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Lions Can't Overcome Awful Special Teams Play, Turnovers in 48-24 Loss to Bears

Chicago Bears tight end Kellen Davis (87) makes a touchdown catch during the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Chicago, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

More photos » M. Spencer Green - AP

4 months ago: Chicago Bears tight end Kellen Davis (87) makes a touchdown catch during the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Chicago, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

The Lions ended their 19-game losing streak last week, and this week in Chicago they were hoping to get a winning streak started.  After a fairly good first half, it looked like there was a good chance of the Lions winning their second straight game, but a terrible second half where Detroit was outscored 27-3 led to this becoming an ugly loss.

After getting off to a stellar start that included a couple long touchdown drives, the Lions reverted back to their old ways with poor special teams play and a costly interception inside their own 10.  The Lions put together an outstanding 98-yard drive at the end of the first half to tie things up after two quarters, but that was really when all good things came to an end for Detroit. 

The Bears opened up the second half with a kick return for a touchdown, which basically set the tone for what to expect in the final two quarters.  Detroit made special teams mistake after special teams mistake, allowing the Bears to start around midfield or in Lions territory on what seemed like every drive.  The Lions, on the other hand, almost always started inside or around their own 20.  That alone was enough for the Bears to take over this game, but add in a fumble by Stafford at the Lions' 19-yard line and Detroit basically handed this game to Chicago on a silver platter.  The Lions couldn't get anything going save one drive that led to a field goal, and the Bears were able to extend their lead by having such a short field so often.  The Bears went on to win 48-24 after adding a touchdown in garbage time.

On that aforementioned drive that led to a field goal, Matthew Stafford was sacked on third down and injured his right knee.  He went down awkwardly and immediately grabbed the back of his right knee, showing that something was wrong.  On the sideline he had a wrap on the knee, and when he tried to walk around it was too sore for him to come back into the game.  That led to the first Daunte Culpepper sighting of the season, as he finished the game for the Lions.

Aside from Stafford's right knee, the Lions have a pretty big list of other things they have to worry about going forward.  At the top of the list is the terrible special teams play.  In general the Lions have had pretty bad special teams for quite a while now (not counting Jason Hanson, of course), but they have never been this bad.  Today the Lions allowed the Bears to take a kick return back for a touchdown, return other kicks for big gains, take every punt back for a solid gain close to or into Lions territory, and there were penalties on a couple of the Lions' kick returns.  I've said this many times in the past and have wanted this to happen for quite some time, but I will say it again: Fire Stan Kwan.  People have excused his coaching because the Lions haven't had much talent on special teams, but I'm sick of the excuses.  It's time he is finally held accountable for the terrible special teams play, as that single-handedly turned the game around today and put the Lions at a disadvantage on nearly every drive.

The Lions will look to prevent a losing streak from starting next week at home against the defending Super Bowl-champion Pittsburgh Steelers.  It will be a tough game for sure, especially if the Lions turn the ball over and give away field position because of poor special teams play.  This team is nowhere near close to being good enough to win games where they make tons of mistakes, and that is exactly why the Bears rolled Detroit in the second half today.


Final - 10.4.2009 1 2 3 4 Total
Detroit Lions 14 7 0 3 24
Chicago Bears 7 14 13 14 48

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FIRE STAN KWAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, how long are we going to put up with awful special teams play. I would of lost my job if I was Schwartz because I would of body slammed Kwans ass on the sideline. They need to fire that turd and do it quick. I don’t want to see that piece of crap on the sidelines the rest of the year.

by Usmarine0341 on Oct 4, 2009 4:53 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I dont know what to say

I agree with every comment made regarding special teams play, but why is that after half time every game we turn to shit. I mean we came out and punched Chicago in their mouth, put up 21 points, went into the half with momentum (having just scored)we come out and not only our special teams but our offense and Defense was stagnet. Grant it, the D was playing with a short field behind them and our Offense had a long field to go, but why is it our offense lost all its confidence? I mean we had 3 three and outs and a turnover the 1st 4 possessions in the 2nd half.

I dont get it….

"If your not with us...
you're with the terrorists!!"

by alpha lion on Oct 4, 2009 5:01 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Blame the OC

The playcalling was just godawful in the 2nd half.
There was NO REASON why Stafford was told to hand-off the ball on first and second downs in those situations… our ground game was NEVER going all day long, and the lack of faith in Stafford forced 5 straight blown drives.

Our D was the best part of this game, other than the 2 blown Forte runs and being saddled with an AWFUL short field.

by Froggmaster on Oct 4, 2009 5:06 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

ground game

really, why would you start calling for outside runs when we showed we could run up the gut on the williams wall? why would we go outside when the bears weakness arguably was up the middle. makes no sense. why take the ball out of staff’s hands? i don’t know…poor play calling only amplified stan kwans idiocy

by londonlion on Oct 5, 2009 11:03 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

This game gave me a lot of hope that Stafford might be special

I would consider him NFL average already.

He just have to solve his problem of missing wide open receivers because he fires it in. Once he solves that, whatch out!

by Schuxu on Oct 4, 2009 5:13 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

all about the touch

he’ll learn…week over week we see more touch on balls…just has to learn not every throw needs to be on a rope. some do…not all. and for heavens sake…let calvin jump for a couple

by londonlion on Oct 5, 2009 11:04 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

this game

i thought the lions played fantastic in the first half but they need to fix special teams and penalties. in the first half the lions totally dominated and easily could have been leading by 10 on the road. their is a lot to look forward to in the future based on how they played today. the lions need to fix their o-line but Russel Okung can help them if they draft him in april. if schwartz focuses on special teams throghout the week they can be competitive against the steelers next weekend.

by David7 on Oct 4, 2009 5:54 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Kwan

How long has he been here and through how many coaches? Is it ten years? HOW!? All last year was the same thing. He has to be held responsible.

by RML0819 on Oct 4, 2009 7:22 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Disappointments

There was a lot to be disappointed about:
 - Running game. We were hoping having Kevin Smith active would give us a good solid foundation via the running in which to build the pass. That never happened. Smith was constantly being hit in the backfield and through only his sheer force of will was he able to manage 2 scores.

- The O-Line. Not only couldn’t they get a push for Smith, but they were constantly dominated by Bears D-Lineman, who sacked Stafford 4 times. That’s not good enough.

 - The Defence. They get a slight pass since they were often defending short fields but in the end, allowing 48 points is not tolerable. We couldn’t stop Forte or Wolfe when it counted, leading to a couple of huge gains and Cutler picked us apart in the redzone. Overall, just disappointing.

 - But the biggest disappointment comes from….THE SPECIAL TEAMS. I have never seen a more dismal display in my life. The coverage on kicks was atrocious. We were lucky only to give up one score. To have their drives start, on average, around the half way means they have only half the field to deal with, making it hard for our D. We also were horrid on returns, not gaining any meaningful yardage, and when we did, a penalty would negate it. I am prepared to say that the special teams was 75% the reason we lost. Without those short fields and with a few decent returns, this game may have been much different.

Well, it’s always good to finish on a positive, so here it is.

- The passing game. Stafford managed to sustain the form he found against Washington. While he did have a costly turnover or two, his numbers and performance apart from that were very strong, which were reflected in his QB rating of 89, his best yet. Calvin Johnson was also brilliant, going for over 100 yards for the first time this year. Seeing these two hook up like they did fills me with a lot of confidence. Other guys like Pettigrew and Heller made significant contributions as well and shouldn’t be forgotten.

In the end, this was a frustrating game. A great first half in which the possibility of a victory was easily in our reach was eroded away with our dismal second half. I think a similar game may be in hand next week against the Steelers with hopefully the form of our first half, and not the second.

2009 = The start of the Lions Golden Age (We hope).

by Hyperion Ecta on Oct 4, 2009 7:52 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I am wondering how injured Smith was..

He averaged about 1.5 yards per carry. No one else rushed very often, but the Lions did end up with ninety yards. I wonder if the Lions would have been better off resting Smith and going with Morris, Felton, and Brown as our runners.

I am not trying to deflect any criticism of the O line, this was their worst game by far, but Smith seemed to have some holes but did not exploit them very much. He went down very quickly.

by NorthLeft12 on Oct 4, 2009 8:31 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

they tried to run outside

why? i don’t think i saw more than two runs up the gut. this is where we’ve had success…why not keep laying up the gut?

by londonlion on Oct 5, 2009 11:05 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Schwartz's post-game presser...

says it all. He, in a nutshell, said it was the worst half of football he’d ever been associated with and that everyone… offense, defense, special teams, coaches and even the trainers… pretty much sucked. Good for him. Way better than the “everything is on me” B.S. that Marinelli would give. Schwartz will not accept play like this. He’ll make wholesale changes if needed. I like that a lot.

by DrewsLions on Oct 4, 2009 7:56 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

+100

I agree that was huge.. I called everyone out on that one. Good move. He has high expectations and from that statement he will be damned if they are not lived up to. Love it!

"If your not with us...
you're with the terrorists!!"

by alpha lion on Oct 4, 2009 10:49 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

+1

nice reality check for the team too. it was as if they came out of the locker room saying , hey, now that we’ve had a win, we can play with anyone! schwartz needs to crack the whip & now that the monkey is off the back, he doesn’t have to coddle them anymore. they gotta work that much harder now. one win is “easy”…5-6…that is what you have to work for…10-12…that is dedication & discipline. way to go schwartz.

by londonlion on Oct 5, 2009 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

unspecial teams

would someone please when you get the chance punch stan kwan in the face as hard as you can, i got half your bail money.

he is a bum and why he is still employed is an absolute joke!

by the truth101 on Oct 4, 2009 8:12 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

My question is....

Was it really so much his fault or all of these diving tackles and missed tackles and players letting themselves get blown up by blockers? I am not defending him, I am just just wondering if it is more on the players that on him….

"If your not with us...
you're with the terrorists!!"

by alpha lion on Oct 4, 2009 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Kwan

is supposed to be teaching these guys what to do and what not to do. If they are not listening, that IS his fault. If they are listening and just not executing, then that is their fault. I can see your point alpha lion, however I tend to believe that Kwan is not getting the fundamentals across to these players, which explains why they are out of position, in a position to get blown up by a blocker, and not making tackles with the proper technique. You can only blame the players so much, when a coach has had various talent come and go over a period of time and has never had even one unit that was successful for an entire season.

by KDawg on Oct 4, 2009 11:03 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I agree wholeheartedly

This is on Kwan. If the players aren’t getting it done, Schwartz will replace them. That has to go for the coach as well.

by DrewsLions on Oct 4, 2009 11:13 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

yup.

get follett up here!!!

by londonlion on Oct 5, 2009 11:10 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

chi-town has always been solid on special teams

at least for the last 4-5yrs. but that is no excuse. there is no scheme, no discipline on special teams. i agree with kdawg…he isn’t coaching them up…period. it’s simple. hold your lanes, hold containment, make tackles. repeat. rinse and repeat again.

by londonlion on Oct 5, 2009 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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