Lions Update, Week 8: Favre Fiasco and More

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for the Detroit Lions. They've gone from losing their 5th straight game, trading away their star WR, and putting their veteran starting QB on injured reserve to losing their 6th straight game and being involved in a controversy regarding Brett Favre and an attempt to get an advantage against the Packers earlier this year.

Typical Lions in that the best news and the only news is for non-football reasons, a trade, or a firing.

Favre answered questions about Jay Glazer's report on Sunday alleging that Favre called the Lions before their Sept. 14 game against the Packers, giving Matt Millen and the Lions coaching staff a crash course of what they were up against.

It's not likely that anything helped the Lions seeing as though they were blown out by Green Bay 48-25.

Favre, after a bitter breakup with the Packers, has been in the news lately for apparently calling a lot of people with unsolicited advice. In addition to the Lions call, he was rumored to have called Tony Romo, suggesting that he play through the pain of his injured pinkie finger. For Brett's part, he has denied the report saying "I did not call the Lions, nor did I call Tony Romo. I don't know what else to tell everyone, but I'm not calling people."

He went on to explain the conversation with Millen.

"When Matt called me and was talking about hunting and told me that he lived an hour from here, don't think for a second I wasn't thinking, 'Now, surely he wants to know something,'" Favre said. "Yeah, I played for the Packers for 16 years and we played against the Lions a bunch, but it's no secret what we did against them. I don't have a playbook from Green Bay. I didn't send the playbook. I didn't call him and say, 'Look, if you do this, you're going to win the game.' I didn't do that."

Farve seemed surprised at the media attention surrounding his private conversations, and railed against the connotations. "Next thing I know, I'm calling everyone in the league, giving out secrets," Favre said. He went on to say that players and coaches share information all the time in the NFL, which isn't against the rules, saying "It happens every day," "It happens more than you know." "I'm willing to help, but it's awful ridiculous."

Lions coach Rod Marinelli was asked about the situation and only offered a "no comment".

I don't really care if a discussion went on or not for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which being that the Lions need all the help they can get. But it's clear that in addition to the discussions that go on weekly amongst players about former teams or upcoming opponents, the impact of those conversations is minute.

Things that are of concern and are more pressing is the inability of this team to perform at a high level, particularly early in games.  The Lions have fallen behind by 21 points in 5 out of their 6 losses and while they've mounted comebacks in most of them, they weren't able to sustain that momentum long enough to win a game. The coaches say they aren't really sure why this is happening and that they believe the Lions can be competitive, but I disagree. The Lions to have alot of young talent and some above average to very good players at certain positions, but they also have alot of average or below players occupying starting positions. You cannot have that dilemma if you expect to compete in the NFL. The truly successful teams in the NFL have depth and talent which allows them to continue at a high level, even after losing a player to injury. That requires the starter to be of high quality and then be fortunate enough to have a backup with starter talent.  The Lions just don't have that right now.

They are starting a QB who is essentially a rookie, a rookie RB, a journeyman OL with only two starter quality players, in Backus and Raiola, neither of which is elite. Compounding the issue with the offensive line is the fact that the players with the most potential, rookie OT Gosder Cherilus and 2nd year OG Manuel Ramirez, aren't being utilized enough to grow. Everytime they get a chance to play, they do fairly well.  Trouble is that they also make a few mistakes which results in an impatient coaching staff benching them in favor of less talented veterans. The receiving core is still good, even after losing Roy Williams, but they need to find ways to get Calvin Johnson the ball more. He is a rare athlete that creates a mismatch against ANY defensive back in the league, so common sense would tell you to exploit that advantage.

On Defense, like the offense, they have many past-their-prime veterans occupying starting positions while the younger, talented guys remain on the bench. These guys have shown flashes when given the chance but they aren't given much of a chance. Guys like Cliff Avril, Andre Fluellen, Ikaika Alama-Francis, Ramzee Robinson, Jordon Dizon and others.

The Lions have a tough home game Sunday against the Washington Redskins. The Redskins need to win the game for their playoff prospects so don't be surprised if the Lions are blown out again. As of Wednesday, 6,600 tickets still were unsold meaning the game will likely be a local blackout for the first time in 50 home games. Hopefully, the coaches will start to recognize what the fans already have. They aren't going to win very many games this season, no matter who they start, so why not put the young guys in the game.

Truthfully, that is the Ford's only hope to keep people watching and coming to the games, especially in a troubled economy where folks have much better things to spend their money on.