Down The Field: Week 3

By: The Polish Prince

The Lions are a lot like a vacuum cleaner. You need them in your life, you use them about once a week, they always break down, and then they suck you back in. This week was tough. At the start, I was emotionally invested. I was getting upset, frustrated, depressed, and any other emotions you could associate with a Lions Sunday. Then around the 2nd quarter when we were down 21 points, I started feeling better. We were gonna get blown out but at least we didn’t choke this one away. I was ready to move on and have me a nice little Sunday. Then the Lions vacuum cleaner was flipped on. Stafford started feeding Marvelous Marvin Jones. Dwayne Washington showed us what it looks like to have a decent running game. The defense was getting stops and then all of a sudden it was a one touchdown game. My Sunday once again hinged on the success of the Lions. Defense was stingy, the offense was rolling, and we only needed one more stop. So what happened? Naturally, Aaron Rodgers and Eddy Lacey run their way to a very anti-climatic ending. Heart ripped out once more. This week hurt because I actually thought they could string together a couple of wins at Lambeau. I thought that Rodgers was finally over the hill. I was telling people all week, “The days of Jordy Nelson breaking away from coverage are over”. But, in a tale that’s old as time, the Packers used the Lions to fix their problems and get right back in the race for the NFC North.
 
The Good

• Marvin Jones: Really the only bright spot for the Lions on Sunday. 6 receptions, 205 yards, and 2 touchdowns. He kept us in the game, especially with that 70+ yard touchdown at the end of the first half. He has shown through three weeks that he is the lead dog in this receiving corps and has done a nice job filling the shoes of Calvin Johnson thus far.

The Bad

• Matt Stafford: He ended the day with good numbers and played really well in the second half but don’t let that fool you from his performance. In the first half, when we really needed that offense to go, he wasn’t sharp. He was missing throws and just couldn’t get the offense into a groove. In the second half, the GB defense was playing a little more relaxed and that’s when Stafford amassed all those yards and touchdowns. I hate to say this, but the Stafford H8erz won this week.

The Ugly

• Jim Caldwell: This loss falls on him. The team didn’t come out ready to play. They looked sloppy, pathetic, uninspired, and simply unprepared. In a game that could turn the season from Same Old Lions to cautiously optimistic, the team looked like they didn’t want to be there. The defensive schematics were awful. Leaving our CBs one-on-one and not bringing any pressure is a bad combination and we didn’t make any adjustments until half time. Caldwell once again did a very poor job of clock management. He started using our final time outs with a little over three and a half minutes in the game. Why did he use them so early? If we get the 3-and-Out after using the timeouts then we probably have about three minutes left with only the two-minute warning. This strategy gives us no wiggle room to give a first down. Say we get the stop with out using our time outs. Then we get the ball back with two minutes and three time outs to use. That’s just as good of a scenario as the ball with three minutes and no time outs. BUT, if we saved our time outs, we could have given up a first down to Green Bay, and still had a chance at stopping them on another set of downs. Granted there wouldn’t be much time left but using our time outs early mortgaged our opportunities to win this game. If this team wants to succeed we need a coach who can get the troops fired up for big games and knows how to manage the clock. I’m not calling for Caldwell’s job just yet but anything short of a playoff win should spell the end of his time here in Detroit.
• The Defense: I said it last week, this defense isn’t going to be great but it needs to be clutch. Despite not forcing a punt in the entire first half, they still had a chance at redemption at the end of the game and they let Lacey run right over them. I know they are dinged up but they need to get healthy in a hurry if they want to save this season from being another typical year in Detroit.
• The O-line: Specifically Decker and Tomlinson. These guys are struggling horribly and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better quick. We couldn’t run the ball either. 50 yards on 23 carries is not going to get you many wins in the NFL.

 
I just don’t know what to believe in this team. Sometimes they look great, other times they look like a typical Lions team. Thank God I have the Wolverines on Saturday or this could have been a fall reminiscent of 2008.
 
P.S. Every Sunday my dad and me exchange multiple angry phone calls talking about the Lions and this week he is convinced that Jim Caldwell can’t do math and that explains his poor clock management. Not saying that’s right, but I’m definitely not ruling it out.