Game 7: Sleepless in Detroit

[TSE]

There's no story right now, just sleepless nights until we can get another win. We need to go 8-2 or 9-1 to have a shot to make the playoffs, it's snooze alert time until we can get some positive momentum built up. At least this week it's a home game, but almost every game is equally important to win at this point since we can't afford to lose hardly any more. Anything less than 12-4 is a failure to me at this point, so we have to run the table just to meet appropriate minimum expectations of what we should be able to accomplish by now.


Seattle is in the top 5 of yardage prevented, and Detroit is in the top 5 of yardage obtained, let's see how these forces clash.

[ajaX82]

Seattle's defense is very physical and very legit. Given the woes of our offense, this is not the ideal match-up. Their corners are huge and should be well equipped to slow down CJ, or to slow him as much as is possible.

I don't feel good about the team right now and surely don't feel good about this game. Hopefully we can rattle the rookie QB and connect on a few long plays.

[TSE]

^
Well with some of the tough opponents and road games we have left, this is one of the more favorable matchups we are going to get. We are favored by 2 points right now, but we did sign Brian Robiskie who has an average of 10 catches per year over the first 4 seasons he has played in the NFL. I hope he's not actually going to be activated for the game and take up somebody else's spot, that would likely weaken our chances in this game imo. We would be going short at an entire positional group in order to play a guy who seemingly has done nothing in 4 years. Very bizarre signing.

I'm sorry you are very frustrated with the team and I wish there was something I could do about it. You may not believe me but one day I will be in charge of this team although it may take a very long time, but one day it will happen and I will make it up to all of Detroit when I get there. That's what puts me to sleep at night in this football neglected town.

[Blkbrd671]

Seattle's defense is very physical and very legit. Given the woes of our offense, this is not the ideal match-up. Their corners are huge and should be well equipped to slow down CJ, or to slow him as much as is possible.

I don't feel good about the team right now and surely don't feel good about this game. Hopefully we can rattle the rookie QB and connect on a few long plays.

If Suh drops Wilson like he did Cutler, Wilson's going to have a loooong day. If Stafford doesn't throw a TD in the first half, i'd put in Shaun Hill

[TSE]

^
But what if the game is tied like 3-3 after the first half, would you still pull Stafford or only if we are losing? The second half and especially later in the second half is when Stafford usually starts to turn it on, and I'm not sure creating any QB controversy is going to help out Matt and could bring another issue into focus. If Hill does really bad, then that could be a tough question to answer with our season on the line and we give up on our #1 overall pick quite early in the game, but if Hill does great then when does Stafford come back?

[Icness]

I like Detroit in this one. Seattle doesn't have outside playmakers and that's what beats the Lions D. As long as the special teams don't screw everything up and the turnover battle is no worse than -1, I think the Lions win a low-scoring game.

[Blkbrd671]

I like Detroit in this one. Seattle doesn't have outside playmakers and that's what beats the Lions D. As long as the special teams don't screw everything up and the turnover battle is no worse than -1, I think the Lions win a low-scoring game.

I just want to see the offense take the first drive down field and score. one thing i noted in our last game, is that if we had a secondary, we'd be such a wicked defensive team.

[Icness]

Fantastic win!

Stafford was freaking nails from the 2nd drive of the game. Outstanding command of his fastball, good decisions, great mechanics. Somebody finally got to him and it worked. The INT, which was 100% on Stafford, was the one black mark.

Worst game of his career for Calvin Johnson. 3 drops including a potential game-winning TD. But to win without him doing squat is real progress. Great game by Titus Young and nice contributions from Joique Bell.

Delmas was fantastic before leaving w/ knee injury that appears to be a real problem. Ricardo Silva gets two turnovers (one on the last play) in relief.

Corey Williams 3 TFLs and drew a hold. Fairley looked good. Tulloch looked good every play except the long Lynch run.

Jason Hanson with a masterful squib kick after the GW TD. There aren't five kickers in the league that can do that.

The defensive penalties in the 1st half were just brutal, but to Gunther Cunningham's credit his sideline tirade in the 2Q really got their attention. Played much more disciplined without losing their intensity.

Clock mismanagement at end of 1st half again, but they got away with it because Seattle botched it too.

[TSE]

The season is still alive! We have a good opportunity against JAX next week and then hopefully we can get revenge on MIN the week after that to get above .500 and build some momentum. I disagree about Stafford though, i thought he still played a pretty weak game overall with way too many mistakes and poor decisions and general indecisiveness. At least we still found a way to win though so hopefully he can continue to improve, but today wasn't good enough for me from our QB. I was also quite annoyed to see that Robiskie did in fact take up an active roster spot today.

Also I thought Silva played a heck of a game and contributed very well for us. The pass interference on Jonte Green early was a super weak ticky tack call and they ended up scoring a TD on that drive. Clock mngmt and miscellaneous strategy elements are still major problems.

[Blkbrd671]

Delmas reinjured his knee! that's a major concern as our defensive has noticeably been better since his return.

i'm still bothered that we don't try power football and slam into the goal line when we are on the 1.


Broyles looked like he had a good game as well as young. Johnson had 3 drops.....madden curse?

Can any one give me a break down of how our secondary, and Dline looked?

[TSE]

^
Well the power running game doesn't work well because we don't know how to call those types of plays when the defense is exposed to letting it happen for one, and for two Leshoure is just not looking good and needs better coaching. Our options are somewhat limited because Linehan's mindset and teaching abilities are limited, and our HC isn't really an expert in offensive game-planning and tutoring. I will also say that we should scrap the Stafford QB Sneak play from our playbook. We do a horrible job in planning and executing that play every time, and all it does is waste a down and risk his health. If we can't do it right then we shouldn't bother trying to do it at all. I can't exactly do any high level analysis of the DL or 2ndry as I was just watching the game casually and those types of analysis I'm unable to provide unless I'm studying it and reviewing it since I break down plays very carefully by looking at how each individual player behaves every step of the way. In general though we didn't complete as many opportunities as we had to pressure or hit Russell or make some additional big plays or potential major disruption plays. That's from sloppy tackling and other fundamentals. Our secondary did basically what it's designed to do and didn't do anything spectacular or unspectacular of major noteworthiness.

But back to Stafford now that you got me thinking about him again as the sneak talk came up, one thing I did notice is a ton of times Stafford was unable to do any effective attempts when he got pressured or had to roll out, but the 3rd round rookie Wilson every single time he had pressure on the move he still chucked the ball up for a completion or near completion. Stafford also failed to throw the ball countless times when people were open, he just doesn't think very logically or very quickly, and sometimes when he doesn't have pressure his accuracy is just terrible. His mechanics are still awful and they were awful all day and late in the game after a decent pass on a very simple play the commentator went nuts saying "I don't want to hear anybody complain about his mechanics again", well I almost had a heart attack and I literally jumped out of my chair, I was like you gotta be kidding me buddy. And we're lucky he didn't miss that TD to Broyles that was awfully high as well. Sideshow Stafford, I mean Sidearm Stafford just didn't play a good game, we should have crushed this team by a lot more.

[Lionlifer]

Delmas reinjured his knee! that's a major concern as our defensive has noticeably been better since his return.

Between him and Spievy, I'm thinking we will need to stock up on safties in the draft or free agency, preferably the draft. Time to start watching for great safety play on Saturdays now.

[TSE]

^
Ice has a new mock up that has a top 3 CB going to us in Round 1 and one of the top safeties in Round 2. That looks pretty solid to me.

[Blkbrd671]

^Except that we need to address our LB's as well.


i'd almost want to take Mate Taeo in the first round and grab a corner in the second, unless a shut down corner falls to us

[TSE]

^
Well right now Milliner, Banks, and Amerson look like the 3 worthy 1st Rd CBs, and if we don't make the playoffs then one of those guys should be available for us. But I'm fine with Te'o too, I posted elsewhere that our 1st Rd pick undoubtedly has to be the top DB or Te'o (doesn't look like any Safeties are high profile right now). So I'm with you on that.

So my 4 man board comprises of those 3 CBs and Te'o and I'm locked into them as of this particular date.

But to me the draft is more complex than picking a guy, I think we need to SHAPE the draft properly first and get the right pick structure, and in my opinion you need to start SHAPING drafts years in advance, so if it was up to me I'd be making deals to rearrange our pick structures for 2014 and beyond before THIS trade deadline hits, because we are WAY behind on setting things up properly imo and it pisses me off!!!

[Lionlifer]

^Except that we need to address our LB's as well.

i'd almost want to take Mate Taeo in the first round and grab a corner in the second, unless a shut down corner falls to us

I think our LBs are much more solid than our CBs and S so hopefully we target one of them. Granted you never know who is going to fall on draft day....

[Blkbrd671]

^Except that we need to address our LB's as well.

i'd almost want to take Mate Taeo in the first round and grab a corner in the second, unless a shut down corner falls to us

I think our LBs are much more solid than our CBs and S so hopefully we target one of them. Granted you never know who is going to fall on draft day....

Currently, i think all 3 of our starting LB's are FA's. If a big shut down corner falls to us, then i'm all for addressing our secondary first, however i'd go after what looks to be elite LB if difference in value of corners in the 1st and 2nd round is not large

[TSE]

^
Well I see AT MOST 3 solid CB prospects in this draft, so you either get one of those top 3 or you aren't getting anything special. I'd say Group A is 3 guys, and Group B is everybody else to overly simplify it.

[Blkbrd671]

^
Well I see AT MOST 3 solid CB prospects in this draft, so you either get one of those top 3 or you aren't getting anything special. I'd say Group A is 3 guys, and Group B is everybody else to overly simplify it.

love overly simplifying things

[Lionlifer]

Currently, i think all 3 of our starting LB's are FA's. If a big shut down corner falls to us, then i'm all for addressing our secondary first, however i'd go after what looks to be elite LB if difference in value of corners in the 1st and 2nd round is not large

I think it's 2 of the 3, didn't we reup Tulloch? So Levy and Durant can walk, keep Levy, Durant, meh, I can go either way.

Another thing to factor in is we are likely losing Avril, and KVB is getting up there. I could almost see us going DE first, gotta rush the passer.

Too many holes on D, not enough picks to fix them.