Ruminations during Lions’ bye week

By Os Davis  |   Monday, October 15, 2007  |  Comments( 3 )

Detroit Lions
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Detroit was empty of trauma or heart-attack inducing play for Lions fans last week; that was thanks to the bye week, a brief respite from the phenomenon known as Detroit football. Time to break out the defibrillators in the Motor City, folks: The Kitties are back!

Excepting perhaps the Philadelphia Eagles, there is simply no team in the NFL as difficult to gauge as the Lions. Is the 3-2 record legitimate or merely the result of poorly played games against inferior and/or demoralized opponents (e.g. Oakland, Chicago)? Which is the real team: That which can score 20 points and tough out a gritty OT win against Minnesota? Or that which puts 21 on the scoreboard and still loses by five TDs to a Philadelphia squad that otherwise averages a mere 11 points per game? And what about that brutal showing at Washington in Week 5?

Channeling Peter King, then, here are some thoughts I think I might have been thinking I thought about thinking about vis-à-vis the Lions.

How about that disappearing bandwagon, eh? Unlike that of the San Francisco 49ers, which was noisily made completely bereft of trendy preseason prognosticators (ahem) by the time the Pittsburgh Steelers had dismantled them in Week 3, the Lions' support outside of Detroit has dissipated slowly without anyone noticing. Is there another NFC team with a winning record being as thoroughly written off as these guys?

Maybe they needed the bye week. On the other hand, have you ever heard anyone say, "Oh, jeez, what Team X certainly doesn't need right now is a bye week"? Last season, this writer suggested that head coach Rod Marinelli practice on the Madden to work on the fundamentals; thumb properly blistered, Marinelli sent out his guys with a nice conservative game plan that led to a mostly mistake-free win over the self-destructing Atlanta Falcons, the team's last until the victory over the equally self-destructing Dallas Cowboys in Week 17.

Wow, the Lions have a heck of a running game on paper. Right now, the depth chart at halfback reads Kevin Jones, Tatum Bell, and T.J. Duckett. With Mike Martz's pass-happy offense (and the necessity of the pass play when trailing late, which is often), though, the runners get a bit of a diminished role. Meanwhile, Bell has reportedly asked to be traded - this could be a blessing in disguise for Detroit: Think they'll be scouting the halfback-poor Tampa Bay Buccaneer offensive line when the twain meet this Sunday?

And speaking of this offensive line ... boy, is it offensive. Not sure why seemingly no one is talking about this while ripping units like those of, say, the New Orleans Saints. After allowing an appalling 63 sacks last year, the Lions are blowing away the competition in the category this season at 28 surrendered; that's a pace of just under 90 for the season. And they can't blame it all on Jon Kitna, despite his ridiculously bad play against Washington. Seeming improvements to the depth chart since 2006 (the addition of Edwin Mulitalo, the return of Damien Woody) have availed the Lions little - poor concussed Kitna.

In turn, I wonder if certain members of the team's "brain" trust regret the choice of Calvin Johnson at No. 2 overall. Sure, Johnson has shown flashes of the brilliance he will theoretically routinely produce in the future, but hasn't Joe Thomas done a nice job for the Cleveland Browns?

Some of these guys seem to be slacking. Looking at the officially sanctioned NFL Network™ highlight reel, one can't help but wonder if these guys were celebrating the bye week a bit early. See Mike Sellers take care of Kenoy Kennedy (1:04 in the video). See the Tampa 2 defense never looking so porous (1:15 and thereafter). See LaRon Landry kill Kevin Jones (1:42). See Sean Taylor posterize (not to mention scramble the brains of) the amazingly named Etric Pruitt on special teams (2:14). Hopefully, Marinelli worked these guys in the off week.

On Marinelli, is everyone else as confused about this guy as I am? And who's more confused, us or him on the sidelines? The inconsistency in quality play-calling has haunted this team since Marinelli took over, Martz's presence notwithstanding. Nice little bit of Freudian slip online: The Worldwide Leader in [American] Sports has apparently erased 2006 from Marinelli's record. For having fulfilled the requirements of parole, presumably.

The Lions have tremendous fans. When the Arizona Diamondbacks have empty seats for a playoff game in that other sport, Detroit backers continue to fill Ford Field for a team that has rarely paid back the love in 50 years. Now that's devotion.

Fire Millen.

Bleeding Honolulu blue-and-silver (and 31 other color combinations) all year-round 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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