I usually hate it when coaches take the blame for a bad loss…It just seems so fake: It’s on me, I didn’t prepare the team well enough, etc… is usually more to protect the players than anything else. But for this game, I just hope every coach especially Dan, Ben and Aaron take full accountability for the lack of preparation, a butched gameplan,poor game time decisions and lack of adjustments during the game. I’m convinced that even with the injuries, we we are a way better team than the Commies and it’s not even close. Coaches really did a disservice to the players for that game:
We averaged 8.7 yds per carry yet only rushed 23 times…we should have rushed at least 30-35 times and fed Gibbs a whole lot more
No timeout called on the 4th down were we got called for 12 men on defence
No defensive adjustments to counter the 3 wide receivers trips formation
Empty back field on 3rd and 1, just a stupid play call
Ask Jamo to throw the ball when we are down by 10. I can live with it if we are up by 14, but when we absolutely need a score, give me break…
I was very disappointed by the coaching tonight. We were so well prepared all season long but tonight, coaches shit the bed…
I think the popular answer here is that members of the coaching staff including, but not limited to, Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson were busy preparing to be paid a heck of a lot more money next season instead of focused on winning more games this season.
These are the decisions I will also lose sleep over. The players have to overcome their own coaches, which is very hard to do in the playoffs. The other coaches were really good tonight. I agree with ztonyg - two of them seemed distracted/ill prepared.
Yeah. We’re the first team to ever deal with coordinators leaving for up positions in the playoffs. How do we compensate being the only team to ever deal with this?
We shit the bed. Sucked ass.
Lions luck.
I keep seeing this narrative, but I don’t think it matters all that much. They interviewed during their bye week before we even knew who our opponent was. They weren’t preparing any gameplan stuff that week at all. Distraction, sure? But I don’t think this impacted their prep for Washington much, if at all.
I agree with everything except the defensive adjustments. Glenn tried to play zone and we couldn’t get any pressure on Daniel’s with our front 4. We tried to blitz and it got picked up and lead to big plays. You can’t pressure the QB in any scenario and you’re screwed as a play caller.
It’s always easy to go back and pick on plays, but the fact is the difference in this game was the QBs one step up the other stepped down. Blame play calling or the defense but you have 5 turn overs. That is the issue. He’ll Goff couldn’t throw enough ints Jamo got to throw one too. Not to mention the sack fumble.
It’s a virtual lock that they go up 14-3 and there’s no fumble if they run the ball where that happened.
IIRC the freak injury to Amik happened on the next series.
Goff started to press and then the wheels eventually came off.
Your field generals should lead you to victory, not defeat. And that’s what Ben did by not doing the simple thing when it was perfectly set up for him to do just that.
Not taking heat off Goff, he made some bad decisions and it cost the team. But Ben let the offense down by not starting Gibbs and riding him and getting too cute or aggressive when the risk/reward was not worth it.
You oversimplify. Strip sacks happen to the greatest of QBs and that was a major turning point, and not the only one. In the second half Ben also made some bad decisions, and so did Goff. Not taking away his responsibility for the loss, he’s got a big share in it too. But it starts with Ben.
Also GG got beat bad on that play and IIRC he was working with a double team. He’s toast. The play call and the blocking, not to mention that ARSB stumbled on the route was the reason for the fumble, much more than it is on Goff.
Blaming interviews for bad coaching is lazy… The offense refused to do what was working and then Goff went full tard and did the exact opposite of what he did most of the season, which is take what the defense gives you. Goff is the blame for 3 INTs due to terrible decisions/throws… No interview a coordinator took lead to that. Meanwhile, a rookie QB played mistake free football and made some killer throws… Bad combination for the Lions.
AG had another 3 starters go down during the game… Can’t blame him for that… Maybe for not noticing the 12 men on the field, but that’s about it. This loss is squarely on Goff and BJ.
Blaming Goff and ignoring the defense and the injuries on the defense is lazy as well. A defense that forced zero turnovers (other than on downs early) only forced one punt. Had zero sacks and allowed 5 drives of 66 yards or more.
Lions scored to make it 31-28. All we needed for the defense to do was hold Washington to a FG. Nope.
There was no single person or point of failure. No individual unit, player, or coach is to blame. They just weren’t in sync.
Biggest, most critical, and consequentialfail of the game was on Ben Johmson though imo.
Running an empty set on 3rd and 1 out of shotgun in the red zone looking to go up 14-3 was inexcusable. Especially with Gibbs hitting about 9 yards a clip at the time.
That was the moment the commanders took control of the game and never let go.
There were a few headscratchers from BJ yesterday. Almost like he was trying to impress someone up in the booth…
We lost the special teams battle too. Fipp knew they would kickoff short and we have one of the best returners in the league, but I don’t think we managed a single kickoff return beyond the 30.
Another coaching gripe is that the mentality of the team felt off. It looked the the offense in particular felt like they could do whatever they wanted to, trick plays, deep balls, it’s like they didn’t really acknowledge that we were losing the game and completely lost sight of the core principles of taking it one play at a time, not trying to win the game on one play and taking what the defense gives you.
We also seem to struggle with expectations playing at home sometimes. The game last night reminded me of the Seahawks last season when we came off the week 1 win in KC and everyone was hyped and we played bad ball all round, didn’t get into the right mental groove. Same last night, coming off 15-2 and the 1 seed, we played bad ball all round and weren’t mentally where we have been for most of the season. That’s the biggest disappointment for me, we thought we were special and just needed to turn up, when being the opposite of that is how we got here and is the team’s identity.
Agree, but you think I’m wrong for being disappointed in our vet QB, the rookie held up fine, Goff wasn’t the only issue but his turn overs had the biggest effect on the game.
I’m not ignoring that… It’s exactly why Goff and the offense is to blame… Everyone knew the defense was in shambles, that’s why they couldn’t turn it over. The ONLY thing that stopped the Lions offense was turnovers, they were having their way against the Commanders’ defense.