2011 Detroit Lions

[gnome]

Goodness, that was quite a game. Started out as a track meet with our Leos running rough shod over those poor boys from down south, then turned to a snore fest pretty much after the first quarter.

Dapper Dan and Brandy made it sound more interesting than it was on the field. When did XYZ get the broadcast rights? Does that mean Dan Miller won't broadcast the tv games? I certainly prefer fox 2 over 7, btw I have a little bit of a crush on Jennifer Hammer and to not have her around will feel wrong. [[ yes, I know she's not a hottie, but she is feisty and very knowledgeable.)

Anyway it was an ok game, I was impressed by the Cinci QB, Dalton. For a rookie he seemed rather composed, especially after Suh tried to snap his head off.

[Thruster315]

I really didn't learn anything I didn't already know about our Lions after that first pre-season game. The first team Lions played better than the first team Bengals and our second and third team definitely played better than theirs.

It was a little disappointing not to see the rookies beyond Doug Hogue & Johnny Culbreath. The team's pretty much set for the first stringers and the battles on the field now for the players are to see who's going to be depth.

I didn't see Derrick Williams do anything of note to solidify his position. Aaron Brown showed off some of that outside speed. Bobby Carpenter looked solid. Brandon MacDonald seemed to be in on a few plays. And if Willie Young plays with that kind of reckless abandon, he just might make the roster.

And while I absolutely love Suh, his yanking the helmet off of Dalton isn't going to help his cause. It's not that his wallet isn't deep enough to pay the fines but what scares me is that the rest of the league- in particular the refs are going to be keeping an eye on him more than ever before now. It's one thing to get a fearsome reputation but it's another to get tagged a dirty player. Just pounce on those QBs and drive them into the ground- the extracurricular stuff is impressive to the bloodthirsty fans but it really doesn't help the team out in the long run- especially if he gets suspended on top of being fined.

Let's get on with the next three tune-ups and start playing real games that mean something.

[Thruster315]

Dapper Dan and Brandy made it sound more interesting than it was on the field. When did XYZ get the broadcast rights? Does that mean Dan Miller won't broadcast the tv games? I certainly prefer fox 2 over 7, btw I have a little bit of a crush on Jennifer Hammer and to not have her around will feel wrong. [[ yes, I know she's not a hottie, but she is feisty and very knowledgeable.

I think WXYZ got the pre-season games and Fox will still carry the regular season games. As far as Jennifer Hammond goes- she's one sharp cookie. She knows her football and can hold her own against any of the guys in the locker room. I remember when she started out on WDFN years ago and have always respected her work. So she's not Erin Andrews but she's kinda mousy hot in her own way.

[gnome]

Good news on the Fox 2 thing, I am rather glad the Hammer doesn't look like Erin Andrews, it would creep me out ...

The thing about Suh's hit on Dalton last night ... I know everyone gets all oowie gooey when Suh goes off on a QB, but I watched it and Dalton was essentially down before Suh put his arms on him, and long before Suh snapped off his helmet.

Collectively we are in awe at his power and massive skills on the field, but we might feel differently if he actually broke someOne's neck. Could you imagine the scene on the field, the hushed crowd, the still form on the grass, the replays of Suh whipsawing the guy and speculation on exactly when the neck snapped.

When Utley went down the feeling in the stadium was freaked silence. Like a vacuum had sucked all the air out of the place, but there was not a sense that someone was too blame. That what happened to Utley was because of dirty play, it just happened. That was football, no one to blame, it could happen to anyone.

Not so if Suh succeeds in making someone poop out of a bag for the rest of his life.

[smogboy]

The day after the Lions first pre-season game and people are already talking about the Suh hit on Dalton.

Some Lions slappies are drooling over the ferocity of the hit and loving it. They say that’s the way the game is played and defensive players have to play with that ugly edge.

Now far be it for me to be a Suh apologist or have to explain his actions because I love his motor, his intensity, his dedication and just the athleticism that he brings to the game. I wonder if his hit last night wasn’t even calculated. After all, it was pre-season and he knows that he just might be able to get as much street credibility with that sort of play without hurting his team in the regular season. Watch- especially if this sort of hit never occurs during the regular season.

Some NFL pundits have already penned him to being a dirty player and that has some advantages and disadvantages. He’ll be a marked man, not just by opponents’ offensive coordinators, but by referees. They’ll be looking for Suh to play a little too close to that edge and might expose him. The offensive lineman playing opposite him might take chop blocks and pull some other under handed tactics while in the pile-up. If I was an opposing QB, I might not snap on my helmet as tight to have it pop off easier or I just might take a tumble at the first inkling of contact from Ndamukong Suh. Suh’s overt aggressiveness also has its disadvantages this way and can be exploited. Suh has to be smart enough to recognize this and play around it somehow. One of my sincere fears is that other teams will come after Stafford in retaliation- so I think Matthew Stafford needs to be keenly aware of this in his role as the other quarterback on the field.

I think Jim Schwartz will probably have a talk with him [[and probably the entire defensive line) soon about anything that even remotely looks like a head shot. I think the helmet flying off of Dalton was an easy signal for the referees to blow the whistle, toss the hanky, and tack on 15. I think Schwartz is smart enough not to rein in Suh but be able to talk to him in such a way as to just keep him on that very edge. I also believe Suh is a smart enough and calculated player to know when the edge is there- that’s why I think that the play last night might have even been a calculated move on his part to earn some film and add some doubt into the opposing teams’ QBs. All quarterbacks have to have some sense of confidence and near cockiness to play their positions- and if Ndamukong Suh can parlay just a small seed of doubt or fear in their heads, then he’s got them thinking elsewhere [[don’t think Pittsburgh’s James Harrison does that to other teams?). Seeing as how Gunther Cunningham also had him playing all parts of the field last year will also cast some more doubt into the QB’s head because he will have to account for his bull rush coming from somewhere. And if he’s being double teamed- is Vanden Bosch coming unabated? Is the speedy Cliff Avril right around the bend? It’s subtle gamesmanship long before any meaningful games are being played.

[smogboy]

Just pounce on those QBs and drive them into the ground- the extracurricular stuff is impressive to the bloodthirsty fans but it really doesn't help the team out in the long run- especially if he gets suspended on top of being fined.

Would we feel this way if it happens to Matthew Stafford? This is my sincere fear that if it were to be taken eye-for-an-eye, the other teams could start trying to turn Matthew Stafford into a bobble head doll too. Let's try to look at this objectively and not as Lions' fans. One has to realize the inherent value of a QB to a team as opposed to a lineman. Toss one defensive player out [[even one as gifted as Suh) and it makes a bit of a difference, but to have a team's starting QB out would make a HUGE difference to that team's approach.

[firstandten]

Even though you can't read too much into preseason, I think the Lions showed a level of aggressiveness that Cincy could not match on either offense or defense. execution will come, but its important that the team at least looks like its ready to play

[gnome]

Both teams gained 70 yards on the ground. Those are not good numbers, especially against that Girl Scout Squad from Cinci. Granted the NFL is a passing league, but 3.1 yards per carry does not bode well for 2011 especially when you factor in one of those carries was for 17 yards.

Neither Bell nor Harrison hit the holes with any kind of bravado, now you could discount some hesitation to being fresh to the program, but still ...

[gnome]

- Suh just tweeted he was fined 20K for the Dalton hit.

- 6'5" 355 lb former Dallas guard/tackle Leonard Davis is in town for a workout. Not too sure about this move. The guy is 33 and shared time last yr at guard for the Cowboys. He might be just a load if he is much beyond his playing weight of 355. A 380 or 400 pound Jaba the Putz might just be a waste of dough. The guy is a former pro-bowler, but that was a couple yrs ago. A quick check of his stats sez he had 2 false starts and 2 holding flags. When in Arizona he capped out with 14 handkies.

Thoughts?

[Roq]

- Suh just tweeted he was fined 20K for the Dalton hit.

- 6'5" 355 lb former Dallas guard/tackle Leonard Davis is in town for a workout. Not too sure about this move. The guy is 33 and shared time last yr at guard for the Cowboys. He might be just a load if he is much beyond his playing weight of 355. A 380 or 400 pound Jaba the Putz might just be a waste of dough. The guy is a former pro-bowler, but that was a couple yrs ago. A quick check of his stats sez he had 2 false starts and 2 holding flags. When in Arizona he capped out with 14 handkies.

Thoughts?

I saw that too. Utterly ridiculous move by the NFL. I understand protecting the QB but COME ON. It is football we're talking about here not figure skating...sheesh. They are discussing on 97.1 about how he is now going to be targeted and I agree, I think he will be.

[ejames01]

If he in shape, then this would be an upgrade over Peterman. He made the pro bowl from 2007-2009. The running game needs him.

- Suh just tweeted he was fined 20K for the Dalton hit.

- 6'5" 355 lb former Dallas guard/tackle Leonard Davis is in town for a workout. Not too sure about this move. The guy is 33 and shared time last yr at guard for the Cowboys. He might be just a load if he is much beyond his playing weight of 355. A 380 or 400 pound Jaba the Putz might just be a waste of dough. The guy is a former pro-bowler, but that was a couple yrs ago. A quick check of his stats sez he had 2 false starts and 2 holding flags. When in Arizona he capped out with 14 handkies.

Thoughts?

[gnome]

I guess that what happens when you try to seperate someone's head from their body. To me Andy Dalton looked like Raggedy Andy in Suh's mitts. Maybe that red-hair helped with the illusion.

oh, checked Peterman's stats last year: 11 flags, 6 offsides, 1 holding ... don't know what the others were connected to but I'm sure they weren't for doing The Dougy in the endzone.

http://stats.wfaa.com/fb/playerstats.asp?id=6842&team=8

[Downriviera]

Rode my mountain bike to practice today, only about 4 miles from my house to the Lion's training facility. Took the shortcut trail behind the big tire off 94, saw a monster feral cat, scared the crap out of me. Anyway, its a fun time at practice and I highly recommend it. I was most impressed with; the kickoff machine. Its like a mortar, drop the ball in and bam, it blasts it really high. It looked like the ball was going to hit the clouds. The boys were catching most of them but there were a few drops. Stafford looked great, lots of zip on the ball. Very impressed with Vanden Bosch. Very vocal and leads by example. He will make a great coach some day.

[gnome]

That first half stunk the stink of a thousand dirty diapers. Fumbles, hankies, stupid mistakes, poor execution on both sides of the ball. None of the fearless swagger, none of the confidence of being a winner. Just a maddening display of typical Millen-style ball.

Boooo

[Thruster315]

That first half stunk the stink of a thousand dirty diapers. Fumbles, hankies, stupid mistakes, poor execution on both sides of the ball. None of the fearless swagger, none of the confidence of being a winner. Just a maddening display of typical Millen-style ball.

Boooo

I say you're being too kind. For all the good positive things that we saw in pre-season game one, none of that carried over.

I'm willing to bet that coaches Schwartz and especially Crossman are just gonna light into them for the stupid bone headed mistakes some of them made. Special teams looked more like Special Olympics. I remember the cameras zoomed in once on Schwartz's face to get a reaction and it didn't take a lip reader to decipher his words. The furrow he had in his brow could've reached out and crushed a regular man.

While I'm mildly amused that they won a meaningless game, I was more or less proud of myself for switching over to the Tigers game regularly to see Max Scherzer have a solid outing and fend off the Tribe.

[Thruster315]

Trouble on the horizon here possibly if the Lions don't act somewhat soon.

Larry Fitzgerald just signed for about $15 million a year and for 8 years.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/68...rs-120-million

With Calvin Johnson's contract coming to a head soon, how are the Lions going to handle this? That's crazy insane money that's really going to mess with the salary cap here considering we have the likes of two other high picks in Stafford and Suh. It was great news last week knowing that Stafford [[and Vanden Bosch) restructured their contracts to help with cap relief but this jump in value for premium wide receivers is going to reverberate all across the NFL and we're gonna have the shit shook out of us soon if we can't start figuring a way to getting Calvin paid.

Solutions? Or are we just going to be left franchising the poor guy next year to keep him around. Screw what Cris Carter and his stupid ass comments about CJ not being an elite wide out. Calvin Johnson's going to net a huge pay day somewhere in the NFL. I'm hoping somehow he's going to want to stay here [[win a lot and he might), we can afford him [[ticket prices going up?), and we can fit him under the cap [[lesser players taking much less money now).

[smogboy]

I'm saddened, stunned and in shock today at the passing of long time Lions beat writer, Tom "Killer" Kowalski. He was the one guy that I thought was the voice of reason when it came time to reporting on our beloved team. I didn't always agree with his point of view but always respected him. He was always diligently about being one with the team and getting the inside scoop for us fans.

And from all of the praise that I've seen on the internet and on both sports radio stations, he was one that really brought young people along into the business as well as just being an all around nice guy. He came across gruff and tough but had a heart of gold as well as having a pretty funny sense of humor.

He was also one of those guys that also seemed to bridge print to online to radio and TV which was pretty amazing. When the football season rolled around one just knew he was working tirelessly and trying to get every angle out there.

His media colleagues miss him and I will most definitely miss reading his articles and hearing his opinions on TV & radio. Tom "Killer" Kowlaski- you were one of a kind and will be missed by this fan. Thanks for the great memories.

[gnome]

I never realized what a funny guy he was until I started following his twitter feed. A real loss for his family and friends.

[Thruster315]

I never realized what a funny guy he was until I started following his twitter feed. A real loss for his family and friends.

I hear ya. That big lug of a guy was funny as could be on the air. He'd just drive Sean Baligian nuts at times and it was great spontaneous comedy on WDFN. I guess the guy is a pro's pro. Hell, he'd have to be after having to write through such sh!tty regimes like Millen's 0-16. He was never a shill for the Fords and was never trying to kiss the fans' ass either. He had some great insights because he was at the ballpark every Sunday and then some.

I saw doing a remote a few years back and he's as genuine on the air as he was off the air. Best articles around too. As the Lions are steadily improving it'll be sad to think that he won't be around to see them succeed.

He'll be missed not just by his colleagues but by those of us who counted on his wisdom and humor to get us through the ups & downs of a Lions season.

[gnome]

They looked commanding against the Bills in the final practice game, 16 to 6. The Bills ground game was amateur hour.

[smogboy]

They looked commanding against the Bills in the final practice game, 16 to 6. The Bills ground game was amateur hour.

Mercifully so the exhibition season [[or is it called the Pre-season now) is over with. Let’s get it on with games that count now. As loyal of a Lions fan as I am, I just couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm nor the cash for these four games. After the lockout, these games are just glorified practices under the guise of wanting to win a game. Sure, it satisfied my need to see Matt Stafford tossing a glorious bomb to Calvin Johnson and it was great seeing Suh chasing an opposing quarterback all around the backfield, but it was just a sampling. It was a tease of the real act that’s to follow in a few more days.

I’m kind of glad that none of us here really jumped for joy beyond that first game back against the Bengals. I blame that initial giddiness to our first glimpse of football again. The Cleveland game’s score was closer but I really don’t recall much. The New England game I didn’t even see at all but did catch some highlights of Brady looking befuddled as he sat on the turf. And this recent Bills game was a tryout for the back-up positions and a taping opportunity to the guys who need to make some plays to land another gig.

I would say I’m not putting much stock into these last four games but I will admit that the starting units did look pretty good against the other teams’ starting units- and if there’s one area to be optimistic, I guess that would be it.

The team’s not complete by any stretch, but they look pretty good so far. There are still plenty of holes on this team but one thing that I caught last year that really gave me hope for this year is knowing that this team will be competitive for all four quarters of a game. Unlike the Marinelli seasons, all one could hope for is a relatively merciful score. We were usually done by halftime then, but I don’t know how much of this is from imported hard nosed vets like Vanden Bosch, Stafford’s leadership or if it’s a direct charge from Jim Schwartz, but I see this team fighting and clawing every scrap of the way. There will be no quit in this bunch. It’ll be nice to watch four quarters of meaningful football soon. I even anticipate the Lions still playing meaningful football games in December.

So without much fanfare to the last game of the pre-season… let’s bring on the real teams and play some head-on, smash mouth, rock ‘em sock ‘em football action! Let's got Lions!

[firstandten]

The good thing about this last game is that we have an idea how the Lions 2nd and 3rd stringers stack up against another teams 2nd and 3rd stringers. Early in the game the Lions 2nd team was going against the Bills 1st team.

Why is this important ? Because as much as we like to focus on the 1st team,guys are going to get hurt. One of my criticisms of the Lions was a lack of depth. In order to make the playoffs when guys go down you can't have too big a dropoff in performance.

Thats the reason I thought the Lions did well.

[gnome]

The hallmark of the old Lions were penalties. Mind numbing, drive killing, soul stomping mental errors. The offsides on 3rd and three, the face mask 20 yards away from the action, not enough men on the field or too many.

Except for the Cleveland game, I have not seen those kind of errors; therefore, I have hope for the new Lions.win or lose I want to see a team that plays hard, mistake free football.

How many times have you screamed at the TV because of some stupid Leoesque move? How about not taking the ball in OT against Chicago? Remember that MM move? Scream until you can't scream. Shake your head. Wait for next week, next month, next year only to be greeted by "the bar is high" bull, or Barry walking away, or Wayne Crashing his truck and blaming his son for the coke...

You have your own lists of Lions stupidity.

Win or lose, at least we won't be stupid.

[Thruster315]

The hallmark of the old Lions were penalties. Mind numbing, drive killing, soul stomping mental errors. The offsides on 3rd and three, the face mask 20 yards away from the action, not enough men on the field or too many.

Except for the Cleveland game, I have not seen those kind of errors; therefore, I have hope for the new Lions.win or lose I want to see a team that plays hard, mistake free football.

How many times have you screamed at the TV because of some stupid Leoesque move? How about not taking the ball in OT against Chicago? Remember that MM move? Scream until you can't scream. Shake your head. Wait for next week, next month, next year only to be greeted by "the bar is high" bull, or Barry walking away, or Wayne Crashing his truck and blaming his son for the coke...

You have your own lists of Lions stupidity.

Win or lose, at least we won't be stupid.

I'll agree to most of this. I love the fact that Schwartz won't be as so smug to say something as stupid as Morhinweg or Marinelli would say. Those poor bastards would be so full of themselves, say the dumbest stuff and before you know it, they're old bits being played over and over on sports radio.

And it does seem as though the Lions have cut down on the simple pre-pop warner taught penalties... or at least they have in the pre-season games. They were mind numbing and I'm sure my hair line's slid back to my ass a few times from pulling it out in clumps.

But I'm sure on this forum and others, there will still be some second guessing on our part of the Schwartz. Especially if we lose the game. We all like playing that Monday morning QB from the luxury of looking back. We'll still curse a little under our breaths and throw our hands up in the air- maybe not so much at the Lions, but probably at the officiating because that's a given with this game.

[Thruster315]

So without much fanfare to the last game of the pre-season… let’s bring on the real teams and play some head-on, smash mouth, rock ‘em sock ‘em football action! Let's got Lions!

Next week around this time we'll have some real football to talk about. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I need to look over to see who they cut and more importantly to see what other teams cut. Maybe there's some help out there we can still scoop up for pennies on the dollar.