Detroit Lions Fans Are Roaring for Red Meat

 Excuses are no longer acceptable.

No more moaning about bad calls. Fan pity over injuries to key players is exhausted. Close games aren’t enough anymore.

It’s time to gut-up and get it on.

Week 8 is the beginning of a fresh new season for the Lions.

Fans have waited long enough for a Motown football team we can be proud of.

There are ten whole games left in the regular season.

It’s time for the Detroit Lions to earn some respect.

A heads-up to every single Lions player on the roster

Detroit fans will no longer tolerate dropped passes, blown interceptions, stupid penalties (repeat this a hundred times), or brutal hits on Matt Stafford for any reason (repeat this a thousand times).

We fans don’t care who the opposing team is from this point forward.

Your professional mission in life is to win football games.

Period.

Every team in the NFL has been beaten by somebody this year.

Your job is to be that somebody from now on.

Create some gleeful, legal mayhem.

Make teams pay for coming into our house.

Our house!

Make them wish they could play any other team in any other stadium rather than ours.

Punish them.

Beat them down.

Send them home with a new-found respect for the Lions.

Do us proud.

A heads-up to every single Lions coach

Your job is find chinks in our opponent’s armor and hit them there until they bleed.

Keep them guessing and off-balance.

React swiftly to opportunities.

You’ve got enough talent at your disposal to beat any team in the NFL on any given Sunday. Use that talent wisely. Be bold. Test, probe, and then take it to them.

Every single offensive play and defensive coverage that you call is important.

Successful coaches use a sequence of plays to set the other team up.

Play chess, not checkers.

Don’t be timid and conservative no matter what.

If we get behind (and we will be), never give up.

And when we’re ahead (and we will be) always remember that no lead is ever safe enough.

A heads-up to every single Lions’ fan

 After five losses, some of us have already bailed and taken cover behind the safe and quasi-respectable “I told you that Detroit is at least another year away” platitude.

Probably a prudent, smart call, but weenie-like.

Some fans are willing to declare victory (acceptable progress) if the Lions win five or six games this season. These fans are more hopeful than the “year or two away” crowd and make much better company.

But some of us die-hard Detroit Lions fans will accept nothing less than a winning season this year and see no reason why it can’t happen.

Really.

If you’re afraid of the Bears, Green Bay and the Vikings, you can help pass the time by focusing early on next year’s off-season trades and draft acquisitions.

But real Lions fans will relish this year’s coming contests.

Bring ‘em on!

The presumptive NFC leaders are all wounded in body or mind.

Can you smell the blood in the water?

 A stitch in time

If a team has to suffer non-season ending injuries, it’s probably better to get them out of the way early rather than suffer them later.

It’s better to close strong than it is to win early and then falter.

The timing of our bye week has been the only good break we’ve had this year so far. It has given us two weeks to get a lot of guys healthy when we need those guys the most.

The NFC North is a surprisingly weak division and the crown is still up for grabs.

The NFC conference is crying out for a dark horse champion.

The Lions have a decent, if improbable, shot at both.

It won’t be easy, but it can be done.

Do you believe in miracles?

Some of us still do.

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