Great but now we can’t even beat bad teams.
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We never fielded a healthy team. Our defense sucks consistently regardless of who was injured. Packer game was a Fucking joke and I think players may have mentally mailed it in after that one. Especially those who’ve been through that shit before.
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Continuity and blow it up every 2 years?
This is not a shot at Stafford, but the Lions have had continuity at the far most important position on the field for the last decade.
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5 years of Schwartz
4 years of Caldwell
Only 2 coaches in the first 9 years. Seems pretty stable to me.
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Sheesh …
The “latest thing” is not continuity
I was merely saying that the “forever” continuity of the Steelers, by default, gives them a better chance at success than most franchises (given what they’ve gone thru this year). They are an exception. We shouldn’t point at the Steelers and say why can’t we do that… because few can.
Caldwell was not going to get us anywhere. At that time it was a small minority that supported keeping him. Now, some make it sound like he was the most successful coach in Lions history and we blew it getting rid of him.
Any discussion regarding Caldwell is long long past a best by date.
We have what we have now
The last couple years it was “in Quinn we trust”
Now it’s “clean the house”
2-3 seasons ago Stafford was loved by most when he was getting all those come back wins
Last year he was bad and many here wanted to get rid of the bum!!
This year he’s the savvy vet, but now injury concerns
Attention span issues and patience problems abound
And the radio ding dongs whip up the sheeple
The whole things a freak show racket
Whatever
Right now, it’s like choosing between Hillary and Trump.
You hold your nose and vote.
I’m on the side that says they’ve got to have one more year
I’m not enthusiastic, I’m just trying to have, what I hope, is a practical view
Blowing this up now feels like it guarantees near term ugly
Who the puck knows …
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is there a half-blowup? offensively, we can move the ball and have some damn fine WR’s. The O-line needs help, but the offense is the least of my concern here.
why just blow it up ?? The Defense should be taken apart and most of it’s players purged. you can’t stay healthy then your not helping at all. player-wise. BUT it’s a two-sided affair, over WHO runs this ^#@# shit show? I get Paul P the F out for starters bc with him?—it’s not functioning ! simple as that.
your going to keep MP @ HC, then get &^*#$!@ REAL about your next DC search and D-line rebuild. Flowers is one player worth keeping IMO BUT with a GD STRONG Defensive offseason rebuild. IF Quinn doesn’t get this defense righted his ass is gone IMO.
get off the money and bring in some dynamic playmakers on defense !! or it could mean his job.
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I get that the Steelers and patriots are the exceptions of the league, but you have to attribute that to depth due to good drafting, developing, and extending the right guys and coaching by giving your guys a chance. It’s not just because they have stability within the organization. You can say they have stability because they win, not that they win because they are stable.
Winning definitely helps a ton. In that regard, we have no idea how “stable” the Pats would be. But I think there is enough evidence when it comes to the Ravens and Steelers to see that those teams are stable in part because they believe in stability. I think with different organizations both Tomlin and Cowher would have been fired. Cowher would have been fired in 1999 by many teams, well before he had a chance to right the ship and deliver a Super Bowl. And of the teams that would have given him the 2000 season, it would have been a “last chance” scenario and he would have been gone after that. Tomlin would have been harder to fire, but I think after the 2013 season would have been when many organizations would have parted ways. For John Harbaugh he would have gotten fired after the 2016 and definitely after the 2017 season.
I’m not saying its right or wrong, I’m just saying certain franchises are willing to ride things out a little different than others. Hell, the Packers seem like a stable organization but like you said…its probably due to the winning. McCarthy wasn’t given the amount of leash Cowher, Tomlin and Harbaugh were given. He was gone pretty quick when they started losing.
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Harbaugh won the Super Bowl in 2012 and then had the following records:
2013 8-8
2014 10-6 Made playoffs as wild card and went on to lose to the Pats in the divisional round
2015 5-11 Had 4 different starting QBs to start in at least 2 games each (Flacco, Mallett, Clausen, Schaub)
2016 8-8
2017 9-7
2018 10-6 Division Champs
So outside of the one year below .500 where they started 4 different QBs, they have been .500 or better, yet he was only given a 1 year extension in 2017 to keep him through 2019. Then after winning the division last year they gave him a 4 year deal. I would say winning is what keeps them stable because there were rumors that he was done in Baltimore a couple of years ago.
As for the Steelers, they’ve only had back to back losing seasons once in over 30 years. That was back in 1998 and 1999. If Tomlin had a losing season 3 years in a row I would be willing to bet he’d be fired. Winning helps keep things stable.
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Alot of teams would have fired Tomlin during or after the 2013 season.
Harbaugh had 3 straight years where he didn’t make the playoffs. Again, alot of teams would have fired him at that time if not before. Mike McCarthy only got 1.5 years of non-playoff football and he was out the door. New Orleans is another team that I consider stable because they want to be stable. Most teams would have fired Sean Payton after 3 straight 7-9 seasons. They stuck with their guy anyways.
I think it’s all about the eye test. I remember back before the lions got ‘good’ in the 90s, in the late 80s you could ‘see it’ coming. the record didn’t reflect it but you could see something happening.
Our offense just needs a tweak here or there right now but I honestly don’t know what to make of how they’re handling the defense. I mean if I were to try and guess what next year would be I’d say maybe a marginal improvement. because I don’t think slay stays, so best get some of that money in the D, especially in some pass rushers. IMO.
Super Bowl winning coaches should get an extra long leash. I just don’t agree that “most teams” would have fired Tomlin after back to back 8-8 seasons. That was after back to back 12-4 seasons and a trip to the Super Bowl. Add to the fact that Tomlin has never finished at the bottom of his division. Of course it helps having the Browns in your division.
Mike McCarthy got shown the door because it was obvious that Rodgers had burnt out on bailing his ass out and they finally realized that McCarthy wasn’t giving them any strategic advantage.
The Steelers or Ravens haven’t really had to weather back to back losing seasons to see if they’d stick with their coaches. The winning keeps them employed.
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How many of those coaches started with a 9-7 team with a good QB in his prime?
Tomlin missed the playoffs one year and the team looked like a dumpster fire the next year. He might not have survived the 2013 season in many places, it was a really, really rough start to the year. And there were lots of “stories” about how Tomlin had lost the lockerroom and didn’t have control of his players. But the Steelers already proved they were willing to stick with their guy with Cowher, who went 3 straight seasons out of the playoffs…2 of which were losing seasons. If he made it past the 2nd season, he would have never made it past the 3rd season (2000) with many teams.
Its not that teams feel like the guy suddenly can’t coach anymore. I think the executives of the Eagles said it best when they fired Andy Reid after ONE losing season. It was something like “we just feel like the team needs a new voice.” Credentials matter, but after a coach has been there for a little while and he’s turning in multiple non-playoff or even losing seasons…teams tend to move on.
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