Detroit Lions: 7 Worst Moments of the 2011 Season

Hopefully, some of the sting has worn off from the Lions' first playoff loss in over a decade.

If it hasn't, don't think of this as a list of low points of the Lions' season. Think of it as a list of to-do's (or more appropriately, "to-not-do's") for next season.

Because nobody will argue that the Lions had a great season. But even fewer will argue that there's a laundry list of things that the Lions could have done differently.

There were highs and lows this year, but at least they were balanced. It's usually just 16 games of low points with a nice spike or two.

Case in point, last year I would have had to narrow down a list of low points to 10 things. This year, I have to do some research just to find seven. And it seemed appropriate for a team that finished the season 10-7 that I would follow a list of 10 highs in the season with a list of 7 lows.

I think it's clever. More importantly, it's easier, for once, to find more bright spots than dark clouds. 

7. Running Back Injuries

Mikel Leshoure with a torn Achilles. Jahvid Best with not one, but two concussions. Kevin Smith with an ankle injury within quarters of his re-arrival.

Even the steady Maurice Morris started the season with a thumb injury.

I get that running backs are some of the most punished players on the field. But come on.

I'll be the first to admit that the Lions' running game woes stem from an inability to get any push on the inside, but going the final quarter of the season with a running back off the street didn't help matters, either.

And the worst part of it was that the injuries all seemed to stack up just as the backs appeared to be getting something going.

Leshoure would have been big out of the gate, Best was having good games in his dual-threat role and Smith showed up just long enough to have a massive game.

But the Lions were unable to maintain any momentum on even their decent rushing performances, and that (along with some pass-happy play-calling) torpedoed any shot the Lions had at maintaining a ground game all season.

6. Also, All the Other Preseason Injuries

Actually, training camp and the preseason were a bit of a bloodbath, weren't they?

Leshoure out for the year, Best suffers a concussion, Titus Young pulls a hamstring, Nick Fairley, Alphonso Smith and Jason Fox all somehow suffer the exact same kind of foot injury.

Just like that, the Lions' top three draft picks for 2011, and two important ones from 2010, were out. For a team familiar with the "doom and gloom" approach to predicting the season (much of which was because of injuries), it didn't look good.

The good news is, Young and Fairley came back with enough time to really show some flashes of how good they could be. The bad news is Leshoure and Fox never did, and Best only got about half a hobbled season to prove his mettle.

Looking forward, though, if these players all show up healthy for next season, it will mean a huge boost to an already playoff-talented team, before any moves in the draft or free agency.

5. Handshake-Gate

Oh, boy.

Looking back, if there was a moment you wish you could have had back...well, it's the next one. But this was pretty tough to watch.

Now look. I like that Schwartz is a fiery guy. He certainly brings an edge that the team needs, and his iconic air punch and emotional outbursts on the sideline (especially coupled with his deadpan demeanor in postgame interviews) have made him one of the most enjoyable Lions coaches since Wayne Fontes.

Maybe even further back for those of you who hated the "Nanook of the North," also.

But this was ugly. And at this point, it makes no difference whatsoever who was right and wrong. What matters is this picture, which after the initial (perhaps immature) reaction of, "Cool, coach fight," has to be a point of embarrassment for both teams now.

That said, it was blown a little out of proportion. The guys were really just yelling at each other; it was the crowds that made it seem like a big brawl. But nobody was hurt, just some pride.

And the coverage of next year's rematch in San Francisco.

4. Matt Flynn's Videogame Passing Day

If the 2008 Lions had been playing the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers at Lambeau Field in October with their top seven secondary players out of the game, giving up 480 yards and six touchdowns through the air would still have been embarrassing.

Giving it up to Rodgers' backup on New Year's Day, in the elements? Much worse.

Yeah, the Lions were missing some players in the secondary, but with the kinds of numbers Flynn had, you'd think they forgot to field the unit at all.

There are two silver linings to this game, though.

First, Matthew Stafford actually outgunned Flynn (at least statistically) and now holds the record for passing yards in a game at Lambeau Field.

Not Rodgers.

Not Favre.

Not Starr.

Stafford.

And second, having seen the Giants systematically destroy the Atlanta Falcons last weekend, I'm not convinced the Lions would have been any better off against them over the Saints.

The Giants always kick it into a different gear in the playoffs, and losing to them (when they're perceived weaker) might have stung even worse than what the Lions suffered to the juggernaut Saints.

So while I certainly won't say the Lions benefitted from losing this game, I'm also not going to say they suffered anything for it, either.

3. Ndamukong Suh Fallout

Contrary to popular (or at least current) belief, Ndamukong Suh isn't the worst human being ever to walk the earth.

He did make a silly mistake, cost his team in a big game and paid for it. And he has sadly developed a reputation for playing over the line.

But the instance that many people point to, the "stomp," or more appropriately, the "kick," (stomp implies he put some body weight into it) was relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

Now, before I go any further, let's get this out of the way. Was Suh anywhere close to being in the right? Absolutely not. His suspension was deserved, and Suh apologized and at least appears to have changed his ways, at least in the final four games of the season (he even helped Drew Brees up after a sack).

Don't let anyone tell you that what Suh did was unimportant. While the action itself was highly overblown (i.e. everybody is still calling it a "stomp," which is wrong because stomps actually hurt people), the demeanor behind it, particularly in Suh's unwillingness to own up to his mistake immediately afterwards, needed an adjustment.

Of course, that's as far as I'm willing to take it. Listen to the rest of the media, and they'll give you the "hide your kids, hide your wife" treatment, like Suh is a danger to every player in the league.

But ultimately, nothing Suh has done, even the famous "stomp," has caused any actual damage. Only the Jake Delhomme head-sack even threatened to.

But for comparison, Erik Walden can spear Matthew Stafford in the head on the ground, and he gets slapped with a fine and remains anonymous. And that was a legitimately dirty, potentially dangerous play.

Not saying Suh's actions were okay, I'm just pointing out the double standard. Especially considering that off the field, Suh was named the sixth-most charitable athlete in the nation, and Walden has a domestic abuse trial to get to in February.

2. The Worst Back-to-Back National Games Ever

Going into back-to-back games against the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints, I'm not sure anybody expected the Lions to have the best shot at winning, and as it turned out, they didn't.

But we were prepared for that. What we were not prepared for was how they lost those games.

For weeks prior, the question had surrounded the team: dirty or tough? Do the Lions play to the echo of the whistle, or well after? Can they play within themselves enough to not give away games?

For two games, the Lions gave the worst possible answers to those questions at the worst possible days.

Worse yet, they played toe-to-toe with both the Packers and Saints before giving those respective games away, wrapped up nice and neat in yellow flags.

Suh's kick, Brandon Pettigrew's referee shove, Titus Young throwing a punch, Nate Burleson's three offensive PI's and almost every single one of them negated a huge play.

These games were the boiling point for the Lions' discipline issues this season. It was bad in those games, sure. But since both those games were on a national stage, it turned it into open season for national pundits to slap the "dirty" or "undisciplined" label on the Lions and open season for people who don't get paid for their opinions to call them "a bunch of thugs" and the like.

The good news is, the Lions cleaned up the post-play ridiculousness in the final quarter of the season. The bad news is, the Suh/dirty play/penalties story will follow the Lions through the media through at least another season or two.

Better get used to being annoyed by it now.

1. Losing to the Saints in the Playoffs

A lot of bad things happened this year, some game-related, some injury-related, some public perception-related.

But no matter who you are, and no matter what your season outlook, nothing hurts more than having your season ended.

Granted, it's bittersweet because the Lions' season ended a week behind schedule for the first time in a long time.

And it doesn't hurt as bad because the Lions didn't give this game away like they did the previous Sunday night contest. They just got beat by a better team, which is something we all sort of expected from the beginning.

But regardless of expectations, when a team makes the playoffs, they expect to win, and not winning hurts.

Though it sounds strange, I rather hope we get a few more bittersweet tastes of having a season end with a loss in January. Through that experience, maybe we'll go a couple of years with a season-ending win in February.

Maybe.