

Perhaps worst of all, this game represents the Lions’ sole West Coast contest n 2008. And if the long travel weren’t bad enough – is there any way Millen and the front-office boys can screw this up? Like maybe they can leave Detroit on, say, a Saturday night red-eye flight? – the Kitties have been a silly 3-14 on the road in Marinelli’s tenure; west of Texas, the Lions are an amazing 1-3 in that period.

Can things possibly get worse? Maybe not this year, but you have to wonder about the increasing odds on 2009 free agent and sudden Martz-offense advocate Roy Williams ending up playing in San Francisco (and racking up the Pro Bowl-level statistics Williams is capable of) next season.

Fan Pulse: Still beating, but slowed depressingly by a terminal illness (emphasis on “ill”). As DrewsLions near-tragic poetically sums up over at the excellent Pride Of Detroit: “I, too, am a lifelong Lions fan and have endured the painful existence as a frustrated, yet hopeful dreamer with an incurable disease. The disease? I do not know how NOT to be a Lions fan.”

The Web site LionsFanatics.com runs a weekly thread for, um, Lions fanatics, asking for a handful of predictions on the following week’s game. While the optimists (and how do these guys and gals survive? Incredible, really) still have some game remaining, a healthy-ish dose of realism appears to be taking hold; as of this writing, eight of 13 Detroit-backing prognosticators have the 49ers winning with the most egregious of the lot a 41-17 San Francisco victory which has the Ford Family cleaning house to “drag Bill Cowher out of the studio and let him sort out the mess as acting GM and Head Coach until the end of the year" – realism hasn’t quite hit user LionIsSleeping yet, it appears.

Oh, and over there, they’re referring to their quarterback as “Pickna.” (Giggle.)

RF365 Prediction: San Francisco 49ers 38, Detroit Lions 30. Pickna throws three interceptions, but Millen and Marinelli are not fired.
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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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