Team Report
as of Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:12 AM.
(Sports Network) - If you're looking for a Jekyll-and-Hyde team in the NFL this season, look no further than the Detroit Lions.
Week 1 saw the team come back from blowing a 17-point lead by scoring 16 unanswered points to down the Oakland Raiders.
In Week 2, Jon Kitna came back from a first-half injury to help the Lions to a thrilling victory in overtime against the Minnesota Vikings.
Week 3 showed some of the Lions' glaring weaknesses in a 56-21 romp by the mediocre Eagles in Philadelphia.
Two Sundays ago the Lions scored on the ground, through the air, on defense and special teams as they totaled a record-setting 34 points in the final quarter of a thrilling 37-27 win over Chicago at Ford Field.
This past Sunday we saw the boys in blue and silver travel to suburban D.C. and get manhandled by the Redskins in a 34-3 blowout.
"It's a team loss, all areas: coaching, offense, defense, special teams," said Lions coach Rod Marinelli. "There is plenty of blame to go around for everybody."
If Robert Louis Stevenson was still alive and a football fan, you'd have to think the Lions would be his favorite team.
The loss is doubly unfortunate for Detroit, for if the Lions had won they would have shared first place with the Green Bay Packers, who lost to Chicago on Sunday night, in the NFC North.
In one of the more amazing stats in this game, Detroit fell to 0-21 in the capital since the Redskins moved to Washington in 1937. Also, the Lions fell to 0-12 when they face Redskins coach Joe Gibbs.
Also, both of Detroit's losses this season have come on the road against NFC East opponents, losing by a combined score of 90-24.
BIPOLAR OFFENSE
In Detroit's three wins this season, the team has averaged 31 points. On the flip side, in the two losses, the Lions have only averaged 12 points.
Coming into Sunday's game against Washington, Detroit was averaging 387.3 yards a game, but the team only managed 144 against the Redskins.
One of the glaring weaknesses of the Lions squad last season, actually of every Lions squad since Barry Sanders left in 1998, was its lack of a running game.
To address the situation, the team traded with the Denver Broncos in the offseason to bring 1,000-yard running back Tatum Bell to the Motor City.
However, he has been a disappointment thus far this season. In his first five games in a Detroit uniform, Bell has a total of 44 carries for 182 yards, which is a 4.1 average per carry. But 87 of those yards came in the first week of the season. In the last four games he has totaled just 95 yards.
To be fair to Bell, Detroit is a pass-oriented offense, but in Sunday's blowout in Washington, he had just four carries for a grand total of 15 yards.
Kevin Jones, playing in his third game of the season, had the bulk of the carries on Sunday and finished the game with 11 touches for 48 yards. He continues to get stronger after returning to the lineup from a foot injury that forced him to miss the last three games of last season and the first two contests of this campaign. Consistent production from Jones could go a long way towards curing Detroit's backfield malaise.
"They fed me a little bit more today, so I'm feeling better," said Jones. "I just went out there and tried to do my part."
The team did come out of the locker room in the second half with a run-first mindset and did have some success moving the ball. However, dumb mistakes such as a botched handoff, a dropped pass and a false start killed several of those drives.
On the season, the team ranks 30th in the NFL with 366 yards (73.2 per game) on the ground on 98 carries (3.7 average) with just three touchdowns and a league-high seven fumbles.
In addition to improving the running game, this team has to do a better job of protecting Kitna.
Washington sacked Kitna five times for a loss of 30 yards in the game, including a sack in the third quarter by Andre Carter that resulted in a safety. On the season, he has been brought down 24 times, including a number of hurries and knockdowns. Kitna already missed part of a game with an injury and his 35-year-old frame can only take so much punishment before he runs the risk of a more serious injury. Should something happen to him, Detroit would be hard-pressed to replace a leader of his caliber.
All the pressure on Kitna on Sunday resulted in a poor performance for the Pro Bowl candidate. Coming into the game with a 105.6 quarterback rating, he managed to complete only 16 of 29 passes for just 106 yards with two interceptions, one of which Carlos Rogers returned 61 yards for a touchdown in the final minute to put an exclamation point on the rout.
"That's not who we are, and you have to give credit to them today, said Kitna. "They did a great job of playing coverage all day, and we couldn't ever crack it."
Rookie wide receiver Calvin Johnson was back in the lineup after sitting out last week, but he only had one catch for three yards and was taken out of the contest late in the game.
TIRED DEFENSE
Washington's defense was able to hold Detroit to no points in the first half, and the Redskins offense engaged in several long drives, two of which lasted over seven minutes, in the opening 30 minutes, helping the team take a 14-0 lead into the locker room.
The Redskins held the ball for nine-plus minutes more than Detroit and accrued 118 yards on the ground. One of the consequences for Detroit's defense was that it was worn down on a hot 90-plus-degree sunny day.
Washington quarterback Jason Campbell relied on a short passing game for the most part and finished the day 23-for-29 for 248 yards and two scores. Missing top threat Santana Moss, Campbell relied more on Antwaan Randle El, who had seven catches for 100 yards before leaving the game just before halftime. Also, the Lions failed to register a single sack in the game.
"We did not get a rush, nor did we stop the run," said defensive end Kalimba Edwards. "First and second down, you have to stop the run and third down you have to stop the pass. A couple times they got into a rhythm throwing the ball on first down and we still weren't getting there. We gave Jason Campbell enough time and he found his targets. As a defensive end, I didn't do my job at turning the corner and putting some type of pressure on this man. You saw what the end result was; he completed a lot of passes."
The Lions defense is what it is. They are not going to strike fear in the hearts of opponents. What this defense did well in the three wins this season is cause turnovers, put pressure on the quarterback and come up with big plays at the right opportunity. However, this squad will give up points and if the offense is unable to get anything going, which is what happened against Washington, this team will not win games.
UP NEXT
Detroit has next Sunday off before coming back in Week 7 to host Tampa Bay at the friendly confines of Ford Field, where the team is 2-0 on the season.
"It's a bye week, it's what's in front of us," said Marinelli. "We have a bye week ahead of us, we deal with that and move forward."
The two major things the club should be working on is its running game and pass protection.