Monday, October 17, 2005

Lions Offense loses game

In the post-game interview, Damien Woody kept saying it was disgraceful. And it was. You get two defensive touchdowns, and you lose the game. This team has no attack....we can't run and we can't pass. If anything is a surprise, its that we've put together as good a defense as we have. At the end of last season, when I wrote in my season ending review, that our defense had improved and was nearly playoff quality, I was roundly mocked on some sites. But I stand by the assertion.

It may simply be that Matt Millen is better at building defense than offense. And it maybe that Mooch can't coach offense.

There are two moments when this game looks very tragic. First, inside 10 minutes left, you're on your own 5, up 3 points. Defense is playing well and coming off a huge goal line stop, so any scoring should put the game to rest. Joey hits Pollard for 86 yards, and we're inside the Panthers 10. Score a TD, turn out the lights, its over. We run straight into the freaking line for nothing, than lose five yards on a swing pass. And kick a FG, keeping Carolina alive.

Then, you're down 1. You get an absolute gift with a kick return to the 50. All you need is one or two completed passes and Hansen wins the game. How often have you seen that happen?

If you do, suddenly you're 3-2 heading into a game with the Browns. Suddenly, as bizarre as it seems, things will not have looked better since a Bear QB was lying on his back on Christmas Eve and Gary Moeller was on the sideline.

Four incomplete passes, generally not close. And that's the game.

After Backus went out, they were rushing Joey at will off the left side--Kosier couldn't handle it at all. And he's short receivers. The team is yelling at Joey--open revolt.

Killer Kowalski says the line is feeling misused, and hasn't bought into the schemes.

Sources close to the team say that the offensive linemen have not bought into the blocking schemes and believe the coaching staff is misusing them. Instead of playing to their strengths, the players believe the coaches are having them do too many things they can't execute. Instead of changing the style of attack, the players believe the coaches are continuing to try to hammer a square peg through a round hole.

When asked if Mooch is at risk of losing his job, Killer writes:

Without question. Mariucci needed to get off to a hot start and he couldn't pull it off. There's no secret that Mariucci was never a big fan of Harrington and believes the quarterback can't execute the offense. But that excuse isn't going to fly in the face of the team's recent performances. There are just too many other issues.


Make it stop, please.

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