Week 5: Moral Victories are for losers

The biggest farce in professional football coverage is the old adage of a "moral victory."

The Lions have lost X number of games in a row, but they've been in every game to the end!

What a bunch of crap.

The Lions only lost to the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers by eight. Shouldn't we be proud?

So what? They lost. Most games in the NFL, probably somewhere on the order of 85-90% are decided by 10 points or less.

In essence, all that matters is if a team can turn it on when they have to in order to seal up a victory.

Sunday showed Lions fans that the Steelers can and the Lions can't.

With only 1:54 remaining in the game, down 28-20, Daunte Culpepper, playing for the injured Franchise Savior, had the ball with a 1st and 10 at Pittsburgh's 21 yard line.

Wait....wait a minute. Let me digress...the Lions seem to always be in this position over the last several years...except when they were completely blown out of course. The Lions always seem to be able to get into a position where they have the ball with just enough time for one last drive and need a touchdown...never just a field goal. Which, I think, is indicative of the Lions experience.

I'll take a blowout, if at least the team is trying to be as aggressive as possible. Too often, the Lions punt away in the fourth quarter while down, or don't go for it on 4th and 1 or 2. These antics are what keep games close...close enough for the Lions to claim "moral victories." Don't punt in opposition territory! Don't take a field goal on 4th and 1 or 2 or less, especially when you're down by 10 or 11 points! It's a hell of a lot easier to drive for a winning or tying field goal than it is a winning touchdown or touchdown and two point conversion.

That's playing weak. As I've said before, the Lions have to play with the throttle down until at least 25 minutes after the final whistle. Why? Because they don't have the talent of most other NFL teams...good ones especially.

So, sorry, but as I was saying...

With only 1:54 remaining in the game, down 28-20, Daunte Culpepper, playing for the injured Franchise Savior, had the ball with a 1st and 10 at Pittsburgh's 21 yard line.

This was the defining moment of the game. The time when a champion arises and shows its true nature. So what happened?

1st and 10. Sack.
2nd and 16. Sack.
3rd and 21. Sack.
4th and forever....incomplete on the hail mary...game over.

Pittsburgh stood up and the Lions folded. Typical. And truthfully, I think the Steelers could have done it any time they wanted.

So what do the Lions do now? What is their biggest problem?

It's got to be their defensive secondary. Let's look at how quarterbacks have performed against the Lions in their five games this season. I was going to entitle this section "Who did the Lions send to Canton this week?"

Passing		ATT	CMP	YDS	SK/YD	TD	LG	IN	RT
D. Brees		34	26	358	0/0	6	58	1	137
B. Favre		27	23	155	3/16	2	13	0	115.3
J. Campbell		41	27	340	2/15	2	57	1	97.6
J. Cutler		28	18	141	2/16	2	25	0	100.4
B.Roethlisberger		30	23	277	3/15	3	47	1	123.9

Now, the first and most important column here is touchdown's (TD)...so the first thing we see is that every quarterback that has played the Lions has thrown for at least two touchdowns. At least, the defense has been consistent...they haven't discriminated against any opposing quarterbacks, everybody gets to have a career day against the Leos.

Next, lets look at the quarterback rating (RT). The highest possible QB rating for any game is 159. Opposing quarterbacks are completing 73.3 percent of their passes against the Lions. The average opposition passer rating of 119.7 is the worst in the NFL and even worse than last year's 110.9 rating in a winless season. Peyton Manning is currently leading all NFL quarterbacks with a 114.5 passer rating. So in other words, whoever is playing the Lions is the best quarterback every week.

The Lions have somehow managed 10 sacks so far this season--an average of two per game--which is actually pretty good. The Lions are tied for 14th in the NFL, i.e. middle of the pack. So if the Lions are providing adequate pressure, the coverage must be abysmal. And it is.

But why? Because our players in the secondary are all castoffs from other teams, except for Louis Delmas, a rookie. In fact the Lions have been incredibly lax on committing picks to the secondary for the last 10 years.

In the last 10 years the Lions have only dedicated 9 draft picks in the top five rounds to addressing their needs in the defensive backfield. There have been some picks in the sixth and seventh rounds over that time frame, but picks in those late rounds are as good as lottery picks for most teams and worse for the Lions.

Position	Player	Round	Year	result
S	Louis Delmas	2nd	2009	Starting Safety
S	Gerald Alexander	2nd	2007	Traded
CB	AJ Davis	4th	2007	Cut
S	Daniel Bullocks	2nd	2006	IR (3rd season)
CB	Stanly Wilson	3rd	2005	Cut
CB	Keith Smith	3rd	2004	Cut
S	Terrence Holt	5th	2003	Free Agent
CB	Andre Goodman	3rd	2002	Free Agent
CB	Todd Franz	5th	2000	Cut

So the Lions have a single player playing over the last ten years of drafting and not a single attempt of getting a player in the first round. This is an awful secondary which has been a patchwork of other team's castoffs for 10 years--Thank you again, Mr. Millen.

And what happened to the running game?

Two weeks ago the Lions were 17th in the NFL in rushing, since then they've dropped to 19th and Kevin Smith has stopped rushing for acceptable average. The team totals over the last two weeks are inflated by long scrambles of Stafford and Culpepper. While the Lions have greatly improved on the 30-32nd rushing ranking over the last three years, they obviously still have a long ways to go.

ATT	YDS	AVG	LG	TD	Team Total
15	20	1.3	6	1	33
24	83	3.5	13	0	129
16	101	6.3	19	0	154
19	30	1.6	11	2	90
20	53	2.7	10	0	110

Why do the Lions have such a hard time running the ball over the last few years...really since the midnight departure of Barry Sanders?

Sorry if you've heard this before, but it all boils down to the O-Line and if there has been one position that has been perhaps even more ignored than the secondary over the last ten years, it's the offensive line. Over the last ten years, the Lions have picked only six offensive lineman in the first five rounds of the draft. Only one guard.

Pos	Name	Round	year
T	Gosder Cherilus	1st	2008
T	Jonathon Scott	5th	2006
T	Jeff Backus	1st	2001
T	Dominic Raiola	2nd	2001
T	Stockar McDougal	1st	2000
G	Manny Ramirez	4th	2007

Now look at the years, if you take out Gosder, it had been seven years since the Lions addressed the consistently biggest problem on the team with anything higher than a fourth round pick! The issues with Matt Millen's drafting atrocities are well documented, but once again it is another huge issue that the organization will have to address.

Wouldn't it be great if the Lions had cheerleaders?

Just a little something to help my readers as we continue to suffer under the tyranny of the Ford's and their incomprehensible aversion to professional dance teams.

Currently only six of the NFL's 32 franchises have chosen to go without the all important cheer brigades--Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago, and the New York Giants.


3rd and 3 or less

The Lions were remarkable against the Steelers on all 3rd down conversions, going 11-18 on the all important down. The team only faced 3 instances of 3rd and 3 or less and converted on every one--rushing once and passing twice.

Not good for my theory, but we'll see how it develops over the total of the season. Currently the Lions are 4 of 5 rushing and 3 of 5 passing. I still firmly believe that it will always be better to run on 3rd and 3 or less when the average rushing attempt in the NFL is 3.5 yards.

Where is the fade stop?

Former head coach of the Baltimore Ravens answered my tweet this week asking my weekly question. His answer for the disappearance of the indefensible pass play relies more on the familiarity between WR and QB and the touch needed to complete the pass. Both strong possibilities for why rookie QB Stafford and 3rd year WR Calvin Johnson aren't tearing up the league with it--at the moment. Thanks coach, for answering my question.