Lions WR Golden Tate is sick to his stomach, and it ain't the BBQ.
Golden Tate's stomach hurts, and it ain't the Texas barbecue.
The Detroit receiver told season-ticket holders before the opener that they were going to prove they weren't the "Same Old Lions." Then they squandered a 9-4 start by losing their last four games, choked away the division and were run out of the playoffs in Seattle, Tate's old stomping grounds.
That sounds decidedly Lions-y.
They still haven't won a division championship since 1995, nor a playoff game since 1993. And that isn't sitting well with Tate, even though he led the Lions in receiving in another outstanding year.
"If you look at the stats, yeah, I had a decent season," Tate said Wednesday while working radio row at Super Bowl LI. "But if you look at team-wise, you're sitting in the driver's seat, two games up in your division and you find a way to blow that? That kind of makes my stomach hurt."
Tate had had another standout season in Detroit, hauling in 91 catches for a team-high 1,077 yards and four touchdowns, including an overtime winner against Minnesota. He surpassed 90 catches for the third time in as many seasons, something Calvin Johnson never did in his career.
But losing four straight spoiled the season for him.
"It hurt to lose that many games straight," said Tate, who is here repping Body Armor. "However, we're excited for where we're heading. Things just felt different this year. We got on a roll and won seven of eight games at some point. But this year, I think injuries got the best of us."
Tate said the offense was hurt by the loss of tailbacks Ameer Abdullah and Theo Riddick, who missed a combined 20 regular-season games because of injury. That forced rookie Dwayne Washington into a brief starting role, and then after his benching, Zach Zenner became the primary back. He opened the year as the No. 4.
Detroit's running game fell to 30th in the league, and the offense, despite some fourth-quarter heroics to power the playoff push, ranked just 21st. And it would have been a lot worse had it not been for Tate, who became the team's most viable threat with Calvin Johnson out and Marvin Jones disappearing.
But Tate says he expects even bigger things from himself in 2017, noting his decidedly slow first month of the season, which culminated with a second-half benching against Chicago in Week 4.
"Number-wise, I had a decent year," Tate said. "But if you look back at how the start of the season started, I could have been way better. So I'm always going to work on my releases, I'm always going to work on my route running."
Tate also struggled with drops, including mishandling a third-down pass in the playoff loss against Seattle. That is unusual for him, and he intends to work toward fixing the problem this offseason.
"I let some balls get away from me that usually are sure-handed," he said. "So obviously going to go back and work on those things. But just want to be more reliable and help this team win more consistently. I think if I can do that, we'll win another game or two or three. Who knows?"
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