Detroit Lions will certify you as nuts
NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.
Just when the Lions were rolling and we were believing that it all could get done, someone snatched away the punch bowl.
A bunch of birds sent home the message that this is still a work in progress and road games are very tough for a team just learning what it is to win and win consistently.
It wasn’t so much that they lost another road game in a pretty fine season; it was the way they lost the game. Can you say pathetic?
The offense had negative yards rushing.
It was a bad loss, because the Lions looked so bad.
But that’s the way the Lions will have to look at their horrible 31-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at the University of Phoenix Stadium.
After all, the Cardinals were playing with a one-armed quarterback and had a running game that appeared to be on its last leg. Worse, the Cards entered the game on a three-game losing streak.
It appeared as if the Lions were primed to reverse their losing trend in the desert. Coming in, the Lions had not won in Phoenix since 1993, going 0-for-3.
It didn’t happen. Ouch! source
Marinelli, the coach, has to be disappointed, because the Lions played without passion. You could see individual effort often with great fist shaking and hollering, but not team effort. It was like the team was just plain tired.
The Mike Martz offense was almost totally ineffective with 2nd down often being longer than 10 yards.
There was a time in the 4th quarter that epitomizes the whole game.
Let’s set the scene. First off, this is a game where there was less than 0 yards rushing and that is not a misprint. The final yards rushing for the Lions were minus18. Cason lead all rushers with 1 yard.
There were only 8 rushing attempts by the Lions in the whole game. Eight!
Now with less than 5 minutes to go on the clock the Lions were down by 17 points, thus needing 2 touchdowns and a field goal to tie the game. Improbable, but still possible.
It is 4th down and 1 at around the 10 yards line. Hmm, you have not rushed all day and when you did it did not work. Logic dictates you take the field goal and onside kick and go for the big play touchdown, right?
Because if you go for it here and don’t make it, the game is over. The Lions went for it and tried rushing the ball and did not make it. Game over.
This is not to fault Coach Marinelli. He wants to instill toughness and going for it on 4th down is certainly brave and tough and all that, it is more to show how pathetic the loss was, because they did not even go for the win. They instead went for the pride in that situation. It backfired.
Anyway, Roy Williams had a couple of meaningless touchdowns at the end of the game to make the score look closer than the game. (Squibster full disclosure - Roy is on one of my Fantasy teams. The scores were for me.)
At the end of the game the Detroit Lions gave your intrepid author a trophy for being one of only 5 Detroit Lions fans still watching the game.
NFL Football Fan Question Can the Lions regroup?
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POSTED IN: Coach Rod Marinelli, Detroit Lions, Jon Kitna, Kevin Jones, NFL Football, Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz, Roy Williams
1 opinion for Detroit Lions will certify you as nuts
Michael
Nov 12, 2007 at 8:33 pm
James, at my site I picked the Lions to lose. Too many years of watching them lose games everyone expects them to win. I predicted a close game 31-27 Cardinals. Can’t take much solace in how close I came as the score was not an indication of how much ghe Cardinals dominated. gws.
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