Week 4- A Viking Invasion

[joseph mamah]

Vikings (2-1) are coming off a big win over the 49ers. the lions (1-2) a disheartening loss to the Titans. playing a division rival at home, this is about as close to a must win game as it gets this early in the season.

Still no word on whether or not Staffords going to play, but as long as theres no structural damage you have to think he will.

[TSE]

Yeah big game. Are we going to contend for a title this year, or will we steer towards the path of looking at the draft as our only glory in the end as we have every other season? It's time to rebuild if we aren't going to take this game seriously and go out and just win.

DVOA only gives the Lions a 14% chance to make the playoffs going into the game. We don't compute well in their statistical models.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/playoffodds

[Icness]

My take:

Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions: Upset alert! Upset alert! It pains me to say this, but all those preconceived expectations about how good the Lions might be and how bad the Vikings might be need to be buried. Minnesota has been the better team, with more reliable QB play, better defensive communication and discipline, and better coaching. The only caveat I have is that if Shaun Hill starts for Detroit instead of Matt Stafford, I actually like the Lions. His more cautious, patient approach would serve the Lions well against the Vikings defense than Stafford’s gunslinging but error-plagued style. That doesn’t mean I think Shaun Hill is a better quarterback than Matt Stafford, but I think Stafford needs to see a different way to run the offense. Resting his sore butt is not a bad idea either, with the bye coming next week for Detroit. Vikings 29, Lions 27.

Read more: http://football.realgm.com/src_article/ ... z27hqnawmR

[Blkbrd671]

i think minny wins this one too and agree that if hills starting we have a lot better chance of winning. i hope our DL can show something this week

[ajaX82]

I look forward to Jared Allen embarrassing Backus again and again

[TSE]

The Vikings have some possible injuries at DL and S that could make them thin. And Aaron Berry's suspension is over and he is eligible to play this Sunday. He is reportedly visiting the Jets. I wonder why they are interested in somebody who isn't good enough for us. Kellen Winslow is on the market again looking for more playing time. With Heller having a recent dropped pass and Scheffler banged up, we should let him take some hits to attack the middle of the field.

Check out this new link that ranks all available noteworthy FAs. There's about 23 former Lions on this list of 245 names:

http://rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/41331 ... gents?pg=1

[Sheeeeed]

Well Revis is out for the season, thats why the have interest in Berry. I imagine Revis recommended Berry because they've worked out together in the past.

LeShoure probably won't last the season if they roll with him as much as they did last week. Hes already has a groan problem, but it looks like he'll be ok for Sunday.

[TSE]

Safeties Mistral Raymond and Andrew Sendejo are out. Last week their safety Robert Blanton exited with an injury too, so that could be an interesting weak point today.

[TSE]

Well I didn't want to say anything bad last week about Kassim Osgood since I thought it was overkill at that point, but again today he was terrible on ST. It was possible for him to stop both TDs today and not only that but he should have had an easy kill shot on that one he missed and possibly given us a chance to create a TO in addition to stopping the play. Danny Crossman had another laundry list of issues today on new things that have come up which every week there's something new to complain about. Heck even Stefan Logan just looked embarrassing out there with his carefree attitude when he patty caked the ball on the endzone line for that late kickoff. And then he walked off the field so nonchalantly at 1 MPH. I mean obviously it was not a relevant factor since the ball was dead, but just the attitude and posture of our players in general is just bizarre.

This game again is full blame on the GM and HC. They had a myriad of problems yet again and we could be and should be 4-0 if they would have done what they needed to do. That punt deep in their territory in the 3rd quarter was frustrating and we once again didn't use our TOs correctly to minimize the seconds ticking off, and then of course it all gets topped off with our QB unprepared to attempt a pass on the guaranteed final opportunity. Yikes. Our coaching staff looked shell-shocked and bewildered.

[kellmellus50]

Here's a way to solve kick offs DUH...........get another kicker to kick the ball out of the end zone like all the other teams do against the lions.

[TSE]

A pooch kick sure is not the way to go. Why do that only a couple times? Either it's good to do or not good to do, and later on he kicked a TouchBack instead of a pooch. Well the commentators sure thought it was a great play. The 32 yard line sounded wonderful to them.

[Blkbrd671]

Didn't bother to wake up and watch the game, judging from what i read on the recaps i'm glad i didn't. Stafford doesn't throw one touchdown, and special teams sets a record. New OC and ST coach please

[TSE]

Didn't bother to wake up and watch the game, judging from what i read on the recaps i'm glad i didn't. Stafford doesn't throw one touchdown, and special teams sets a record. New OC and ST coach please

But how do we get any new coaches, who can make that happen? Do you think that's all we need is to replace those 2 coaches or do you think they should make roster changes over the bye week?

The problem is the owner is a heavy believer in the system from the top down. There was an article on PFT just before the season started where he was touting on about confidence in bringing a Super Bowl to Detroit. He felt we were in a better position as Mayhew did contrary to what I thought. The point is that from that perspective one is more inclined to figure out how to make the hand work as opposed to giving up the hand, so I don't think our team is likely to try and find a solution through replacing coordinators at this time, that needs to be considered in framing any expectations of what they will do at this point. My approach is distinctly different because I would consider an immediate replacement and go as far as never having been willing to hire either of those guys in the first place. That's how far ahead I felt I stayed clear of those potential mistakes that we are getting decimated by with how much time we have wasted in those investments.

Silva did ok in the game, which brings up another curious point. Why are we sold on him being good enough now to give him a roster spot? If he was capable of developing to be worth that now then might we have been foolish in risking losing him? A few other teams have had injuries at safety lately, so I wonder if maybe we had a wink-nod deal with him that if another team offered him a job that he would give us an opportunity to match. Or was he brought up because Wendling is hurt or benched for performance?

[Sheeeeed]

Shibacle is the best word to describe the season so far.

[TSE]

Well that's what we set out to achieve based upon the choices we have made, oh well I guess we just have to wait longer starting with this 2 week period before we play again. It fascinates me to wonder what they talk about and do behind the scenes on a regular basis, and especially what the conversations and itinerary would be during this bye week.

[Blkbrd671]

Didn't bother to wake up and watch the game, judging from what i read on the recaps i'm glad i didn't. Stafford doesn't throw one touchdown, and special teams sets a record. New OC and ST coach please

But how do we get any new coaches, who can make that happen? Do you think that's all we need is to replace those 2 coaches or do you think they should make roster changes over the bye week?

The problem is the owner is a heavy believer in the system from the top down. There was an article on PFT just before the season started where he was touting on about confidence in bringing a Super Bowl to Detroit. He felt we were in a better position as Mayhew did contrary to what I thought. The point is that from that perspective one is more inclined to figure out how to make the hand work as opposed to giving up the hand, so I don't think our team is likely to try and find a solution through replacing coordinators at this time, that needs to be considered in framing any expectations of what they will do at this point. My approach is distinctly different because I would consider an immediate replacement and go as far as never having been willing to hire either of those guys in the first place. That's how far ahead I felt I stayed clear of those potential mistakes that we are getting decimated by with how much time we have wasted in those investments.

Silva did ok in the game, which brings up another curious point. Why are we sold on him being good enough now to give him a roster spot? If he was capable of developing to be worth that now then might we have been foolish in risking losing him? A few other teams have had injuries at safety lately, so I wonder if maybe we had a wink-nod deal with him that if another team offered him a job that he would give us an opportunity to match. Or was he brought up because Wendling is hurt or benched for performance?

i was a little over excited just reading the recaps , so let me elaborate. Again i am absolutely ignorant when it comes to the inner workings of the game, but i am a athlete and do play alot of sports. It just seems as if the players aren't buying into the system anymore, seems as if they've given up. Which leads me to believe that there needs to be a change. Idk who we'd replace our OC with, but he has 2 weeks to get this offense straight and able to generate points. We spent the past 2-3 drafts using high draft pick to draft weapons for Stafford, however we struggle in the end zone. If he can't figure out what to do with all these weapons, i'm pretty sure we can find at least 1 person to figure it out.

ST 4 touchdowns in 2 games, that literally cost us 2 wins. ST was a big problem last year, seen no improvement, don't see how you could argue we shouldn't make a change.

As far as your point with our personnel. Before today's game, i've always read your post and thought you were just being a little picky, but i'm starting to see you point. i don't understand what is going on with our personel. We release Smith with a torn up secondary, but keep a ST player(osgood) with the idea that he'll be a game changer? It seems as if the lion's are just guessing or taking risk hoping that the player will step up.

IMO

If we can't win this next game, we need to start trading players and acquiring assets to help address our weak area's via draft or trade. Again not sure how NFL works with trades, but i would immediately look to see if anyone is interested in avril, KVB, young, or one of our TE. i'd rather have a decent(as oppose to dominant) front four with a decent secondary, than a supposed dominant front 4 and crap secondary. if you get my drift. Seems we are overloaded at positions that don't see to be really helping us.

[Blkbrd671]

Well that's what we set out to achieve based upon the choices we have made, oh well I guess we just have to wait longer starting with this 2 week period before we play again. It fascinates me to wonder what they talk about and do behind the scenes on a regular basis, and especially what the conversations and itinerary would be during this bye week.

i also wonder, for some reason i feel as if the locker room is divided, or there's a lot of sh* talk

[TSE]

Yeah I hear you on all of your points above, I just think it's crazy that they pay these guys millions of dollars when they don't know what they are doing, nor do they even have consistency with what they appear to be trying to do. They should be held accountable or not get paid. But more importantly on finding justice there, we should have a tremendously gifted person working in every position of the team if not at least at the GM position which is the most important.

You should just be happy that what you see on this board from me is merely bullet points compared to the entirety of what my constructive criticisms would entail.

[Blkbrd671]

I understand the idea of the BPA approach however, not at the cost of ignoring area's of tremendous weakness. Weaknesses that are clearly being exploited.

*note i still do like the Broyles pick though, you can't teach what he does and that's just get open.

Also to give the FO credit , they thought that Berry would be with the team.

Next draft ideally i would like

CB
ILB
OL

[TSE]

Yeah I was thinking CB David Amerson or LB Manti Te'o could be interesting to target, or whichever BPA secondary player emerges as there are a few potential first rounders.