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Thought Exercise / Discussion on "Tanking"


TL-TwoWinsAway

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CAUTION: this thread may contain discussion. If you hate discussing things, this may not be the safe space for you.

I've given a lot of thought to the debate surrounding "tanking" (i.e., intentionally not trying to win to attempt to gain something of value), and I'd like to ask some of our reasonable, knowledgeable posters a series of questions about the topic. (I'd like to keep this civil. I do think there's a reasonable discussion to be had.)

Q1: are there any Lions' fans here that wanted us to beat the Packers during Week 17? If so, why? If not, why not?

Q2: does this mentality also hold true for our week 16 game against the Broncos? Is there anyone that feels it would have been better for the franchise, all things considered, had our 3-10-1 team managed to win that week?

Edited by TL-TwoWinsAway
Added Q2
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15 minutes ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

CAUTION: this thread may contain discussion. If you hate discussing things, this may not be the safe space for you.

I've given a lot of thought to the debate surrounding "tanking" (i.e., intentionally not trying to win to attempt to gain something of value), and I'd like to ask some of our reasonable, knowledgeable posters a series of questions about the topic. (I'd like to keep this civil. I do think there's a reasonable discussion to be had.)

Q1: are there any Lions' fans here that wanted us to beat the Packers during Week 17? If so, why? If not, why not?

A1: Heck no!!!!

Also, I’m going to be boosting your community reputation. I do not have time to counter other posters and you make a lot of the same points I agree with. Keep it up! 

Edited by Lionized
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34 minutes ago, Lionized said:

A1: Heck no!!!!

Also, I’m going to be boosting your community reputation. I do not have time to counter other posters and you make a lot of the same points I agree with. Keep it up! 

Answer received.

And thanks man. I think the player we take 3rd overall will have a significant impact on this franchise. 3-12-1 wasn't fun, but there may be a silver lining in it all.

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I wanted us to play well.

I wanted our young safety tandem to play well and show promise. I thought they did. 

I was Amani would show more signs of him being an absolute steal. I thought he did.

On and on I can go.

I cant separate this from wanting to win unless I name players i want to play bad. Doesnt make sense to me.

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5 minutes ago, detroitroar said:

I wanted us to play well.

I wanted our young safety tandem to play well and show promise. I thought they did. 

I was Amani would show more signs of him being an absolute steal. I thought he did.

On and on I can go.

I cant separate this from wanting to win unless I name players i want to play bad. Doesnt make sense to me.

I'm not sure I understand. I get that you wanted players to play well, but, for the sake of this conversation: did you want the team to beat the Packers during week 17?

(It's possible for players to still play well and lose the game. That was my hope for this one, and it happened to work out.)

Edited by TL-TwoWinsAway
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44 minutes ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

I'm not sure I understand. I get that you wanted players to play well, but, for the sake of this conversation: did you want the team to beat the Packers during week 17?

(It's possible for players to still play well and lose the game. That was my hope for this one, and it happened to work out.)

No it's not. Who did you want to not play well?

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26 minutes ago, detroitroar said:

No it's not. Who did you want to not play well?

No one. I wanted our players to play well. I wanted our team to lose. (It was far better for the franchise if we lost.)

You can achieve both. If you have a lesser team, you can both play reasonably well and lose. We did just that, and did it well.

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1 hour ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

No one. I wanted our players to play well. I wanted our team to lose. (It was far better for the franchise if we lost.)

You can achieve both. If you have a lesser team, you can both play reasonably well and lose. We did just that, and did it well.

I completely disagree. Every player cant play well and you lose. Impossible. 

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3 hours ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

Answer received.

And thanks man. I think the player we take 3rd overall will have a significant impact on this franchise. 3-12-1 wasn't fun, but there may be a silver lining in it all.

I thought that QB we took at #1 would change our franchise.  Then I thought that WR we took at #2 was all we needed, and then the DT we took at #2 the next year I thought was the difference maker.  None of that worked out, and honestly this team feels about as far away as those teams.  It really doesn’t feel close to me.  We will be losing quite a bit.  We will have to hope Stafford is healthy and remains healthy. We will need to sign a bunch of free agents to fill holes because we can’t fill them all through the draft and I don’t trust Quinn to do that.  
 

To answer your first question, I wanted to lose week 17 for the better pick because I know higher picks in each round can help you improve more.  That being said I still dont trust those in place to make those decisions and I don’t trust those in place to develop those selected.  

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2 minutes ago, Sllim Pickens said:

I thought that QB we took at #1 would change our franchise.  Then I thought that WR we took at #2 was all we needed, and then the DT we took at #2 the next year I thought was the difference maker.  None of that worked out, and honestly this team feels about as far away as those teams.  It really doesn’t feel close to me.  We will be losing quite a bit.  We will have to hope Stafford is healthy and remains healthy. We will need to sign a bunch of free agents to fill holes because we can’t fill them all through the draft and I don’t trust Quinn to do that.  
 

To answer your first question, I wanted to lose week 17 for the better pick because I know higher picks in each round can help you improve more.  That being said I still dont trust those in place to make those decisions and I don’t trust those in place to develop those selected.  

I'd say both Stafford and Calvin changed our franchise. Honestly, even Suh changed the franchise. That group of players took us from 0-16 to a playoff appearance in the matter of three years, and three total playoff appearances from 2011 to 2016. We failed to build on that core group, part of that being the coaching turnover, in my opinion.

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