Time For Schwartz To Step Up!!

I was on board with the Jim Schwartz hire.  He had been a successful defensive coordinator with the Titans, experienced success as well as failure and seemed to have the pedigree to be a top notch NFL coach. He hired two highly respected coordinators, Gunther Cunningham for defense and Scott Linehan for the offense.  Both have experienced success in the NFL although that success was years ago. I was troubled by the rehiring of special teams coach Stan Kwan, but placed my trust in Schwartz.

Lets be honest, this Lion team has inferior talent, inferior football IQ, they lack playmakers and they cannot win games in a conventional manner.

They must be aggressive and innovative, they must take calculated risks.  In other words, this coaching staff has to better than opponents coaching staffs each and every week.

The last two weeks this staff has been outcoached.  First by the Rams, coming off a bye week, the team was flat, unprepared and undisciplined. Last weeks game against the Seahawks was very troubling to me.

If your game plan is to feature Casey Fitzsimmons in the slot receiver position to take advantage of his size, and if Jim Schwartz signed off on this plan, then memories of Rod Marinelli come creeping into my mind.

What was it that gave this staff the idea to feature Fitzsimmons?  Was it his sure hands, his speed and elusiveness?  I am sure the Seahawks defensive coordinator will be sending the Lions staff a big thank you card. 

I can just see their staff chuckling, wondering why Calvin Johnson or Derrick Williams or anyone with some ability was not chosen to be a featured performer. Think about that again for one moment, our staff came up with a game plan to feature Casey Fitzsimmons.

On the defensive side of the ball, Gunther Cunningham had a similiar interesting game plan. He had the  linebackers dropping into soft zone coverage while Matt Hasselback completed 15 passes in a row, the majority of them to backs, and tight ends who simply flaired out of the backfield. I would think you might want to "man up" on these receivers, or bring an "all out blitz" especially when Matt was solo in the backfield.

Gunther did show the "all out blitz" a number of times, but then predictably retreated out of it.  On one occasion while we were retreating, Hasselback completed another pass, I suppose Gunter calls that play, the "retreating zone defense".

It is obvious we have one playmaker on defense, Louis Delmas  The remainder is made up of journeyman players, with no football instinct.

I wonder do these guys watch film?  Do they study tendancies?

On a number of occasions, I was able to determine what Hasselback was going to do and I wondered why the Lions defense couldn't see what I was seeing.  Were they too worried about the play called or what scheme they were supposed to be in?

If that's the case, that's bad coaching which brings me back to my main point.

We are not good enough to get outcoached every week. I am hoping Schwartz can right the ship as we prepare for the final half of the season.