NFL seasons can be fickle, so that’s within the realm of possibilities. I mean, we’ve all known that Goff needs to be relatively clean in the pocket for his pinpoint arm and saavy to shine. If he fails to get that, your term of transitional year will be a euphemism.
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Cough*Dans offense*cough
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We’re already not on the same page. I am speaking my truth just as much as you are. We just have faith in different things. I see a team that is 100% different than the Lions we grew up with. I have faith in Dan and Brad. If you don’t …cool. That doesn’t mean anyone else isnt’ being “full throated”
…like we were starting 2 rookie OL that couldnt’ hear the play calls and were off on most of their blocking assignments.
Now this, I agree with. Hard loss to excuse.
Watch and see what Mahogany, Frasier,Manu, and Ratledge evolve into…THAT is on holmes too. Sure, it’s on our GM to only have “fill in the blank” amount of first round OL draft picks. It’s also on holmes that we have Branch, Laporta, Sewell, Gibby, Monty, Kerbz, Barnes, etc, etc, etc (not even mentioning Foxy). You can’t have it both ways. Is it Holmes’s fault we win so many games, when we win? It blows my mind to see Lions fans bitching about being a perennial playoff team.
If we have a down year, because is injuries to the OL…so what? There will be multiple titles under this regime.
How many times in a row have we beaten the rams? Evidence? What happened last time we played the Seahawks? Evidence? If you’re afraid of those teams, then we are just very different animals. Agree to disagree. Guarantee you I’m having more fun with football season than you though. 
to me, that’s what we’re here for…fun.
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Last year’s team is not this year’s team. Last year is not evidence.
This year’s competition, I agree, is nothing to fear. The problem is this year’s team. They aren’t very good right now. It starts with the O-line. We needed more experience. Putting a mediocre GG at center with two rookies on either side was a recipe for disaster. We should have picked up a good experienced linemen in free agency, even if that meant losing a Brian Branch or a Jameson Williams over money. Because linemen are the most important component to playing good football. Put it this way: the only players more important than a top-flight center are the tackles, Goff, and maybe Hutch. No wide receiver, no safety, is more important.
We can certainly have fun watching this immensely talented team – but we shouldn’t let them off the hook after last Sunday. We were exposed. The OL is not Super Bowl caliber, and it may take a couple more years to getting it back on track given Decker’s declining health. The coaching has taken a step back. Dan said he spent the bye focusing on improving our 3rd down play. Our 3rd down play did not improve on either side of the ball. It was terrible. (And we gave up 27 points to the Vikings?!?)
My fervent hope is that the loss on Sunday was due to Halloween. The players got bombed on Wednesday night, which compromised the install on Thursday and Friday (as well as dumping Tuesday’s practice from memory after all that booze). They might have felt fine physically on Sunday, but their failures on Sunday were mental.
That would explain why every phase was sloppy against the Vikes. It would explain 10 penalties. It would explain broken assignments. It would explain both LaPorta and AmonRa in motion when the ball is snapped. It would explain Amon Ra’s drops. It would explain GG’s inability to diagnose the Vikings’ blitz packages. (It would not explain why Morton keeps calling the same rotten screen plays when they’ve been proven not to work – let alone sacrificing Gibbs over and over again to ineffectively pick up big blitzing linebackers – but that’s another issue.)
If partying was the case, it’s easily corrected – keep the players on a shorter leash, and spend more time in practice getting things precise.
Actually, I think it’s this: These Lions still don’t know who they are. They have yet to establish their identity. They’re not the bullies of last year. They’ve tried the “we’re hunters” schtick but that was artificially imposed at the beginning of the season; that’s not who they are. They’re still disjointed.
Here’s a metaphor to make sense of it, for both you and me. This year’s team is still cooking, but I’m starving and impatient to eat!
Ahhhh…so it has zero bearing to you. To me, if it happened, it’s evidence. Looks like last year’s DL is VERY parallel to this year’s OL, if ya asked me.
Early in the season, possibly. The rook and the 2nd year guy are studs. I see the injuries to T-Deck and Mahogany as more the issue (though I will say, my biggest concern by far was the health of GG and T-Deck)
Jamo already signed a new deal, and I disagree about losing Branch. Even if this year were to be a down year, We can get a stud or 2 for the OL in the next draft. Holmes has repeatedly shown an ability to do that, as well as our team winning despite having backup OL. Our fan BASE jumps back and forth with the weather. I envision some of you guys looking outside during a light spring rain and thinking it’s end of times…scrambling to get an Arc-building crew around. (just having fun, man).
Honestly - not worried in the slightest. IF we were to have a down year, we’d correct in the draft next year. Brad was correct to gamble on his rookie picks, IMO. Long term, we’ll be better off for it.
Bill Bellichick used to treat the regular season almost like it was preseason. I’ve noticed our coaches doing the same. We will get better. We haven’t played that well. We have a ton of talent and this young core will be together for awhile.
Damn straight, my bro. Love them …both personally, and professionally.
To me, they were never on the hook. It feels like watching the Pistons championship teams being built. To me, it feels like we just lost to the Celtics, even though Kevin McHale got credited for a 3 pointer, when clearly one of his shoes was 3 inches across the line…translation –> a bullshit loss.
Next year, a phantom foul call against Rodman that NEVER HAPPENED.
Super tough ways to end the playoffs, but followed it up with 2 championships.
This feels exactly like this.
If you’d rather…we just replaced Chucky Atkins with Billups. Just brought Larry Brown in (bad example, cuz Dan is twice the coach he is).
I predict Dan campbell will be historically. similar to my 2nd fav coach…Parcells.
Parcells won 2 titles with the Giants. Took the Patriots to immediate contention…then did the same with the Jets. Dan will do it all with the same team, though.
We actually completely agree about Decker’s health, and GG, I just have more confidence in the rooks than you, as well as more confidence in our backups.
100%
Someone posted a really cool (yet painful) article about what MN did, and how they did it. Tons of blitzing, in a new way than what they have shown before. We weren’t ready for it, annnd, though we made adjustments, the rooks didn’t adjust all that well.
Reminder –> we played like absolute shit, had a worse case scenario with ST and Turnovers, and still would have won if not for the blocked FG.
I feel like we are philosophically the same…or VERY similar. Last 2 years, we had an OL that we could literally point to teh hole we’re gonna run through and still have a net positive play. We don’t have the horses we had last year. IMO, that’s not an identity thing, it’s a shift in where the talent is. Defense is better vs OL being our main strength. The single biggest deal is Rags leaving. AG and BJ disrupted our continuity too. I don’t blame them for going after monster cash, but ■■■■ BJ for how he did it. Luz me some AG, and hope he becomes a dominant force in the AFC.
I agree with all of this. I just believe in our ability to rebound from a shit game, and believe that our team is as good as “next man up” as I have ever seen. Legion of whom, etc. I believe that the injuries help long term. Our guys are getting battle tested, and will be much better depth, because of these growing pains.
Love it. Understand it. The way I’m wired, in a microcosm… I remember watching a game where SF was playing against someone, and Ricky Waters got the corner and someone made a great tackle on him after about a 7 yard gain. Ricky thought he was gonna house that shit, and he got up, held the ball in his left hand, and punched it out of his hand with his right…you could hear it plain as day, he was growling like an apex predator about to pounce on his pray, before saying “Iiiiiiiit’s coming….IT”S COMING”
I have a similar faith to that little microcosm story. I’m just enjoying the ride, enjoying the coaches, enjoying the intensity (and looking forward to returning to it),
Hey, brother…I appreciate the effort you have put into explaining yourself for me.
We’re on teh same page with some of this stuff, and other stuff, not so much. Still love to see you showing up with such passion for our guys. Hope you have a great day!
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Is there a way to put that post in audio book format?
It would be a great way to kill some time when traveling long distances.
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The thing I think Ben had a gift for was contrarian play calling. He had an uncanny knack for guessing what a defense wanted to do on any given series and crossing them up multiple times per drive. That, I believe, is the fundamental ingredient which has been missing with John Morton calling plays. And if he can’t start to develop it soon, Dan may have to turn over the reins to a younger more aggressive playcaller.
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I will say in this last game it was more about the OL than play calling. At least I think anyways. Really missed Ragnow.
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Let’s hope it’s merely that transition from Frank to whomever is going to take over. C long-term; Ratledge or a draft pick. Would be better of Morton could adjust, evolve and surpass Benedict’s uncanny knack for playcalling.
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