My apologies if I missed a post on this already and am accidentally rehashing an already much discussed subject. That said, I've looked at records and schedules and have come to the conclusion that 10 wins guarantees the Lions at least the 6th seed. My proof after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

  Hello PoD and Fuck Mark Sanchez.  Wow. Wow. Wow. Two weeks. Two road games. Two 20+ point deficits. Two comeback wins. You can throw in as many four letter words as you want, but really all that can be said is wow. The Lions are 4-0. It's been 31 years since that was last said. It's a beautiful thing to see on a monitor, or on a TV, or in print. How we got here is not the prettiest journey though. Let's jump.

Continue reading this post »

   Hello PoD and Fuck Mark Sanchez. Can you really believe this? Our beloved Lions have their first 3-0 start since 1980. I saw a stat, or more of a note, on NFL Network that said 43 of our players weren't even born the last time we started 3-0. Anyone else feel old after reading that? That aside let's deal with the game against Minnesota. Time to jump. BOING.

Continue reading this post »

   Hello PoD and Fuck Mark Sanchez. I know it's Wednesday already and I wanted to post this earlier in the week so I didn't look like a ripoff artist, but life happened. So it goes. Anyway, my week 2 observations after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

   I am happy to see such a good start for the Maize and Blue. I had a feeling that Hoke would turn out to be good hire and so far he's justifying that hunch of mine. However, this good start does not mean I'm willing to bury my head in the sand when it comes to the obvious weaknesses we still have.

Continue reading this post »

to admit being completely wrong about our Tigers performance this year. I was one of those who originally called an 82 win season with the usual second half collapse and missing the playoffs yet again. I freely admit I was wrong, obviously. I am so extremely happy to have been so wrong. I still think Jim Leyland made quite a few horrendous decisions which made this more of a race than it should have been. That aside, all I can say now is I was wrong and WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRING ON OCTOBER BABY! WE'RE THE CHAMPS AND WE"RE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!

as a fan of all the Detroit professional sports franchises, yes even the Pistons, I feel it is necessary to announce that the Tigers have clinched the AL Central as of approximately twoish hours ago. This is our first divisional title since 1987 when we were still in the AL East and our first playoff appearance since our 2006 World Series run. I've already done this, but I feel we should pop over to Bless You Boys and show our Division Champs some love.

   Hello POD and Fuck Mark Sanchez. Week 1 has come and gone and our Detroit Lions have not only started the regular season successfully, they started it successfully on the road. Our boys in Honolulu Blue went down to Tampa Bay and picked up a 27-20 victory. Starting off the season with not just a win, but a road win, makes me the happiest I've been with this team since the 6-2 start in 2007. However, my happiness has not resulted in blindness and there are some things about this game that did not make me happy at all. I will explain my feelings after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

   This just might be a valid question. I say this because of the trouncing the Vikings dropped on the Eagles Tuesday night. There are other questions that need to be answered. Did this happen because the Vikings are actually that good or did Vick just have the proverbial Bad Game at a Bad Time? Does the Vikings performance against the Eagles mean we need to worry about the outcome of Sunday's game?

Continue reading this post »

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Lions-claim-Barry-Turner-off-waivers-from-Bears.html

The Lions have claimed rookie defensive end Barry Turner from the Bears waiver wire. I didn't look anything up about him yet, but as he's a rookie this makes me wonder what is on the front office's mind. Is he gonna be trade bait in a package deal this offseason? Is he just a stop gap measure? Was he taken with development in mind? I'll let the more knowledgeable try and answer these questions.

I need to make two things clear right from the outset. The first thing is that this is not a bait article for joshsun to get in more trouble with Sean. The second thing is that I am a supporter of the Schwartz. Those things being said, I am not happy with how he handled the news of Suh's fine in his presser. A huge part of any coach's job is to make sure the player know that they have support when they get screwed over. Schwartz's comments were bland and showed no support for Suh whatsoever. I won't deny the possibility that some type of meeting happened between the two where Jim told Suh his actual feelings and then warned him he wouldn't be commenting on it publicly. I truly hope something like that did happen. However, the coach is the public face of the team and how he addresses various issues in public can have an effect on everything from the league to the fanbase. I think it's time for the Schwartz to suck it up a little, risk a league fine for himself, and start calling out the NFL on its shoddy refereeing and over the top fines. It would fire up the team, fire up the fanbase, and maybe draw enough attention to start some changes happening.

That is the question. Or to put it another way, to risk or not to risk? That is exactly what we would be doing if Stafford plays again this season. Risking his long term health. I don't believe that we should. I know this offense is better with him in the game. The whole team is better with him able to play. He is a leader and his ability on the offensive side of the ball helps the defense by allowing them to stay off the field longer and give them something to get fired up about. I acknowledge the truth of this. However, I believe there is a bigger truth. That truth is we will be royally screwed if he tears that shoulder up permanently. This team will be out a potential franchise quarterback and a very significant amount of money. Based on this, I don't want to see Stafford again until 2011, if we have a season. I don't want him healed just enough to play. I want him healed to the point where he can take a hit stronger than a light breeze. I don't believe he's brittle or injury prone. I think he came back too soon this season. I don't want the same mistake made twice. I want a fully healed throwing arm ready to bomb the ever loving hell out of our opponents next year.

   The mystery I refer to is why our beloved Lions can't put it together. There have been only 2 constants for this team over the last 50+ years. Bad football and William Clay Ford. We've had a long list of players, coaches, and front office personnel with varying degrees of skill, but the one thing that hasn't changed in all that time is our owner. So, you tell me. If the only things that haven't changed are the owner and our level of poor performance where do you suppose the problem actually lies? You guessed it. Our owner sucks. Out loud. In public. On a neon enhanced billboard. On a major interstate. In the middle of a massive urban area. We need an owner who is actually invested in wanting a winning team, not just a profitable one. As a "successful" business man, one would think it would occur to him that a winning team makes more money.

   So William Clay Ford, please start acting like an owner who cares. Find talent for the front office so they can find talent to put under the headsets and on the field. Call Roger Goodell up and ream him for supporting shoddy officiating that seems to be targeting your team. Better yet, fly out, march into his office, and give him a dressing down face to face. Let him know you're trying to build a winner and you don't appreciate the efforts that are being made to try and keep us the running joke in the NFL. Be passionate. Defend your team. Get talent for your team. If you're not capable of these things or have no interest in doing them, then please sell the team to someone who will and will also keep them in Detroit.

I'll start with the obvious. I saw another Lions loss because of a 4th quarter fold. I saw one definite prison sexing of us on a bad horsecollar call. The hair is legal you ignorant douchebag referees! Before I go any farther, yes, it was a 4th quarter fold. Kitna for a 29 yard touchdown on a naked bootleg. Seriously?!? Kitna running for 2 first downs. Really?!? I saw Dominic Raiola get tossed around like dishrag alone in the washing machine. I saw 2 more stupid penalties on Peterman. I saw 8 more penalties for almost 100 yards on us. Granted there were only 7 actual penalties, but those were still for around 70 yards or so. I didn't look it up to be more specific. I saw an increase in our record string of road losses. I saw Jim Schwartz still not winning a road game since he's been here. I saw us damaged a little by the refs, but more by ourselves. I saw yet another game that makes me question why the hell I bother with this team. I also saw just enough flashes of greatness from our young talent that, despite numerous times of seeing these flashes and getting disappointed, I still have hope for the future of this team.

I saw things that must change. Raiola must go. He's too small to handle the nose in a 3-4, and that resulted in 2 sacks. I saw more stupid penalties. I wish I knew what to suggest to fix this. I don't. I just know that it needs to stop now. I saw too many missed tackles. This team needs to be sent to one of the dominant Detroit high schools so they can relearn the fundamentals of tackling.

Despite everything I saw today, I still love this team. I do feel that the Schwartz only has til the end of 2011 to get this team some semblance of respectability. I realize that this is not the Lions of old. There has been progress, some of it even close to remarkable. However, sooner or later progress needs to translate into wins. This team needs to learn how to close out games and play through the asshat calls of referees. Competitve teams don't. Winning teams do. I'm happy we're finally competitive. Next year we need to be winning.

Hello Lions fans. After yet another disappointing loss I decided to see just who else is all defeated and where we stack up against them. There are currently five 0-3 teams. The Lions, Bills, Browns, Panthers, and 49ers. I got all my info from the standings page on NFL.com. I'm short on time so I limited my research. Anyway, here's what I came up with. We've scored the most points, 56, and the most TD's, 7. We've allowed the second most points, 78, but we have the second smallest point differential, 22. What this tells me is that even under the dubious guidance of Shaun Hill our offense isn't the problem. Our problem is the defense. If I had time I'd research all the rushing vs. passing stats in order to see where on the defense the problem is, but I have to get the kids to school. Regardless, we may be the cellar dwellers of the NFC North, but we aren't the worst team in the league. Thank God, we're not even close. That's what I think anyway. Tell us what you think.

Let me begin by saying this post is from a layman's point of view. I'm not a football genius. I read, I observe, I draw on my limited knowledge from playing ball in high school, but that's all I have. That being said, I will go over what I think is needed to win the home opener from both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Before I get to this week's game let me just say this. We all know we got screwed harder than the new guy in prison on Sunday. However, what's done is done. We as fans need to do the exact same thing that our team is hopefully doing. That is look forward and concentrate on what is ahead of us. The past can't be changed, but the future is still wide open. On to this week's game.

Continue reading this post »

I was watching Inside the NFL on Showtime last night and they were doing their predictions division by division. Naturally I was really curious about what they would have to say about the NFC North. I was amazed and pleasantly surprised when the evaluation of the Lions came around and Warren Sapp gave us credit for starting to come together and then predicted a 7 win season for us. I thought that was pretty sweet, but it didn't end there. Later in the show they were going over the season opening games and Mr. Sapp not only picked us as his upset special but said the Bears have offensive line problems that our newly upgraded D line can take big advantage of and we will quote "destroy the Bears." Obviously I thought this was over the top, but I also have to say I found it very reassuring that anyone that's recognized as knowledgeable can see that we've finally been moving in the right direction and is willing to give us credit for it. 

The season opener is tonight and it should be fun with a rematch of the NFC Championship game. Tonight I'm a Saints fan, and of course come Sunday GO LIONS!!!!!!!

I know what you're thinking. What is this guy smoking and where can I find some? The Rams? The most important game of the year?!?! Well it is. At least it's the most important game of the year so far anyway. This is why is think this. Our beloved, yet much maligned, Lions are attempting to make their way out of the moldy, smelly cellar of the NFL. In order to begin the climb they made key acquisitions in the offseason through the draft and free agency. Staff, Grew, Foote, etc. The next step in that climb is to win the games we SHOULD win. We beat a subpar Redskins team and we should've. Now we face the all-defeated Rams. The Rams who have a very good chance completing the season winless. This is a team we SHOULD beat. Only by keeping the Rams winless will the Lions continue their journey out of the cellar in an appropriate fashion. Only by keeping the Rams winless will the Lions begin to cement themselves as future contenders to anyone outside of this blog. Only by keeping the Rams winless will the Lions truly be on their way to restoring the roar. The real journey begins on Sunday. Let's beat the teams we SHOULD beat this year. We can worry about stealing games next year. GO LIONS!!!!!!!!!

As I was catching up on my reading of this blog, I noticed that there were a few concerns about our upcoming game with the Pack and its possible repercussions on our playing on Thanksgiving in the future. I am here to allay those concerns. I went to this website.

http://www.nfl.com/thanksgiving/story?id=09000d5d80437c09&template=with-video&confirm=true

It contains the winners and losers, with scores, of every game played on Thanksgiving starting in 1920. You'll notice the Detroit team of that time, known as the Heralds, got blanked. The first year we played on Thanksgiving as the Lions was 1934 and we lost to the Bears. We played on Thanksgiving in 1934-38 and every year from 1945 on. In 34-38 we were 3-2. We lost our first 5 Thanksgiving games in a row starting in 45. This is a losing streak only matched by our current one of 2004-08. Then came the golden era of Lions football and we won our next 6 in 50-55. We have never matched that winning streak on Thanksgiving since. The late sixties sucked with 4 losses in a row including the last two having us being shut out. Since then we've never won or lost more than 3 in a row until 2004 til the present. Without actually counting it out we are very close to a .500 team on Thanksgiving. If the NFL takes our entire history into account they have no reason to remove us from the Thanksgiving day schedule as we have just as much chance of winning as we do losing.

Disclaimer: all stats I used came from this one website, but it's NFL.com and it says true at the end of the link so it has to be accurate right?

Check out this tidbit from MLive.


http://blog.mlive.com/highlightreel/2009/10/detroit_lions_place_copeland_b.html

75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75

Anyone know anything about the newbie?

As I continued to surf the web looking for reaction to our beloved Lions win this weekend, I found this gem. This is the week 3 NFL power rankings according to FOXSports. http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/powerRankings. As you can see, they show us a little love by moving us up. At the same time they declare us cupcakes and predict us being 1-5 going into our bye week. I am fully aware of our horrendous recent history. I am also fully aware that the Redskins are not one of the elite teams in the NFL. I still say that calling our team a cupcake team is going a bit overboard, but what are you gonna do? It's simple. We just win some more games. I believe we will.

Yes ladies and gentlemen. It actually happened. The Lions won a game for the first time since December 23, 2007. The defense was fairly solid throughout with some big stops at times. My favorite thing was that the offense finally improved. After 2 virtually identical weeks of production from the offense, 13 points and 3 turnovers, they put 19 points up and, even more important, NO TURNOVERS! Matt Stafford showed real signs of growth today. No forcing passes in where they didn't belong and no INT's. He even made a hell of a run for a first down. Now all he needs to do is work his progressions a wee bit better and learn to put some touch on the ball and we'll have the franchise QB we've been looking for for umpteen years. I believe he will learn these things and by the end of the year he will be well on his way to earning that record contract.

Now for the reality check in the midst of all this celebration. Improvements still need to be made. Our secondary is still suspect. The D line still can't pressure anyone on its own. The O line still has blocking breakdowns. These things will take time. However, I think we can now truly see the glimmerings of what this team will be able to accomplish in the future. We will have a passing/receiving tandem with Stafford and Megatron (Calvin Johnson), solid running backs (Kevin Smith and Brown), and with a couple improvements here and there a solid defense and an offensive line that can protect the QB. Look for 4 to 6 wins this year and with a few good offseason moves, yes I'm gonna say it, playoff contention in the 2010 season.

Thank you boys for finally knocking King Kong off our back. Clean out your ears people and listen. The roar is restored. GO LIONS!!!!!!

All I can say is wow. 744 posts for our game thread. 58 for theirs. A grand total of 2 posts on that last int call. Maybe 3 or 4 people participating for them. I wonder if that's because of a lack of interest in this game, a lack of interest in that team, or that very few people know about the site. I bet the basketball site is insane since that's their bread and butter.

It's only a matter of hours til we play the Hoosiers and the last fanpost is my own from halftime of last week's game. Believe it or not folks this is an important game this week. Yes we're favored by 3 touchdowns. All that means is that we have yet another potential trap game before the big one in East Lansing. I know that game is all our minds. It's definitely on mine, but we still have this game to play first. I know I'd rather us roll into East Lansing at 4-0 instead of 3-1. I'm sure you would too. Just remember, Indiana may not be a powerhouse in the Big 10, but they are capable of beating us if they are overlooked. Keep your eyes on the prize people. First Big Red. Then we worry about Sparty. GO BLUE!!!!!!

Overall not bad for the Lions. One rookie mistake by Stafford and one big run from AP. Other than that a very solid performance from the defense and an excellent running drive from the offense capped off by a throw to Johnson for 7. I'm very happy with a 10-7 lead. The 17-7 lead that we should have would be better, but this is more than acceptable. Continued good running and staunch play from the D should break our ungodly losing streak today.

Well, well, well. Here we are. 2 games since my last post, 2 losses to the Twins, and our lead cut in half to... yes, you guessed it, 2 games. I really hate it when my pessimism proves correct, but unfortunately that happens more often than not. Now before a mass tirade ensues, yes I know there's still 14 games left and we can still turn things around. However, I personally prefer things to be a little neater. I like my season and the division wrapped up in a nice white, blue, and orange bow by the 3rd week of September. So, for those of you who still wish to disagree with me about being tense about the end of the season, I say it's your constitutional right and I hope you have an ample supply of Zantac, Tums, Rolaids, and/or Maalox. For those who may be changing your minds, welcome to my world. Regardless of which band wagon you choose, GO TIGERS!!!!!!

Well it's halftime and we have an interesting game. Eastern seems to be following up fairly well on its competitive game with Northwestern. They are refusing to be intimidated by the Big House and are putting up an impressive fight. For us, the offense is doing slightly better than average, but the defense is back and forth. They're getting plays for loss and then giving the yardage back and then some. They keep losing outside contain on running plays, one of which resulted in a TD for Eastern. The defense needs to step it up if we want to win in an appropriate fashion.

Ok. Here's why this Tiger fan is tense. Since starting September with a 5 game win streak, we are 3-7 in our last 10 games. Swept in KC, split a 4 game series with Toronto, and lost 2 of 3 to KC again. Why can't we beat KC in September?!?!?! That's not all. We have only a 4 game lead in the division and every last game from now til the end of the season is a divisional opponent!!!! Our next 9 games are all away on top of that. At Minnesota, at Cleveland, at Chicago. Then we get Minnesota for 4 and Chicago for 3 to finish the season at home. I don't think I've ever seen a season ending schedule that has more potential for disaster for a team with a narrow divisional lead than the one the Tigers have. If you're religious pray. If you're superstitious get out the charms. These final 16 games could be really rough. Brace yourselves.

Fans of Wolverine football. We may have a problem. We just beat Notre Dame in a tight shootout. We have Michigan State in 15 days. We play Eastern Michigan and then Indiana before we go to East Lansing. These are not football powerhouses. There is a great deal of potential for us to be a .500 team going into Lansing. Why? Because football teams that are coming off a great victory with a rivalry game coming soon and powderpuffs coming before the rivalry game have a disturbing tendency to take a break in favor of concentrating on the rival. I hope RichRod can prevent this. I hope he can maintain a week by week focus for our beloved team. If not, I fear we are in for more embarrassment for a third year in a row. We should be undefeated going to East Lansing. We should be Irish fans this weekend as the Spartys travel to a highly pissed off South Bend. If the Irish drop the hammer on State like I think they will, we should be facing a demoralized, frustrated, and very beatable team on October 3rd and we should be 5-0 afterwords. However, this will only happen if focus and composure are maintained. We have 2 trap games in a row starting tomorrow. Let's hope we don't fall into the gaping pit residing just in front of our toes.

I responded to a main blog with this point, but I feel I should also throw it out into a potentially bigger arena. I've read on any number of posts that the fact that the Lions scored 27 points is something to get excited about. Looking at it broadly, that is true. However, the devil is in the details. The most telling detail is that only 13 of those 27 were scored by our offense. Again, only 13 of those 27 points were scored by our offense. The other 14 came from defense and special teams. It's very true that defense and special teams contributions are very necessary to winning a football game. We all know this. The problem is when the offense, primarily responsible for scoring, is being outscored by the rest of the team. This will not win games. This will only provide the illusion that we were competitive. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the offense is solely responsible for winning games or even putting points on the board. They will need help at times. However, in order to win games on a consistent basis, the offense should be putting up the majority of points.