Lions down 14 points with 20 seconds to go in game against the Titans and we come back to tie it.
Why anyone would think it was a good idea to run behind Dominic Raiola in a short yardage, gotta have it play, is beyond me. The guy sets up permanent shop 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage on every single play. Looks like he might even have snapped it earlier than everyone else was expecting, then got blown backward to honor consistency.
That Stafford had played almost entire game up until the last 1:02 of the 4th quarter. Shaun Hill played so well that day coming off the bench, I thought he had played longer.
I just remember hating Raiola by the end of his Lion’s career. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a center get pushed back as much as that guy did. I know he wasn’t a behemoth, but damn how can the team not replace that guy much earlier than they did? Seems like he was here forever and shouldn’t have been.
[quote=“goldenlions, post:7, topic:38268, full:true”]
Although he wasn’t the most physical center in the league, he was good at helping the line/QB read defenses.
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Was he exceptional at this? For a second round pick to play 13 years with the same team and never sniff the pro bowl, even as an alternate, seems pretty damning. I think the Lions could’ve picked up a free agent center in any of the years Dom was playing and we wouldn’t have seen a drop off.
I think we all have our own way of thinking about it. He was a fringe mediocre player, like Backus. Just good enough to hang onto, just bad enough to hold you back. But, with so many other glaring issues from year to year, you let an entire decade pass before moving on, and even then it was only due to age.