Lions fail to “get the jugular”

By Os Davis  |   Monday, August 21, 2006  |  Comments( 2 )

Detroit Lions
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And now Rod Marinelli knows what it's like to lose as a head coach in the NFL. All qualifiers regarding the relevance of preseason games aside, Marinelli claims to always employ of philosophy of "Win every snap." Clearly, his Detroit Lions lost that battle going away in their 20-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns, but there was certainly ample opportunity to learn on every snap.

In general, the two most discussed aspects of the game were Browns rookie Jerome Harrison's 100 total yards and the four turnovers picked up by Detroit. Focus on the Detroit D? You bet, and with good reason. Following up a game in which their time of possession was almost exactly 40 percent, the Lions held the ball for just under 25 ½ minutes (42 percent) against Cleveland. With this sort of ratio in place, the Browns game was another in what looks to be a long string of defensive struggles for the silver-and-blue.

The first lesson learned here is that big plays are not enough. While Dre Bly and James Hall stole the ball to set up scores in the first and third quarters, the Lions' run defense looked as porous as ever: "...we have to be able to adjust the screens and draws and those types of things," Marinelli stated post-game.

Also singled out was a lack of proper tackling ("The tackling wasn't what I want."), though no names were named. No matter, almost everyone showed some sloppiness in this aspect of the game, particularly in the secondary. Even rookie LB Ernie Sims, currently the personification of "Diamond in the Rough," managed to mar an excellent performance that included a sack by getting on the wrong end of the highlight reels at least twice.

With Shaun Rogers, Boss Bailey and Teddy Lehman currently out, it's no wonder inconsistent play was the disorder of the day. General consensus in the world of sports media mainstream and blog appears to run as follows: Donte Curry (the Lions' high tackler with five), Jared DeVries, James Hall, Corey Redding, Bill Swancutt and LeVar Woods - good; Marcus Bell, Shaun Cody, James Davis, Paris Lennon and Alex Lewis - bad.

On the offensive side of the ball, well...when the player singled out for descriptive terms such as "beast" and "great" is a second-string placekicker, some work is needed. Marinelli had to be slightly frustrated with the limp performance turned in with the ball. Starting QB Jon Kitna was good enough at 7-of-12 for 94 yards and one TD pass, but it was all downhill from there. Kevin Jones and company managed three yards on nine attempts against Cleveland's starting defense, raising real concerns about a Detroit running game.

All in all, Rod "Almighty" ranked the game as "a step back" in terms of fundamentals, which is much of the message the coach is preaching. "As a team," he said. "When you have to chance to get the jugular on somebody we've got to be able to do that. We've just got to play better ... you've got to win every snap. We didn't do that. So you've got to come back and emphasize it and get to work next week."

There's always a next week for the Detroit Lions at Realfootball365.com
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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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