Hapless: Grading the Lions for Week 10

Here are my grades for the Detroit Lions/Jacksonville Jaguars game this past Sunday. Despite holding a 7-3 lead early, the Lions were physically crushed by the Jaguars, who rolled up an easy 38-14 win. The Lions fell to 0-9 and are a horrendous 1-16 over their past 17 games.

OFFENSE: D
There was a lot of hype for the game this week for Detroit, due to the weird quarterback situation they found themselves in. The starter was either going to be Drew Stanton, a second-year guy who hadn't seen a live NFL snap, or Daunte Culpepper, a free agent who had been with the team less than a week.

They went with Culpepper, but Stanton saw some time and actually threw a TD on his first NFL pass. The Lions were trailing most of the day and weren't able to get any real flow going on offense, due to the beatdown the defense was getting. In any case, Calvin Johnson caught two long passes for 92 yards and Kevin Smith posted a season and career best 96 yards and scored a touchdown, his fifth of the season.

Kevin Smith again looked impressive and received 23 carries, a career high, seemingly cementing himself as the go-to back over Rudi Johnson. Smith had an impressive 32-yard scamper in the second half and a 27-yard reception early in the game.

It was clear that Daunte Culpepper was rusty, and Drew Stanton looked every bit the part of a green rookie. Stanton did put up a respectable line, completing six of eight attempts for 94 yards and a score and had a nice scramble down near the goal line that was called back by holding, but he held the ball too long, resulting in five fourth-quarter sacks. He also inexplicably threw a five-yard checkdown pass to the TE on a fourth and forever, end-of-game situation.

Overall, the inconsistency on offense was to be expected, but the offense did a decent job of mixing the pass and run with some success. If you combine Culpepper and Stanton's stats, they would have 11-18 for 198 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. That isn't great for sure, but not what you would've expected, based on the score. This loss goes on the defense.

I expect that the offense will get better going forward as Daunte gets acclimated.

DEFENSE: F
This group is flat-out terrible and might be the worst defense in NFL history. The NFL's worst defense did everything they could to hold onto that dubious title, allowing another career game for their opponents. Maurice Jones-Drew had three touchdown runs in the second quarter alone, and David Garrard posted the second-highest QB rating of his career, a lofty 128.4. 

Jacksonville converted 5-of-10 third downs, and a costly fourth-down conversion in the first half allowed them to tack on another score going into halftime. The Lions' defense seemed to be standing around and watching the Jags' receivers make catches and first downs, many times on third-and-long situations.

Matt Jones was toying with Leigh Bodden every time they were locked up in coverage and made him look silly. It's amazing that the Lions gave up Shaun Rogers for that guy. Another Millen blunder?

The defense seemed to be getting better over the past few weeks but reverted back to their early season form in this one. I'm not sure whether it is a talent issue, scheme issue, or effort issue, and maybe it's a combination of all three, but it is clear that a huge overhaul is in order next offseason, just to field a competitive unit. They aren't sufficiently good at any position on defense and still cannot tackle to save their lives.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D
Jason Hanson had his only FG attempt blocked and it was an important one because when it happened, the Lions were still in the game.

Middleton did a pretty okay again on KR’s, but you get the feeling that this guy just doesn't have the third gear to really break one.

The coverage team was decent as well.

COACHING: D-

The gameplan was okay, going into the game, given the rocky QB situation, but they failed to get the ball to Calvin Johnson sufficiently on offense. They did a better job of establishing Kevin Smith, which should be commended, but the offensive line was bad again.

On defense, they didn't cause any turnovers and put minimal pressure on Garrard. Jacksonville moved the ball at will on the Lions' defense, as they were obviously outplayed and outmatched. Coach Marinelli's postgame comment that, "As players and coaches, they physically beat us," is the Captain Obvious statement of the century.

I won't argue the point of giving more time to Marinelli to get better talent in place to adequately judge him, but I will say this, as a football coach, you are measured not only by your success, but by your ability to develop players. 

To inspire and teach players to get better and evolve into solid players. So far, I haven't seen much of that from Marinelli and company.