Monday Lions Recap

A new addition to the BL sports website will be the weekly Lions recap.

The Lions are 1-0. Lets focus for a second on the fact that for a team like the Detroit Lions that is a very good thing. I know they beat the Raiders, and almost blew a 17 point second half lead to a team led by a former Lions backup QB/5th string WR (ouch), but they won. Currently the Lions are leading the Bears in the standings by a game (SD, I know).

The Offense:

Kitna played well for the majority of the game, and Oakland may be a terrible football team, but that is not because of their pass defense. The Raiders have a very athletic secondary, and have Sapp (10 sacks in 06) and Burgess on the D-line. Kitna from time to time made throws that were frighteningly close to those made by Jeff Garcia (floating to the outside of the field), but most of those passes were still completed.

The thing that scares me is that the Lions appear to once again have no push from their offensive line in the running game. Tatum Bell needs space, he is a downhill 1-cut runner with speed. If the O-line can find a way to get him a 3 yard head start on the defense he is going to gain a lot of yards. The only problem is that their are going to be very few teams in the NFL that are going to allow that to happen (and next weeks opponent MIN is not one of those teams). TJ Duckett is a waste of space, his NFL career is almost over. Oh, and Foster, you might wanna fix that little jumping problem (5 false starts)

The Wide Receivers were pretty much as advertised. I was pleased to see Martz go with a lot of 3 and 4 WR sets. I would rather have McDonald on the field on 3rd and long than Dan Campbell. Calvin Johnson made some plays, and even scored a touchdown. I would like to see the Lions push him vertically a bit more, but maybe they did and Kitna just dumped short to the open guys, its hard to tell from the non-HD version on FOX. Roy Williams is a perennial pro-bowler, and even though his stats were not great, he is still a monster at WR.

The Defense:

I am going to try and be honest here. They were terrible. I know it is week 1, but how many times can you be completly fooled by the same play. At times it looked like the Raiders were only running a 4 play playbook. Bootleg, Bootleg, Bootleg, ten yards at a time. McCown earned at least a week 2 start, but lets see how he does when he plays an actual defense.

The good:

Rogers was a beast at times in the game, disrupting McCown and Jordan in the backfield, and even blocked a FG. Redding spent a lot of time in the backfield as well. Ernie Sims is the best defensive player on that team. Sims was all over the field and at least shows hope for this weak defense. DeWayne White looked like a superstar for about 5 minutes last night with a spectacular interception, followed by a play where the defensive end forced two fumbles on the same play.

The defensive backs were terrible. Ronald Curry and Zach Miller were wide open the entire game. It was bad, I guess you could say at least the DBs tackled well, but that is not what I want out of my DBs. I am not talking about the DBs anymore, but in week 3 in Philly, all the Lions fans will learn the hard way.


The conclusion:

It is only one week, but a lot was shown. To me, it's the same old Lions. They are going to get a lot of yards on offense. From 20 to 20, we will be one of the best offenses in the NFL. The problem is the next 20 yards. Oakland did something on defense that I expect to see a lot this season. When the Lions got to 2nd and 3rd down inside the ten yard line the Raiders were in Dime. They dropped their LBs into the endzone and had 5 DBs in the endzone, it makes it extremely difficult to pass the ball, and Martz will pass the ball.

The defense is bad. The loss of Bullocks hurts, he was a potential bright spot. Sims is a stud, if he was on Philly or Chicago he would be a pro-bowler this season. The corners are terrible, and injury prone. Paris Lenon is our middle linebacker, for christ sakes, our middle linebacker's first name is PARIS!!!! That sure does show the toughness of this Lion's defense.

As for week 2 vs MIN----- I predict the Lions will stack the line. Rogers and Redding are going to have to play big. Lenon is going to have to grow a set, and Sims is going to need 14 tackles. Tavaris Jackson is terrible, he is the black version of Joey Harrington.

Lions win 30-17, but that is only because the Vikings are just as bad as the Raiders.