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Week 1: Chicago at Detroit


Superduperman

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22 minutes ago, Sllim Pickens said:

This is the exact same argument you make after every loss for years.  There is always some excuse.  We are always close but can’t get over the hump.  The injuries happen and some may not be back next game.  This was an easy game at home against a crap QB.  We had a big lead and still couldn’t get the first downs we needed, had a dumb turnover when we didn’t need it from our vet QB, and our coach again did nothing to change his gameplan.  We sat back, got no pressure and fell apart.  This isn’t a one time deal, it’s a recurring nightmare. 

I mean, they're not really excuses. It's the truth. It was the truth under Caldwell and is still true under Patricia.

Losing your #1, #2 and #4 CBs before the 4th quarter will usually help bad QBs look good. Good players like Swift will make bad, game-defining mistakes.

It's the NFL. This stuff happens.

Nearly half of the fanbases in the NFL will enter week 2 believing that the sky is falling. It isn't. (At least, not over a football game.) Especially in the era of expanded playoffs, a fluke week 1 loss doesn't end a season.

Unless you want it to. Many had that mentality last year, before we rattled off some wins and nearly beat the Chiefs. At that point, those same fans were fully on the wagon. It took only a few weeks for them to hop off again.

It's the NFL. This stuff happens.

So, feel free to hop off the wagon.

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10 hours ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

I think we need to pump the brakes a bit. Sure, it was disappointing, as they always are, but we were up by 10 with 3 minutes left. The Bears needed a slew of injuries and an improbable string of events to make a comeback possible, and those things happened. Even after that, a basic end zone catch by Swift wins the game. He dropped it.

It was a fluke. I don't think it's the time to give up.

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The Lions have historically found exciting new ways to pull defeat from the jaws of victory, and this regime has fully embraced that identity. 

Last season was full of examples of "the other team needed (insert extraordinary circumstance) to win" where the other team ended up winning. 

This team, and specifically this regime, has shown time and time again they don't know how to win close games.

They're very good at making games close. 

 

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8 hours ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

I mean, they're not really excuses. It's the truth. It was the truth under Caldwell and is still true under Patricia.

Losing your #1, #2 and #4 CBs before the 4th quarter will usually help bad QBs look good. Good players like Swift will make bad, game-defining mistakes.

It's the NFL. This stuff happens.

Nearly half of the fanbases in the NFL will enter week 2 believing that the sky is falling. It isn't. (At least, not over a football game.) Especially in the era of expanded playoffs, a fluke week 1 loss doesn't end a season.

Unless you want it to. Many had that mentality last year, before we rattled off some wins and nearly beat the Chiefs. At that point, those same fans were fully on the wagon. It took only a few weeks for them to hop off again.

It's the NFL. This stuff happens.

So, feel free to hop off the wagon.

I remember the Caldwell era differently. I remember a historic string of 4th quarter come backs. I remember a team that could win a close game. This regime hasn't shown that.

I actually made the effort to look this up. While Caldwell was the head coach the Lions were 22-15 in games decided by one possession or less. While Patricia has been the head coach the Lions have been 6-13-1 in games decided by one possession or less. That's significant enough it's not a fluke anymore imo.

This is the NFL. Good teams find ways to deal with "stuff" that happens. The Lions make excuses and assume one day "stuff" will stop happening.

The cycle continues.

Edited by Nnivolcm
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Hear it comes, the infinite list of excuses outlining why the Lions are better than the box score.🤮

The Lions sucked two years ago, they sucked last year and they sucked yesterday. 

The constant under Patricia......THEY SUCK.

I guess they just need 10 or 11 more discarded New England players so Patricias system will work.🤔

Next week at Lambeau then a trip to the desert. 0-3 looks very likely.

Edited by diehardlionfan
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3 hours ago, Nnivolcm said:

I remember the Caldwell era differently. I remember a historic string of 4th quarter come backs. I remember a team that could win a close game. This regime hasn't shown that.

I actually made the effort to look this up. While Caldwell was the head coach the Lions were 22-15 in games decided by one possession or less. While Patricia has been the head coach the Lions have been 6-13-1 in games decided by one possession or less. That's significant enough it's not a fluke anymore imo.

This is the NFL. Good teams find ways to deal with "stuff" that happens. The Lions make excuses and assume one day "stuff" will stop happening.

The cycle continues.

Yup, every team has injuries. Every team has roster changes. Every team has calls go against them. 

The Detroit Lions bringing new meaning to consistently incompetent.

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The in-game injuries being used as the reason the Lions lost would have more weight if Chicago wasn’t moving up and down the field the whole first half before either CB went down. I don’t remember when exactly the injuries occurred, but Chicago had 4 drives over 40 yards in the first half. Their only drives that half that weren’t successful to some degree were the first drive when Trubisky failed to get the QB-sneak and the quick 3-and-out with a minute left. The defense did not play well and a good chunk of it wasn’t related to the injuries. 

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I have so many mixed feelings, I just don't even know where to begin. 

This felt a lot like watching a game last year - with some improvements and some downgrades. 

- Bevell and the offense become too conservative far too early. I don't know if it's him or if it's Patricia but either way, this approach has hurt them over the last two years far more than it has helped them. If you're going to use the moniker "Dagger Time", you sure better follow through with it. They take their foot off their throats letting bad teams get back into games and then struggle to get off of their heels 

- For a defense that wants to run from back to front, losing your 1st, 2nd (Amani is not the real 2nd CB on this team) and 3rd CB's with two mid-game does not help things. Losing Collins to a really, really dumb penalty did not help things. Every team deals with injuries but this is just week 1. That is a big loss in talent. 

- Peterson looked far better than expected. Swift fit the Riddick role as I expected. Outside of that dropped touchdown pass, which he might have caught under more normal offseason situations, he didn't look too bad. Kerryon didn't look like anything special. I expect that we're going to have to go to this well in the 2021 draft again. 

- KG was definitely missed. It did not bode well when he was out. Marvin Jones did not seem to get a lot of action, which I would have expected with KG not playing this game. Cephus was a lot more involved than expected. 

- I don't fault the team for going for that 55 yard field goal. Prater is near automatic on anything 55 and under. If you're confident in a play that can get you points, you have to take them. 

Ultimately, we were winning this game by double digit points. We now seem to have a running game with AP/Swift. We just gave it away by not making certain plays on offense and on defense. If we can get our guys back healthy there is room for improvement and we have the potential to get over the hump. It's one game with many more ahead of us. 

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27 minutes ago, Karnage84 said:

I have so many mixed feelings, I just don't even know where to begin. 

This felt a lot like watching a game last year - with some improvements and some downgrades. 

- Bevell and the offense become too conservative far too early. I don't know if it's him or if it's Patricia but either way, this approach has hurt them over the last two years far more than it has helped them. If you're going to use the moniker "Dagger Time", you sure better follow through with it. They take their foot off their throats letting bad teams get back into games and then struggle to get off of their heels 

- For a defense that wants to run from back to front, losing your 1st, 2nd (Amani is not the real 2nd CB on this team) and 3rd CB's with two mid-game does not help things. Losing Collins to a really, really dumb penalty did not help things. Every team deals with injuries but this is just week 1. That is a big loss in talent. 

- Peterson looked far better than expected. Swift fit the Riddick role as I expected. Outside of that dropped touchdown pass, which he might have caught under more normal offseason situations, he didn't look too bad. Kerryon didn't look like anything special. I expect that we're going to have to go to this well in the 2021 draft again. 

- KG was definitely missed. It did not bode well when he was out. Marvin Jones did not seem to get a lot of action, which I would have expected with KG not playing this game. Cephus was a lot more involved than expected. 

- I don't fault the team for going for that 55 yard field goal. Prater is near automatic on anything 55 and under. If you're confident in a play that can get you points, you have to take them. 

Ultimately, we were winning this game by double digit points. We now seem to have a running game with AP/Swift. We just gave it away by not making certain plays on offense and on defense. If we can get our guys back healthy there is room for improvement and we have the potential to get over the hump. It's one game with many more ahead of us. 

Just for the record, because reading this back it sounds a lot more like "it's all good guys, we'll get there"... my faith in this staff has taken a huge hit after this game. Again, because this looks a LOT like several games from last year. We have added a number of different pieces to address some of the issues from 2019 and we have a healthy Stafford back running the show. So this should not have happened in the way that it did. 

I can still see this being a 7-9 to 9-7 team but I can just as easily see us repositioning for the 2021 draft with a new coaching staff. The ONLY saving grace that this staff might have if things fall out from under is because of COVID. It's not because they didn't have the right amount of time to prepare or whatever nonsense. It would have a lot more to do with bringing in a new coaching staff and scouting guys with the cluster-eff that the draft process is going to be. It's entirely possible that, if the team does go 5-11 or 6-10 that they're given another year. Because really, if you bring in a new staff they're just as likely to have a lost year, you're going to have a rough time with trades and cap hits (in a year with a likely drop in the salary cap) and you don't want to spend high draft capital in an environment where it is very, very difficult to scout guys for a brand new offensive and defensive scheme IMO. 

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These opening close losses suck so much.  Happened to us last two years with GB.

I will be first to admit we got lucky with a drop at end.  But then Grahams two drops in first half mattered too.  As well as Nagy gifting points at end of first half.  

Neither team looked like a playoff contender at this point.  

Some positives, you didn’t have your best WR.  You lost your best pass rusher to a weird penalty and basically all of your corners.   Bears WRs were making plays, but aside from rookie Mooney they had no separation.   Don’t know if that is bad Bears or good Lions coverage.  

Your O line held up very well in all facets for most part.   Peterson was a beast after having been there a week.  

If you don’t let it crush you or get too negative, you can recover.   Neither MN or GB or us obviously are unbeatable.   KC and Baltimore are head and shoulders above any of us at this point.   

Teams are going to have to improve or hope everyone else gets worse.

 

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1 hour ago, dll2000 said:

These opening close losses suck so much.  Happened to us last two years with GB.

I will be first to admit we got lucky with a drop at end.  But then Grahams two drops in first half mattered too.  As well as Nagy gifting points at end of first half.  

Neither team looked like a playoff contender at this point.  

Some positives, you didn’t have your best WR.  You lost your best pass rusher to a weird penalty and basically all of your corners.   Bears WRs were making plays, but aside from rookie Mooney they had no separation.   Don’t know if that is bad Bears or good Lions coverage.  

Your O line held up very well in all facets for most part.   Peterson was a beast after having been there a week.  

If you don’t let it crush you or get too negative, you can recover.   Neither MN or GB or us obviously are unbeatable.   KC and Baltimore are head and shoulders above any of us at this point.   

Teams are going to have to improve or hope everyone else gets worse.

 

Trying to be objective, this seemed to be much more of a case of the Lions giving the Bears the W as opposed to the Bears taking it. You guys were able to take advantage of a boatload of injuries in the secondary. Patterson looked like your best rusher, which is not a great thing when he's actually a WR/gadget guy. I really liked Montgomery coming out of the draft so it is disappointing to see him not play to the level expected. 

It was.. I don't know if interesting is the right word, but the Lions took a timeout when Graham was matched up one-on-one outside. Then they come back and he beats the DB (I think it was Walker) one-on-one again. Why take the timeout if you aren't going to adjust? Not really sure what they were thinking with that one. 

This feels like the beginning of a long season for both of our teams. The Lions can't seem to get out of their own way and don't have that true "Dagger Time" mentality. The Bears definitely have some talent but it doesn't feel like they have the pieces to compete with the better teams in the league. 

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3 minutes ago, Karnage84 said:

Trying to be objective, this seemed to be much more of a case of the Lions giving the Bears the W as opposed to the Bears taking it. You guys were able to take advantage of a boatload of injuries in the secondary. Patterson looked like your best rusher, which is not a great thing when he's actually a WR/gadget guy. I really liked Montgomery coming out of the draft so it is disappointing to see him not play to the level expected. 

It was.. I don't know if interesting is the right word, but the Lions took a timeout when Graham was matched up one-on-one outside. Then they come back and he beats the DB (I think it was Walker) one-on-one again. Why take the timeout if you aren't going to adjust? Not really sure what they were thinking with that one. 

This feels like the beginning of a long season for both of our teams. The Lions can't seem to get out of their own way and don't have that true "Dagger Time" mentality. The Bears definitely have some talent but it doesn't feel like they have the pieces to compete with the better teams in the league. 

Montgomery is a decent RB.  Good hands and breaks tackles.  But he lacks speed.  

Patterson is actually an elite athlete that no one has figured out what to do with because he isn't a WR or defender.  I think he will continue to grow as a RB/wild card player.  If you have ever seen him in person he is huge.  Like a TE.  And he is usually fastest guy on field.

The Graham Timeout TD has everyone puzzled.  Not a good look for Lions coaches.  But neither was trying to score from our own 10 with less than a minute left when offense had not looked good to that point anyway.  

Yes, neither team looked good.  But most people expected week 1 of season to look bad.   College and high school football almost always looks bad week one and NFL does a lot.  With a shortened offseason and no preseason it isn't a surprise.

Whole league will look totally different in 2 months.   None of story lines from yesterday will make sense then and have been long forgotten.

 

 

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