Detroit Lions: Diving Into the Den

Another sub-500 season was the result of Detroit’s most recent attempt at a football season. How can a team start of 6-2 and then finish 7-9?

It is almost as if they looked at the standings and said, “Wait...we are the Lions” and with that everything went back to normal.

The reasons behind this radical change in performance are not simple to point out, but I am going to try my best to dissect the most recent Detroit heartbreak, bit by bit.

Let’s start with the Lion’s offense (a.k.a. the passing game). Jon Kitna threw for 4068 yards (sixth in league) on 561 (fifth in league) attempts with a 63.3 percent completion percentage and an 80.9 quarterback rating. With those stats you would think that scoring would be no problem for this pass-happy team, but Kitna’s 20 interceptions (Tied for 31st) sidetracked that thought.

It didn’t help either that Kitna was sacked a total of 54 times in the season, third most in the league. The offensive line isn’t all to blame for that however, as the play-calling didn’t exactly pull attention away from the pass (324 run plays versus 587 passing plays).

The running game was less than spectacular to say the least. However, I can’t place the blame on the running backs. Kevin Jones came back from an injury that was supposed to keep him out most of this year to tie for ninth in the league in touchdowns (eight) despite having 34 running backs rush the ball more times than he did (153 carries).

The receivers held their own, but no one stood out enough to be featured as a star receiver. Shaun McDonald led the team with 79 catches for 943 yards (22nd and 28th respectively in the league). Calvin Johnson had the makings of a good season until an injury sidelined him and left him with four touchdowns and 756 yards.

Jason Hanson was once again the leading scorer for the team. His 122 points placed him eighth among kickers and accounted for 35 percent of the team’s total scoring. You can’t really blame the most consistent player on the roster.

The return game was abysmal at best. Aveion Cason had a total of 1,041 kick return yards, which put him 12th among returns, but it shouldn’t be hard to rack up the return yards when your team gives up the most points in the league (444 points against).

Which leads me to the defense...Oh boy.

Let’s start with the good things. Ernie Sims had a great year, totaling 134 tackles (97 solo), which put him fourth in the league. The other bright spot was Shaun Rogers’ return to playing shape and his highlight worthy 66-yard interception return.

Now for the bad: 444 points against. Dead last in the league. It seemed like whenever they needed to stop a team, they couldn’t do it. An example of this would be their crushing loss to the cowboys (28-27) where they were up 27-14 late in the fourth quarter. How can a team expect to win when they can’t stop the opposing offense?

So now that I have done more analysis of the Lions than Joe Barry (defensive coordinator) did of opposing defenses, it is time for a conclusion.

Looking at all of this, I can say that talent wasn’t the reason for this year’s failure. Yes, Kitna is not the best option at Quarterback, but he is they best they have and the Bucs made it to the playoffs with former Lion Jeff Garcia.

I point the blame at the coaching staff and the defense.

Detroit finished with a top-10 offense, but could have done much better. They rotated running backs consistently, but didn’t give all of them combined the amount of carries that a NFL team should run the ball (324 carries, last in the league). Had they run the ball more it would have taken pressure off of the passing game, allowing Kitna to have more time and as a result be sacked less and throw fewer interceptions.

I think firing Martz was a good first step in running this offense the way it should be.  

What I think the defense really lacks is motivation and organization. If your guys aren’t fired up, they won’t play well and that is the coaching staff’s job to prepare their players for the upcoming week. More often than not a least one receiver was left wide open on a play allowing the quarterback an easy out even if the pass rush got to him (see Kevin Curtis in Week 3).

If the defense was more organized and disciplined, things like this would not happen and the defensive backs would give the pass rush more time to get to the quarterback (already had 37 sacks, ninth in league). Yes, the coaches needed to instill a greater sense of discipline in their players, but not all of it falls on them, the defensive players share some of that blame too.

Here is a quick fix for some off the defensive woes: Stay on your man and attack before the balls gets there, not after. You need to anticipate.

Well if you have stayed with me this long I would like to say congratulations and thank you. Here’s to hoping they won’t take another receiver in the first round and that next year will be better.