Game 14: Lions @ Bills Thread

[tonyballs]

I think Stafford WAS one of the better QBs in the league. He's coming up on the downside of his career, and still has not won anything to date. Yeah, I get he needs a better team around him. But it's pretty well evident throughout his tenure he just does not make guys better. That is one of those things we will have to agree to disagree about. I just get tired of the excuse making for him.

9 times out of 10, I do not care either. However, when you open your mouth to rip someone about how they look in a press conference, you open yourself up to dumb fans like me to take shots at him. The irony in his statement is hilarious.

1. He was a top flight QB the last few yrs. Now he's almost done? Lol...no way. He's 31 yrs old. Not 41 lol...
He never made Tate, M. Jones or Golladay better? Cmon man.
Nobody is making excuses either. He's been horrible. I won't deny it but something is going on.

 

[boogerlovejoy]

1. He was a top flight QB the last few yrs. Now he's almost done? Lol...no way. He's 31 yrs old. Not 41 lol...
He never made Tate, M. Jones or Golladay better? Cmon man.
Nobody is making excuses either. He's been horrible. I won't deny it but something is going on.

He has not been good this year overall. Nobody but dumb ass will argue that. But it happens to QB?s. I expect Stafford to revert back to 2017 next year. Not sure exactly what the issue is....seems to be a combination of a LOT of things.

Fingers crossed. We could have a really good D next year with a solid FA period and good draft. I?m still hoping for Josh Allen....the DE....not the QB!

 

[dubbsco]

1. He was a top flight QB the last few yrs. Now he's almost done? Lol...no way. He's 31 yrs old. Not 41 lol...
He never made Tate, M. Jones or Golladay better? Cmon man.
Nobody is making excuses either. He's been horrible. I won't deny it but something is going on.

Tate did the majority of his work on the ground from quick outs and slants.

Jones was already a pretty darn WR before he came here.

Golladay has bailed him out a TON because he's such a freak. Two of his throws last week could have easily, easily been intercepted.

So no, over the course of his career, I have a hard time pointing to guys and saying, "yeah, Stafford really made them a lot better." I want to see a guy come into the system who has no expectations and grow along with Stafford.

 

[kalinecountry]

Do these work like school grades where a 70 is a C, 90 is an A kind of thing?

I don't know Mitch, Maybe Grandy, Tony, Inkfreq, or another poster knows how it works.

 

[kalinecountry]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2018/12/18/18147035/detroit-lions-place-dashawn-hand-injured-reserve
Detroit Lions place Da’Shawn Hand on IR.
The Lions’ fourth-round rookie will see his season end early.
POD

To fill his roster spot, the Lions have signed DT John Atkins from their practice squad. To take Atkins’ spot on the practice squad the Lions have signed wide receiver Brandon Reilly to the practice squad.

https://www.mlive.com/lions/2018/12...injured-reserve-ending-big-rookie-season.html
Da’Shawn Hand placed on injured reserve, ending big rookie season.
Mlive

 

[kalinecountry]

No one is throwing short passes more often than the Lions.
In a stat that will surprise absolutely no one, the Detroit Lions? offense is among those that throw short passes more often than anyone else.

Our friends over at NFL Matchup?one of the few NFL preview shows worth actually watching?dropped this statistic on Tuesday morning:
The Lions not only are attempting the third-most short passing attempts, but among these top 10 teams, Detroit is one of the worst at converting those short passes into yards after the catch.

But I wasn?t satisfied with third-best (worst?). I wanted to dig a little deeper, because it certainly seems like the Lions are throwing short an inordinate amount of times. So I took the stats listed above, and divided them by each team?s overall passing attempts to calculate a team?s short yardage percentage.

There, the Detroit Lions finished first overall among those top 10 teams listed. Check it out:

Lions: 61.2%
Vikings: 60.4%
Raiders: 59.0%
Jaguars: 58.7%
Broncos: 57.7%
Giants: 56.2%
Steelers: 54.4%
Colts: 52,.8%
Patriots: 52.1%
Packers: 50.8%

Also something I find particularly interesting: the team who placed in second, the Minnesota Vikings, fired their offensive coordinator last week. Hmmmm.

When you consider that Matthew Stafford was one of the best deep ball throwers in 2017, how does any of this make any sense? Or as ESPN Matchup put it: Love the math usage, fellas. Completely support it, and that percentage is really, really high even for a Cooter offense.

POD

 

[kalinecountry]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2018...detroit-lions-darius-slay-damon-harrison-snub
Detroit CB Darius Slay makes back-to-back Pro Bowls, Lions players mad about Snacks snub.
Check out the entire Pro Bowl roster here.
POD

 

[kalinecountry]

https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/lockedonlions?selected=LKN3184801108
LOCKED ON DETROIT LIONS PODCAST VOLUME 516. DECEMBER 18. 28 minutes.
Are we too negative on the #Lions? And Matt Dery chats with ESPN's @mikerothstein.

 

[kalinecountry]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2018/12/18/18146120/detroit-lions-podcast-bills-recap-josh-allen
Pride Of Detroit Lions Podcast: How Josh Allen beat the Lions, why the offense sputtered and more on PODcast. 60 minutes.
Hamza Baccouche joins the show as the Lions season officially hits the dump button.

Football is, for the Detroit Lions, mercifully coming to an end. Whatever fever dream of playoffs there were ended on Sunday, and we talk about it before we finally turn our attention to more important things. I don?t know what those important things are, but they sure are important.

But the Bills game was a microcosm for all the woes of the Lions this year, distilled distinctly to a game that Detroit needed to win but couldn?t get out of its own way to beat a very beatable opponent. It?s a nice little case study, and we dig into it.

Lot of people were traveling this week, so Hamza Baccouche was blessed enough to join us. He brought his scheme knowledge and film-watching prowess to the table, and it was very good. You should listen. It?s PODcast, you should be listening anyway.

This week on the PODcast:
Where?d everyone go? Hamza Baccouche joins the show with me because everyone else has holiday stuff to deal with right now.

Hamza brings his film-watching finesse to explain the contain defense that the Lions were using, and how it worked in the past against Cam Newton but didn?t necessarily stop Josh Allen.

Matt Prater is facing backlash for missing a go-ahead field goal, and Hamza and I take a look at where he is in his career.

Where did the offense go? What does the future of the offense look like if it?s going to turn things around?

How much confidence do you have for the upcoming draft?

Mailbag tackles Lions questions, Christmas questions and a few about Super Smash Bros.

 

[kalinecountry]

https://lionswire.usatoday.com/2018/12/18/examining-the-lions-week-15-loss-by-the-numbers/
Examining the Lions Week 15 loss: By the Numbers.
LionsWire

 

[dubbsco]

1. He was a top flight QB the last few yrs. Now he's almost done? Lol...no way. He's 31 yrs old. Not 41 lol...
He never made Tate, M. Jones or Golladay better? Cmon man.
Nobody is making excuses either. He's been horrible. I won't deny it but something is going on.

Let me be clear. He's got a few good/great years left as a QB. I think he's done here. The product has just grown stale with him, the fans are starting to really turn on him, and he's just reached his peak as a Lion. Moving to an organization that desperately needs a good QB could rejuvenate him.

He's never been a firey dude, but he's had moments where the team really pulled behind him and pushed forward. Has that happened once this year? He just looks like he's going out on the field, taking whatever play is called, and running it. It's just even more frustrating watch guys like Rivers, who has a 5th of his arm strength go out there, yelling, screaming, motivating. You gotta have some fire to be a good QB. He doesn't, and that is starting to bother me a bit.

 

[brewer229]

Matthew Stafford is having arguably his worst season since his rookie campaign in 2018, but the longtime Detroit Lions QB cannot complain much about the lack of pass protection.

The Lions offense is doing a very good job of protecting Stafford. Per NFL Matchup on ESPN, the Detroit offense allows the fourth-fewest QB pressures in under three seconds.

https://lionswire.usatoday.com/2018/12/18/lions-offense-among-the-best-in-nfl-in-pass-protection/

 

[Mitchrapp]

Matthew Stafford is having arguably his worst season since his rookie campaign in 2018, but the longtime Detroit Lions QB cannot complain much about the lack of pass protection.

The Lions offense is doing a very good job of protecting Stafford. Per NFL Matchup on ESPN, the Detroit offense allows the fourth-fewest QB pressures in under three seconds.

https://lionswire.usatoday.com/2018/12/18/lions-offense-among-the-best-in-nfl-in-pass-protection/

I would think 2012 was pretty bad too worse than this season.

 

[kalinecountry]

Through 14 games played, the @Lions have 1,444 rushing yards & 10 rushing TDs while maintaining an average of 4.2 yards/rush.
The #Lions haven't had this rushing production through 14 games since the 1998 season.

 

[kalinecountry]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2018...roit-lions-make-a-mistake-firing-jim-caldwell
Did the Detroit Lions make a mistake firing Jim Caldwell?
Did the Lions do the right thing when they let Jim Caldwell go?
POD

 

[sggatecl]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2018...roit-lions-make-a-mistake-firing-jim-caldwell
Did the Detroit Lions make a mistake firing Jim Caldwell?
Did the Lions do the right thing when they let Jim Caldwell go?
POD

Caldwell's game management was shit, he had to go. 9 men on the field and you don't notice (among many other egregious errors)? Buh bye.

In my mind the question remains: Was Patricia the right choice?

 

[kalinecountry]

https://www.detroitlions.com/news/stats-pack-what-s-ailing-the-lions-offense
STATS PACK: What's ailing the Lions' offense?
Lions.com

 

[Mitchrapp]

People forget some times 12 men on the field even 10 but 9. Should have been fired on the spot. And that GB Hail Mary covering the sidelines, even after the wide receivers were downfield - come on man. Lol.

 

[sggatecl]

People forget some times 12 men on the field even 10 but 9. Should have been fired on the spot. And that GB Hail Mary covering the sidelines, even after the wide receivers were downfield - come on man. Lol.

Damn it, I had forgot about that. Fuck.

 

[boogerlovejoy]

Caldwell's game management was shit, he had to go. 9 men on the field and you don't notice (among many other egregious errors)? Buh bye.

In my mind the question remains: Was Patricia the right choice?

To be honest I expected a small step back this year. New coach implementing a new system.....it takes time. I didn't expect to take a giant leap backward.

Patricia will get better, IMO. He's got a good grasp on the defensive side of the ball.....but I think he realizes he needs to be more aggressive on the offensive side.....and Cooter's scheme just isn't it.

Cooter's gone. He has 8 quarters left as a Lion. Which means we have 3 more touchdowns to score!!