I do not care that they did not have Calvin Johnson. Sure he takes a lot of the attention of the defense, and sure he is averaging 78 yards a game and a TD. Are you telling em that Linehan cannot scheme around that? With Reggie Bush? With Joique Bell? With anyone of the other WR's or TE's. Matthew Stafford cannot put this team on his back and go get a much need road win? All of that is a huge problem for me, and once again I think it comes down to coaching. The coaches on this team just are not good enough, I give them credit for getting the team this far, but I have zero faith they are the staff to take this team to the next level. That goes across the board from Jim Schwartz on down.
NFL teams face adversary every week. Guys get injured, stuff happens, a good coaching staff has a pal in place for every eventuality. Linehan should have had a better game plan for a game with no Calvin, of course he has a hard enough time coming up with a good game plan with Calvin so maybe I expect to much from him. For me the answer comes down to running the ball. all of the coaches I know, played for, or look up too know that good football teams run the ball effectively and hen times get tough grind it out. This team cannot do that and that is a failure of the front office as much as the coaching staff. A football coach I greatly respect once told me only bad things can happened when you throw the ball, gotta run. This is roster with Bush, Bell, and let us not forget Mikel Leshoure who certainly has to have some kind of ability, I mean the Lions traded up to draft him in the second round......Oh...Right!
64 yards on the ground, well below the 90 or so yards the team averages. 222 yards through the air, well below the 304 the Lions average in 2013. All because they were missing one guy? All because of Calvin? If that is true this team needs to rebuild the roster again. Way to top heavy, way to reliant on the big plays, and not built to extend drives or get tough yards, or win how other NFL team go about winning.
The Good:
- DeAndre Levy- This guy has been a beast all season. His haul in week five was 14 tackles (11 solo) he is a force and showing once again why this team has invested so much in him. Much better on the outside than he ever was in the middle.
- Innovation- Love what the Lions chose to do late on a on side kick play. Running out both kickers and faking one way to kick the otehr. Granted more effective if Calvin Johnson is out on the fake side, but it proves the Lions can be innovative and try things.
- David Akers- He hit from 53 yards. Outside and that is big for him because his outside game has suffered in recent years.
The Bad:
- The Offensive line- their worst performance by far so far in 2013. They gave up three sacks doubling their total for the year and Jason Fox got hurt once again. Not to mention that they cannot run block to save their lives. This team needs to invest high round draft picks in this unit starting at Center in the 2014 draft.
- Kick returning- this continues to be an issue and bad decisions made in the the return game lead to a long field for the offense. I do not understand why this is a continuing issue no matter who is back there returning kicks but it seems an obvious place the Lions could get better in a hurry and help their team out tremendously. Yet another failure of this coaching staff.
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