Not to sound too much like prior Lions coaches, but there are simple, simple things that good teams do to be competitive. Things that are not supposed to be talent based. They are instead pure common sense.
These are things that are no longer supposed to have to be coached at the professional level. These are things that Lions players apparently have electroshock therapy to remove before arriving in Allen Park.
There are five core things that any NFL team can do and if they do them successfully can at the very least hang around the .500 mark.
1. Penalties.
As the great Bobby Ross once said, "We don't coach that stuff!" Now there are all sorts of penalties and all sorts of reasons why penalties do and don't get called. A lot of times I think the color of the uniform has a major influence on the refs, but still...
Off sides penalties are completely ludicrous and should never happen no matter what Jim Schwartz says. I don't care if the D-line is trying to get a jump on the snap...it's stupid and shouldn't happen. They line up directly over the ball for Christ's sake...
I can understand holding penalties, maybe I'm a little more perplexed at how randomly they're called or how they are called with such exacting precision against the Lions in crucial parts of the game. I think the mostly ignored issue with holding penalties is way beyond coaching...it's a talent issue. Or more correctly a lack of talent issue. Jeff Backus is not good enough to dominate a Julius Peppers the entire game without bending the rules a bit. The Lions simply do not have talented enough players on their offensive line.
On a side note, if the NFL really wants to protect their prized franchise quarterbacks (for the good of the game, we're told) then they should quit putting dresses on the quarterbacks and allow them to be hit, but loosen the rules for holding calls. That is in the spirit of the game, calling every defensive player swiping at the ball as they pass by the QB for unnecessary roughness is not.
Pass interference penalties are another issue of pure lack of talent. The Lions corners and safeties are pretty much sub par. They are not fast enough to keep up with opposing receivers, nor are they sound enough in technique to redirect opposing receivers where the defense needs them to go. The Leos will be called all season long for these.
A team that doesn't commit stupid penalties and can avoid the "talent deficiency" penalties is miles ahead of the game.
2. Turnovers.
Some turnovers are probably unavoidable. There are times when a defensive player just gets lucky and puts his helmet on the sweet spot of the ball during a tackle and it is out there. But most of the time, that is not the case.
Properly securing the ball during a run is a coaching issue. Catching the ball instead of letting it bounce off your hands where it can be easily intercepted...
If you look at the turnover differential in the NFL you will see that most of the teams that having winning records have a "+" in that category.
3. Dropped passes.
Why does Peyton Manning have so many passing yards and touchdown passes? Because his guys don't drop the ball. Even after Marvin Harrison retired and Reggie Wayne was hurt, the Colts managed to draft and bring in nobodies and you know what they routinely did...that's right, they caught the damn ball. Manning doesn't put up with dropped passes. If his receivers show a propensity let the ball hit the ground or, even worse, pop up into the air for easy interceptions...guess who's not getting the ball thrown their way? More likely, guess who doesn't get on to the field.
Now dropped passes is a talent issue...which the Lions do not have much of, but it is the mark of a good team. Brandon Pettigrew has looked really good for the most part of the season, but he drops too many passes, especially at crucial times in the game. If I hear one more announcer say after a supposedly elite receiver drops a pass, "You don't see that too many times..." I'm going to stick my head in an oven. You hear it all the time about Calvin Johnson. Why? Because he drops too many damned balls.
And that goes for the defense too. Why is CC Brown playing? I'm not even talking about his total ineptness, the dude has a big cast on his hand...how can you expect him to catch anything?
4. Tackling.
Again, supposedly another talent issue. When one guy misses a tackle, typically the play goes for at least three to four more yards, in the Lions case that is routinely 15-20 yards, and sometimes eighty.
Why is the Baltimore Ravens defense always high in every statistical category? Because they do not miss tackles. Not in the open field, not in the backfield, not at the line of scrimmage.
5. Time Management.
This is pure coaching. Knowing when it is prudent to run the ball, ie to run clock and keep the other teams offense from torching your abysmal secondary, perhaps, and to pass the ball. When to run the two minute offense. When to use timeouts to properly save time at the end of the half or the game. This is not rocket science.
Personally, my firm belief for the Lions, is they should be pulling every gimmick they can out, ie go no huddle the whole game or throw in a few trick plays. Try to block a punt!
But most importantly call give your team time to make plays at the end of each half to score more points, to take extra shots into the endzone...
In conclusion...
Teams that do these things are at least .500 by default. Most are considered Super Bowl contenders and these are not foreign concepts pulled from the hut of an evil witch doctor...they are sound football practices that seem to disappear for every coach and player that goes through the gates of the compound in Allen Park.
The most frustrating thing about being a Lions fan is that there really are never any "Bus tickets out of town." There are no consequences for pathetic play. If teams like Indianapolis and New England and New Orleans can pick up waiver wire scrubs and turn them into viable players, how come the Lions can never do it?
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