Even though the Lions upped their game against Carolina, I wasn’t expecting a win against Chicago, but these guys gave it a decent shot. Chicago is the better team right now, but the Lions hung with them pretty good until a couple of mistakes killed them late in the 4th qtr. They had a big TO, but we had two, and they cost us a chance to win. More about that in a sec.
The Lions run D looks pretty much fixed, 38 yards on the ground is very good against a good running team. And they also shut down Carolina on the ground and the Bears before that in Chicago. Harrison really helped there, good pick up by Quinn there.
For all the talk about Blount being done, the guy didn’t look that bad, and neither did Zenner BTW. Even Riddick had a couple of nice carries to boot. That TD run by Blount where he powered his way int the end zone was an absolute thing of beauty. Given a hole, these guys can do well; they ain’t going to create one very often though. I’d re-sign Blount if he wants to stay, or I’d try for another big bruiser power back in FA, and I’d use a late draft pick on a big fella if good value is there, but this team has bigger problems elsewhere.
Such as the WRs and TEs that have a lot of trouble getting any separation. Ellington is okay, but he for sure isn’t Golden Tate and the Lions need a slot guy AND a pass catching TE if this offense is ever going to go anywhere.
Romo was talking about how little the Lions use misdirection plays, don’t understand why they don’t. Seemed to work well when they tried it. You can’t beat a pretty good defense like Chicago’s if you don’t give them some problems disguising what’s coming.
Don’t know why the Lions don’t send more guys than 4 more often and from different directions. Quinn’s sack was a thing of beauty, but sometimes it appeared that Daniels had too much time and space to find somebody. Some of that might be cuz the Lions were focused on stopping the run on early downs, perhaps at the expense of al all out charge at the QB.
In any event, the defensive effort was not half bad, they only gave up 16 and some of that was due to what I thought was poor officiating. That pick on Chicago’s TD that got flagged for OPI and got picked up, somebody wanna tell me how that was not a penalty? Yeah, the Chicago guy put on quite an Academy award performance pretending to be looking for a pass after the damage was done, But IMHO they gave Chicago a TD.
I gotta say, I thoguht the refs gave Chicago a little more forward progress when they marked the spot, and the Lions a little less. Maybe it was just me, I ain’t saying there was a conspiracy or anything but there could be some truth to the idea that good teams get a touch more help from the refs.
Good play to punch out the ball against the Bears’ TE that Davis picked up and took off. Not sure who that was.
Why’d the Chicago HC go for 2 earlier in the game, and why did Patricia later on? I thought both decisions were not very smart, you take the point and go from there.
The 1st Stafford pick looked to me like a trap play where Chicago baited Stafford into thinking Roberts was open, when if fact the Bear’s DB was kind of hiding back there and timed it just right to get the pick. In Stafford’s defense, they had a couple of Bears zeroing in on him and he couldn’t really put his normal zip on it. Still a mistake on him though, he shoulda thrown it over Roberts head so he gets it or nobody does.
The 2nd Stafford pick at the end there looked to me like Roberts wasn’t exactly going all out, but the play was designed to go to Riddick I think, but he got kinda delayed at the LOS and was never an option. But Roberts has his back to that, and doesn’t know his QB has to got to him instead. Maybe Stafford should’ve thrown it away and reloaded on 4th down. Maybe that play wasn’t the best call to make, maybe there should’ve been another option on the other side. Whatev.
With a few calls made differently by the refs but also by the Lions, this game could’ve been won, or at least gone into OT. The Defense looks better but the Offense doesn’t, and the Rams are coming to town. Sometimes the Lions really step up for games like this, cuz they ain’t going to make the playoffs so this might be their game to show they are good enough to play with the big boys. They might not win, hell they might even get totally embarrassed at home, you never know with these guys.