Lions-Steelers: The Good, The Bad, and The Unusual

Don’t worry; it’s not all bad.

After shouting random profanities to an inanimate object (my TV screen) for about 15 minutes following the final tick of a Pittsburgh Steelers victory at Ford Field, my mind started functioning in a less primal way.

That’s what I started thinking about something other than a new person to curse (George Yarno).

I started analyzing the game, and what I came up with was basically bipolar: “It wasn’t that bad. Wait...yes, it was. And what was up with that?”

Know what? It’s just easier if I break it all down for you. So see if you can make sense of my musings on the game any better than I can.

Good: Eight Points

A loss is a loss, and the score, after Sunday, doesn’t matter.

But this Sunday, eight points separated the lowly Detroit Lions from the defending champion Steelers. I’m not one to celebrate moral victories, mind you, but one thing the Lions proved today is they can play with anybody.

Talent gap be damned, the Lions are playing to the level of their competition every week.

Which brings me to my next point.

Bad: Lions Still Can’t Close

Know what the scary-yet-frustrating thing is about the Lions?

Every game they’ve played has been winnable. With the exception of the Saints in week one, the Lions have matched the teams they’ve played nearly punch-for-punch.

The Bears and Vikings pulled away in the second half, the Steelers got a last-minute stop deep in their own territory, and the Saints volleyed with the Lions after going up early.

But every game they’ve lost could have turned had a third-down conversion, a defensive stop, a turnover, a special-teams play, something gone differently.

They put themselves in a position to win every week, but they don’t have those big players making big plays in big moments. They are perhaps the most anti-clutch team in football.

And once they blow one clutch moment, they snowball their mistakes like a college team with rattled confidence.

Overcoming that alone will put up an additional 3-4 wins a year. Until they can, they’ll continue to lose close ones, and make close ones look ugly.

Unusual: The Announcers

I don’t know where Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts rank on CBS’s totem pole of game-calling duos, but it can’t be very high.

In my opinion, announcers are at their best when they become like somewhat informative background noise. I don’t really want to notice them; I want to notice the game, and have them chime in with an occasionally useful opinion.

These guys? I noticed them.

Fouts was still going on in the fourth quarter, as he had all game long, about a decision the Lions made to take a field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-inches on their opening possession.

The ball wasn’t even in the red zone, and the score was tied at zero. The field goal gave the Lions the lead, and were the first points the Steelers had given up in the first quarter all season.

Yet Fouts, with the score 28-13, was still talking about, “if the Lions had taken the offsides penalty, gotten the first down on fourth and short, and scored a touchdown…”

Then what, Dan? If the Lions scored a touchdown (BIG if), the score is 28-17, and you’ve turned a two-possession game into a two-possession game. Leave the coaching to the coaches, please.

Enberg did a decent job, but he had an abnormally high rate of getting tripped up on names.

A couple of times he called out the wrong receiver making a reception, and once he made reference to injured Steelers star safety, “Troy Polamu.” An innocent mistake, I thought… except he also put the emphasis on the wrong syllable, i.e. PO-la-mu.

He corrected himself shortly afterwards, but it made me notice.

And that was a bad thing.

Good: Derrick Williams

As I pointed out last week, this game against the Steelers was going to be a good opportunity to try some guys out who hadn’t seen much time thus far in the season.

One such guy was the third-round rookie out of Penn State, Derrick Williams. He single-handedly made the Lions’ special teams look competent (credit where due: coverage teams were improved, as well), and made a pair of clutch catches during the Lions’ final comeback attempt.

Both catches were just under 20 yards for first downs. One was along the sideline, where Williams made an absolutely veteran move of catching the ball and tapping his feet inbounds.

The Lions were down to only three receivers available late, and of Williams, Dennis Northcutt, and Bryant Johnson, Williams is the one who came up big when it mattered.

Of course, Williams’ emergence as a possible receiving threat is ignoring the elephant in the room…

Bad: Calvin Johnson

Batten down the hatches, the worst has happened.

Calvin Johnson came up lame on a play in the first half with an apparent knee injury, and was gimpy on the sideline the rest of the day.

Suddenly, the Lions’ best offensive weapon has nullified.

The bright side is that the Lions were able to mount a significant comeback attempt without him… but anytime the Lions play without Johnson, it’s not so bright.

If the injury is half as bad as it seems, Johnson won’t be ready until after the bye.

Unusual: Daunte Culpepper’s Decisions

This is more of an undecided.

On one hand, Culpepper is clearly in his best shape in years. When he rolled off a 32-yard run on third-and-11, my jaw dropped. I was trying to remember if I’d seen him move that fast, even in his prime.

Culpepper made mostly good decisions, and again, was only 20 yards and a two-point conversion from tying the game late, without the benefit of Calvin Johnson.

But just as I’m ready to jump on the bandwagon, he throws the ball, falling away, across his body, across the field, directly into the numbers of Steelers safety Ryan Clark.

That’s when I remember he’s also fumbled three times, been called for 16 yards' worth of intentional grounding, and overthrown a number of open receivers. He took a couple of shots downfield, but never actually had a man open when he did.

Then, upon reaching the Steelers’ 21-yard line, he takes three consecutive sacks. All of them featured poor protection and Culpepper looking completely lost.

After 10 years in the league, isn’t he supposed to know what to do against a blitz? Once in a while?

When it matters, perhaps?

Honorable Mentions

Good: Will James' Pick-Six

When's the last time you saw a Lion corner jump a route like that?

Bad: Fan Turnout

Way too many Terrible Towels in Ford Field Sunday afternoon. I'm glad they helped sell out the stadium, because that means I get to watch the game. But still.

How much you want to bet Ford sees this as an opportunity and starts marketing Lions home games to fans of opposing teams?

Unusual: The Officiating

An Eric King interception negated on a roughing the passer call...that involved a Lion defender getting blocked into the quarterback.

Ed Hochuli initially calling delay of game on the wrong team for kicking the ball out of bounds.

Then forgetting to mention the Lions wanted to decline an offsides penalty on a successful field goal.

Think Hochuli still has jitters from blowing the call in that Chargers game last year?