Detroit, are you ready for some baseball?

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, September 13, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Detroit Lions
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Seattle 9, Detroit 6: It reads more like a line from a Mariners-Tigers day game from that other sport's pennant race than opening day in the NFL.

But it was football. "Detroit Lions Football," as its designer likes to call it, a hard-nosed 60 minutes composed of 50 percent ecstasy and 50 percent utter confusion for Lions followers. If you listen, you can still hear them muttering all the way from the Motor City...

"Damn, that defense is tough!"

"Wait a minute, who's our offensive coordinator?"

Admit it. Going into the game, you figured the Lions, playing against the defending NFC champions featuring Shaun Alexander and the NFL's No. 2 rushing offense in 2005, for mincemeat. Or at least meat. And who is this guy, this Rod Marinelli who's never held a head coaching position in his life?

The Marinelli Show was in full evidence on Sunday, with a crushing, punishing, relentless, adjective-inspiring defense that didn't allow the Super Bowlers a single touchdown. Being made to fight for every inch, Shaun Alexander was held to just 51 yards on 19 carries, for a weak 2.7 yards per carry. Maybe he already showing evidence of suffering from the well-known "Madden Curse."

If that's true, then Marinelli's "Tampa 2" schemes were evidence that his defense has learned that sacred Madden dictum, circa 2004: Defenses have to "bend, not break." When it was over, Matt Hasselbeck's line was utterly bizarre: 25-for-30 for 210 yards and ... zero touchdowns. (As the Elias Sports Bureau guys put it, it was "the highest completion percentage in NFL history by a player with at least 20 completions in a game in which his team didn't score a touchdown.)

Safety Terrence Holt was stifling receivers everywhere in running up 10 tackles. Adding 10 was first-round draft pick Ernie Sims, chosen with the high hopes that he was a perfect fit for this defense.

Oh, and Hasselbeck was sacked five times - two for huge Shaun Rogers, two by James Hall and one for Tyoka Jackson.

Wow, this defense is tough.

On the other hand...

You'd think that, playing at home and limiting the opposition to three runs - I mean, field goals - you'd win, right? Especially with Mike Martz, he of the "Greatest Show on Turf," he that was hiring specifically because he knows something about scoring points, running the offense, right?

While few expect Jon Kitna to put up All-Pro numbers this year, the man is at least an adequate quarterback. His stat line for this game reads 21-for-37 for 229 yards, zero interceptions and ... zero TDs. One completion went for over 21 yards, a short pass that went for 30 yards in TE Dan Campbell's hands. It was Campbell's only reception.

The last time a Martz-coached team scored this few points was in 2002. Sure, it's unfair to compare Kitna and Jones (who was terrible, with just 35 yards gained on the ground) to Warner and Faulk, shouldn't Martz be expected to produce at least the "So-So Show on Turf?" No? How about a touchdown, then? Who is this guy at offensive coordinator?

The offense was so limp and ineffective, in fact, that Marinelli ultimately made his "controversial" decision in the fourth quarter to have the Lions punt rather than attempt a 54-yard field goal.

"We were playing dominating defense at that point," explained Marinelli, and this writer defends him.

We've seen this sort of thing attempted by the New England Patriots and Chicago Bears of this NFL, and, wow, his defense was good, so why not let the D sort it out? As for the offense, we'll be able to tell more after they take on the defending AL champion White Sox - I mean, the defending NFC North champion Bears - on Sunday, a proper defense. The Lions could very well become the first time to go 0-2 while not allowing an offensive TD.

So Marinelli will go down as having lost his first game as a head coach, but he's got to take some serious pride in the silver-and-blue's crushing, devastating, pummeling defense. Wow, are they...well, you know. , but this team, as they say, has a lot of upside right now. On this side of the ball, Marinelli has nothing to be ashamed about.

Plus, I'd hate to see the new guy get depressed and, say, drink a bit much and drive around naked. Or something.

More hard-hitting, annihilating smashmouth coverage of Rod "Almighty" Marinelli and 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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