7 Changes the Detroit Lions Must Make for the Stretch Run

The Detroit Lions are lucky. Not many teams could lose five of seven and still control their own playoff destiny.

Yet, due to some lucky breaks, the Lions find themselves in that position, hanging in there at 7-5 with a winnable stretch of games ahead.

If the Lions can pull themselves together, they can still make something out of this season.

But as hard as this may be to believe, discipline is not the only concern on the Lions' list of adjustments.

It should be the top five concerns, but I'll only devote one slide to it here. And since that kills the suspense, we may as well start there.

Stop This Tomfoolery at Once!

You can't chalk it up to anything but stupidity.

A rookie mistake is getting a hands-to-the-face call while throwing a block inside the five-yard line.

A stupid mistake is punching a guy in the face five seconds after the whistle and reaching in front of a referee to do it.

But then, in this game, you give Titus Young some credit. At least he had the good sense to reach around the ref. Brandon Pettigrew just shoved the ref directly.

Now, I'll allow for the "young, fiery team" excuse to a certain point. And that point passed about four weeks ago. Whatever semblance of justification there was left is gone now. It's not an issue of adjusting to the rules.

Hitting guys after the play is illegal at any level, in any sport. Especially when they are wearing zebra stripes.

No longer can Jim Schwartz just continue to coach and hope this sorts itself out. It's time to send messages. Guys need to be benched, or even cut for this kind of nonsense. You can't tell me it hasn't been at least discussed in practice, but clearly whatever the coach has done hasn't sunk in.

I appreciate that Schwartz has brought a hard-nosed attitude to the Lions, but it is boiling over in a big way. It's high time for the man to show he's still in control of this football team.

Keep Stafford Under Center

Lost in the nonsense against the Saints is the fact that Matthew Stafford had a 400-yard game in relatively efficient fashion.

Stafford has had a stretch of bad games and turned the ball over a lot in those games. And while some particularly short-sighted people started calling for him to be benched, the rest of us were wondering how to get him on track.

Most will probably point to Stafford's finger injury and the gloves coming off as a reason for his improved performance, and that's probably true.

But Stafford also took a lot of snaps from under center, and his pocket awareness seems sharper than it has been. Stafford's ability to drop back and then step up to avoid pressure seems to have made a major difference, and it helps the run game, too.

Start in the No-Huddle

One of the biggest problems for the Lions this year is their inability to start strong.

Consistently, they fall behind early and try to claw their way back. Sometimes it works, but not if they're playing a team of any considerable talent.

Typically, it's the offense that fails to put up points early, and the defense keeping the team in the game.

What I've noticed recently is that Stafford tends to make better decisions and more efficient passes out of the no-huddle, and it tends to get his confidence up and he plays well the rest of the game.

Something has to give at the beginning of games, and if they can vary up the pace and get Stafford in a groove early, the rest of the offense should follow.

Don't Lock into the Wide-Nine

All things considered, the Detroit Lions are well-equipped to run the wide-nine formation.

They have powerful defensive tackles and high-motor defensive ends, and their primary motivation is getting after the quarterback.

That's all well and good, but considering the Lions may be up against Adrian Peterson and Darren McFadden (should they each get healthy) in the next couple of weeks, they might consider shrinking the gaps in the middle and focus on containing the run.

After all, even if neither is healthy, they're still looking at Toby Gerhart and Michael Bush.

At this point, neither Christian Ponder nor Carson Palmer (eerily similar names much?) look capable of beating the Lions through the air, and if they start to, the Lions can easily shift into the wide look to shake it up.

But considering the coming matchups, I don't know how smart the wide-nine is as a base defense.

No Risky Football

On paper, the Detroit Lions should beat each of their next three opponents.

The Lions should be the more talented team, and they should be able to beat their opponents, regardless of location.

Insert "any given Sunday" mantra here.

For the last couple of weeks, the Lions have been severely outgunned. The Packers and Saints have been successful for the last several years, and they're both put together better than the Lions are.

At that time, I said the Lions needed to take chances. Go for the big play, the turnover, look for the edge that will make the difference in the game.

Now I'll say the opposite. No team ever won a football game by playing safe and conservative for 60 minutes (OK, maybe the Marty Schottenheimer ones), but the Lions should be able to pull out the next three games without getting too aggressive.

They need to stay home on their assignments, prevent the big play, and just wear the other team down. These aren't teams the Lions need to force into a mistake; they can just play solid football and let the mistake come to them.

The Run Game Can Work, so Use It

Look, the Detroit Lions are not, by any means, going to run their way to the playoffs this year.

But if they don't run at all, they're not going to pass their way there, either.

Where the Lions were once among the worst rushing teams in the NFL, they've climbed up to a slightly less-subpar 23rd in the NFL, with just over 100 yards per game.

It doesn't help that the Lions have three running backs on IR and another consistently on the injury report, but lost in all of this is that same old constant: Maurice Morris.

Morris probably doesn't have another breakout game left in him for the rest of his career. He was never really a "breakout" runner in his prime.

But he gets positive yardage when the Lions hand him the football, and at this point, that's all they should expect.

The running game is not going to be good for big chunks of yardage, but the Lions need to at least establish it as a consideration, lest Stafford have to throw 60 times a game for the rest of the year.

Seriously, Discipline

I lied in the intro. This is so important, it's worth listing twice.

And it shouldn't surprise anyone. Nothing else I've said here means anything if the Lions don't stop negating their own success with penalties.

Or ejections. Or suspensions. Or whatever else they can come up with.

Jim Schwartz deserves a lot of credit for changing the culture of losing in the Lions locker room to one of hard-nosed toughness. This is a chippy, aggressive team that expects to win football games.

Can you imagine saying that three years ago? Or two? Hell, the Lions were 2-10 at this point last season. Could you have said it then?

But now we're at an impasse. The culture of losing pathetically is coming dangerously close to begetting a culture of losing moronically.

And what's the worst part? These Lions are talented. They can win, and the mistakes are easily correctable.

They don't have to wait for the offseason to fix this, like they do their secondary or offensive line. It's not injuries doing this to them (well, not entirely, at least).

They just have to play with some control long enough to show how talented they are.

And if they don't do it now, and show they can play like a football team that understands the rules, they're going to have a very long offseason to think about it.

Perhaps worse, we're going to have a very long offseason to talk about it.