Detroit Lions: Stay Cautious Until Thoroughly Proven Elite

My radio colleague from AM 1130 WDFN and media great Matt Shepard opened up about Detroit Lions fans becoming greedy.

In his article entitled Always Wanting More, he detailed reasons for fans to appreciate their team's 4-2 record along with first place control of the NFC North. Along with constructing the article, he posted a poll on WDFN.com asking if fans were "more impressed with the Lions defense or disappointed in the Lions offense."

Seventy percent voted frustration for the offense. Shep questioned how fans can scream "defense wins championships" but be more upset with the struggles of quarterback Matthew Stafford.

The "defense wins championships" motto often is proven to be correct and hard to argue against. If the defense is carrying your team to victories as Detroit's has been doing as of late, that unit deserves their credit.

But as a lifelong Lions supporter, I understand wholeheartedly why fans are more focused on the frustrating offense. 

Since the late 1990s, Detroit's front office has been more invested in the offensive side of the football while neglecting certain units on defense. The Ford family, former general manager Matt Millen and current GM Martin Mayhew have spent so many draft picks and so much free-agent money on trying to recreate the St. Louis Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf."

It's not that the fans don't appreciate the defense, they're just waiting to see the front office investments finally pay off. 

They've been waiting to see their highly paid franchise quarterback break through as elite and see the weapons around him contribute on a consistent basis. 

Coming into 2014, nobody was expecting the defense to be the strong suit of this Lions' team. The front office passed on adding secondary help early in the NFL draft and focused the majority of their attention on the offense.

Last season Detroit featured one of the strongest passing attacks along with the best offensive line in protecting Stafford. After an offseason of signing receiver Golden Tate, re-signing tight end Brandon Pettigrew and drafting first-round tight end Eric Ebron the Lions thought they put the final touches to their scoring attack.

With these new pieces, Detroit was supposed to be carried by their offense and score enough points for the defense to just get by. This season has been the complete opposite thus far.

Stafford is still making the reads and throws of a rookie. The run game is one of the weakest in the NFL. The offensive line that did so well in protecting Stafford last year has been awful thus far, surrendering 21 sacks (third worst in the league). Superstar Calvin Johnson is set to miss a few more weeks due to an ankle injury, per the Detroit Free Press, and the secondary weapons have been a non-factor outside of Golden Tate.

The Lions are ranked an embarrassing 27th in points scored. Given the talent around them and the potential they have, only being able to score one touchdown each against the Jets, Bills, Packers and the Panthers is completely unacceptable.

Now on the other side, the defense has looked as good as it's looked in quite some time. But there's a big difference between looking good and being impressive.

Shep downplayed the level of the Lions' competition because they're "still pros," which is a bit ridiculous. Detroit hasn't faced elite offensive competition (outside of the Green Bay Packers) and to say everyone is on the same level because they're all professionals is silly. If the Lions were to shut down Peyton Manning and the Broncos offense, that's certainly more impressive than controlling Teddy Bridgewater and the Minnesota Vikings.

Limiting a Jets offense ranked 30th in the NFL and led by one of the biggest turnover machines in Geno Smith isn't a major accomplishment and doesn't equal a dominant defense, either. 

Good teams are supposed to beat and match up well against inferior teams. The Lions are statistically ranked No. 1 in points and yards allowed per game, but that doesn't make them top tier. That means they've played well against their scheduled competition.

Detroit can only play and control their opponents, but when those opponents are ranked 19th (Giants), 17th (Panthers), 30th (Jets), 26th (Bills) and 28th (Vikings) in points scored that says more about the opponent than the Lions' defense. 

If you had to play one all or nothing game, would you choose Detroit's defense over the likes of a Seattle? San Francisco? Houston? That's a tough stretch. 

I'm not suggesting Detroit is overrated or a bad football team. This team is 4-2 with a stout defense that might get better very soon with rookie linebacker Kyle Van Noy soon returning to the field. Lions fans should absolutely be happy with what they're seeing. Victories in the NFL don't come easy, and they've rarely come when it counts for many years in franchise history.

All I'm saying is applaud the Lions with caution instead of prematurely crowning this team. The defense is not yet elite until they prove it against tougher competition or for a longer stretch than six weeks. 

Plus, this team still has many errors to fix and hasn't solidified anything yet. Far too often when the Lions get a little bit of success, people get too ahead of themselves with this football team. This is the same franchise who kicked off their '07 season in optimistic fashion with a 6-2 record only to finish 7-9. The same franchise who went undefeated in preseason action but became the first team in NFL history to go 0-16 the next year. How about just last season, with the NFC North on a silver platter for the Lions, they ended up choking it away to an Aaron Rodgers-less Green Bay Packers. 

As hopeful and optimistic as you might be from what you've seen so far, stay cautious and objective to everything as well. Enjoy the victories so far, but there's still a lot of football to be played and a lot left to be proved by this Lions team.

Follow @IAmEricVincent