Defensive Line A Weakness?

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Do you know what gets on my nerves?

People who actually get paid to write about sports for a living, but seemingly don't know what the hell they are talking about.

I can understand that the Lions don't demand the obvious attention that they Steelers, Colts, or Patriots do, but come on.

These people are still getting paid to cover them and the least they could do is put out an article that I can read without making my forehead end up firmly planted in my palm.

There is a wide variety of things they do that gets to me; like referring to a career defensive end as a linebacker, but the latest thing is the iron clad statement that the defensive line is the Lions weak spot.

We got manhandled last year and were forced to play from behind a lot which meant teams could be conservative. We still managed to put up 30 sacks on the year as a team.

That would be one less than the Patriots and the same amount as the Colts if your keeping score. Meanwhile in the interceptions department we had four, two by defensive lineman, one by linebacker, one by defensive back.

Cliff Avril and Dewayne White (who had one of those interceptions by a defenseive lineman) return as defensive end starters, they combined for 11 sacks last year.

Sammie Hill and Grady Jackson step in for Chuck Darby and Corey Redding but only have to combine for a whopping 4.5 sacks to match their production.

So what all these experts are telling me is with the same defensive end starters and better defensive tackles (I always thought Redding was worthless) we won't be able to match last years production? My B.S. sense is tingling.

This isn't the same team that went 0-16 last year, its been transformed from a swiss cheese team into a team that has one glaring hole, the secondary.

Louis Delmas, Anthony Henry, Phillip Buchanon, all serviceable NFL starters and don't worry me to much. Kalvin Pearson or Marquand Manuel starting at safety worries me and I am not too sold on Will James and Eric King as Nickel and Dime Backs either.

If you see somebody come out with four or five wide receivers against the Lions my advice would be to pray.

Other than that, I like the way this team looks as long as the offensive line can give Stafford some time. They showed glimpses of it in preseason, but as we all know the preseason doesn't mean crap.

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