With the exception of Matt Stafford’s play, which I thought was pretty poor. Not suprising, and therefore not dissapointing, but he didn’t play well at all in my opinon. He looked like a rookie to me, he made rookie mistakes, and the Saints exploited his lack of experience. He even admitted to rushing throws for fear of getting sacked. Having said all that, I don’t think he contributed much to the loss itself.
The defense was dreadful. While I was pleased to see that Delmas does actually look like an eventual play maker, he made some mistakes as well. Foote was an improvement at MLB, and Henry played ok, but those three were maybe the only ones that showcased anything. Where was Julian Peterson? What was Sims thinking at times? The way that front four played, wouldn’t we have been better off just dropping all four of them in to coverage? Hopefully the secondary will look better with Buchanon in there, but as a whole I thought the defense looked eerily similar to last season. I disagree about the tackling, sort of. While they didn’t give up the “explosion” plays after contact, the defenders were often getting dragged for an additional 3-4 yards after contact.
There is a lot to work on, there is a lot of talent to be acquired, but I do think that Schwartz and Co. will eventually get this right. At least after Sunday’s game, they finally know where they reall are, and how far they have to go.

I think the reason why people are so down, is not because they were surprised by our poor performance, they were just disappointed. I, myself, predicted either a blow-out, or a semi-close game that the Lions would lose in the 4th quarter. What happened was somewhere in between.

But just like every other Lions fan out there, I held that tiny hope that I was wrong. That feeling in the back of my brain, that I tried to shun with common sense, that the Lions would surprise me. Whether it was a new staff of coaches, or the completely revamped roster, some glimmer of optimism existed, and its quite disappointing to let that optimism go. Even though we all knew it was likely true, no one wanted to completely commit to the idea that this team wasn’t going to make the playoffs. It’s kind of hard not to believe that now.

I agree with your disappointment in the defense – I personally didn’t think it would be that bad either. I also predicted if the Lion’s could create 2+ turnovers (which they did) and K Smith rushed for >100 yards (not even close) they could have a shot at winning – this of course was assuming the D had improved from last year (looked about the same, maybe slightly better). With that recipe I am not shocked at yesterday’s score.

I thought Staff was trying to make a big play for his team, as he pretty much said in his post game comments, when they fell behind by eighteen. He will have to learn to take his downfield shots better. ie. Put the ball where Calvin gets it or nobody does.
I agree with your comments regarding the tackling of receivers. It was generally good. I thought that was partially due to the amount of space that the Saints receivers were given. The tackling of Bell was not very good. It seemed to me that he was running through some tackles and always surged forward for extra yards after the tackle. I don’t see our guys stopping him dead in his tracks. Reggie Bush was another story. They did an excellent job tackling him.

I will stick with this team through hell or high water [can anyone explain the origin of that saying?] and do believe they are on the right track. I totally agree with the playing of the young guys to find out what they have. Kudos to Schwartz for having the guts to do that.

Stafford’s performance, was just another data point on a trend—we’re seeing a very talented, very young quarterback out there taking his lumps. He’s unquestionably gifted, and came into the game as prepared as you can be from watching film. BUT—and this is the kicker—going out there and executing is different.

This is why I’ve been telling everyone he needs to start now; his mistakes won’t hurt us! The Lions weren’t going to win this game with Matt Stafford, Daunte Culpepper, or Peyton Manning at quarterback, so why not let the kid tie classroom theory, practice reps, and game execution together? He’ll learn 100x more going out there and doing it than by watching Culpepper dump it off thirty times.

Peace
Ty

I figured the Saints by 2 TDs, and that’s more or less what occurred. The surprise was the how many the Saints put up, as I figured the defense had to be somewhat improved from last year, and Drew Brees treated them the same as he did in 2008.

As for Stafford…again, more or less what I expected, so I’m not particularly disappointed, and not at all shocked. Guess I was really disappointed with the first half pick, because there went a chance to get it close at the half.

But hey, that die has been cast, and we just get to roll with it now.

Do you think it’s fair to compare the performances of Stafford and Sanchez this week? Sanchez looked like a seasoned veteran, while Stafford looked shaky in the 2nd half. Would you get the same result if the roles were reversed?

Great article, you kept everything in perspective. Looking forward to seeing Stafford and his recievers mature through-out the year, as well as the rest of the team. To me, the most positive thing I saw was that they scored points while being down 2 td’s. Remember, experience is our best teacher and “we” all learn everyday. As good as our rookie QB is, it’s still all new to him.

That if you removed the Steelers or Giants logo from their starting 11 and replaced them with the Lions logo (new or 2009 refurbisthed one) that the Saints still would have put up 45 on us??

I completely agree that some of the defense’s problems may be mental. The Lions just need to LEARN to win. Its going to take time and, most importantly, a WIN.

As usual you did a good job summarizing the good and the bad…..without going too crazy in either direction. I wanted to point out that our defensive ends did get up field quite a bit yesterday, attempting to rush Drew Brees. However, the calm and collected Brees simply saw the rush and confidently stepped up in the pocket every time they got close to him. The problem was not with our defensive ends, but our DTs. We had no push in the middle of the defensive line, and as such there was always a pocket for the expert pocket passer to utilize. The pocket never once broke down on Drew Brees, and that is the fault of our DTs not getting a push in the middle. If they had been getting a push in the middle, then Brees might not have been able to step up in the pocket, he might have been forced outside some, and he might have ran head first into DeWayne White or Cliff Avril. The lack of push by the defensive tackles was also the main problem against the run.

I agree with your assessment on the reasoning behind the lack of blitzing by our defense. I think you are right…..we would have been even worse off had we been blitzing a ton yesterday. With no push in the middle of the line, the blitz would likely have been picked up and Brees would have burned us over the middle all day long. I also agree with your assessment of the offensive line, which I also fault for a majority of our problems on offense (although you can’t fault them for all of the bad decisions Stafford made). Furthermore, I agree with all of your points on the side of the good things that happened. Lastly, I agree that this team is better than last year, that progress is occurring, and that we still lack the talent that we need to be a super bowl contender. However, I want you to know that I DID expect the Lions to be able to WIN that game yesterday, and it is not drugs, kool-aid, or any other mind altering substance that makes me think that. Any given Sunday….no matter who the teams are, someone wins and loses. The opportunities for the Lions to WIN that game were right there, almost in their grasp…..but fell just out of their reaches. I did expect the Saints to win the game, but I also expected that the Lions COULD win it.

Great post. I posted something similar in the game thread. While the game was mostly disappointing, there were things that have me looking proudly toward the future.

In a surprising note though, wasn’t one of the negatives of Mike Jenkins was his lack of speed?

I agree with about 98% of what you said. I do agree for the most part that the tackling was better than last season. What I did not like was at the point of contact. It look like our defenders were getting dragged by Mike Bell.

Also it seemed like White was getting pressure. But he was always a step to late in getting to Brees.

I was not overly disappointed with the outcome of the game. I have said this many times here on the POD. I will not judge this season by wins and loses. I will judge the success of this season by:

1. Improved play calling and design of the plays

2. Getting Stafford some game experience. The more the better.

3. If the younger player can step up and show that they belong in the NFL.

4. Progress, progress, progress. The Lions need to get better as the season goes on.

One last thing Drew. Thank for the “analytical headcase like his son and all of his son’s colleagues on POD” comment. I got alittle choked up and teary eyed. With the thought that you think of me as a colleague. There is love in the room today. : )

And, IMO, exactly what we needed to hear. It’s early. Don’t push the panic button just yet. As The Schwartz says, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” (that might be illegal in some states). A lot of good replies too. I agree with what what Ty and the others said about Stafford: he’s learned all he can sitting on the bench. Staff’s going to learn almost nothing now sitting on the bench and watching Culpepper dump off…….whether it’s 5 games, a season, or 5 years. Stafford’s at the point where to learn more, he must play. He got his 1st game out of the way, with predictable results. If he had sat for 5 games or 5 years, I’m sure his 1st game would have been the same as it was on Sunday. Best to get that out of the way ASAP, while we’re still rebuilding and expectations are low. Hey, I expect us to go 0-6 to the bye week, then close 4-6 in the last 10 games. I think what Drew was trying to say was while any team can win “any given Sunday”, the odds were against us. I agree that no matter which QB was in there, we probably were going to lose that game. I’ll go a step farther and say we are likely to lose the first 6 games, no matter who starts at QB.

As for the season as a whole, I actually think we can win more games with Stafford, especially down the stretch as he improves. After the draft, I thought we should have drafted Curry and predicted Culpepper would lead us to a 2-14 record this year. Now that Stafford’s won me over, I’m expecting 4-12 (but a ‘good’ 4-12, with 4-6 in the last 10 games), and with a foundation of young game-experienced players to build around and improve.

So buckle in, it may be a rough ride until after the bye week. We may not see obvious positive results until the 2nd half of the season. And don’t throw out those babies!

I have been on the site & reading lots since the game…and you quite literally took the words out of my hands!

Drew Brees & company did this all last year without a healthy Colston, without a healthy Shockey (or really any TE), a D Henderson that couldn’t catch, an unproven R Meechum & a big question mark surrounding R Bush. So why are any of us surprised that this was the result when he has weapons o’ plenty??

I know that this has been repeated through the thread, but really? I hope that we all had visions of a competitive team, and most importantly an improved team…but how can any of us really be surprised about the play of the Saints? They were exactly what we thought they were…an offensive juggernaut…and the Lions as Drew put it are exactly what we thought they were…a rebuilding team that will (and did) show flashes of improvement & promise.

News flash fans…the schedule doesn’t get much easier over the coming five weeks…I can’t remember who said it above, but we shouldn’t be too concerned over the first half of the season (other than the gigantic bruised ego the collective team & fans will have)…I will be thrilled to see the team show resiliancy & sparks like they did on Sunday through the first half…really a win in those games would probably make me wet myself. If you put Cincy/St Louis/KC/Oakland/Denver out there vs New Orleans…you would have seen the same result; IMO, it would have been worse. The difference i think…is that the Lions were out there…and were making a better game out of it than I saw all last year (with exception I think of the final game in Green Bay). I am most worried about the second half of the season. If we can’t win there…then there are issues. We cannot pretend to think we will compete or be dissapointed if we aren’t in a field goal game with New Orleans or Pittsburgh…these are the games where we will see the impact of Schwartz…will this team bounce back, will they hold their heads high, will they fold?

I really don’t like all this hind sight…I said this, I said we should have drafted him…it flat out doesn’t matter now. I know you are all fans…you all have valid opinions…but c’mon. It was game one against perhaps the best offense in the last 20years. And the fact is, we don’t have a top five offense or defense to battle that … let alone beat it.

Yes on any given Sunday, any one team can beat any opponent…I get that…that is why I love this game called football. It doesn’t mean that I expect it nor does it mean that I will throw my team under the bus. Yes I too don’t want to see the team go 0-23 over the last season & a half (going up to the bye)…but the reality is that is what I am prepared for. If they are to win a game sooner…I will be extatic…but won’t be calling for the division title either.

Bottom line, thank you Drew. As usual, a great read. I only hope that our team holds on to their resiliancy, keeps holding their collective heads up and come out to battle a division rival on Sunday. I truly believe if they can come out of these first six games doing this, we will all have some exciting games to watch in the second half which will really get us going for the coming off-season. I started this at the end of last year…I think we were a better team than Cincy/St. Louis/San Fran/Cleveland/Oakland despite our record last year…and think we are certainly above them all this year…our record may or may not reflect it when we go to face them in the second half…but I feel that if the team can go into those games with a chip, having played hard through the front six games & come out of them a better team (as I believe they will after facing some first class teams)…I think this season will end on a good note. But until then, I expect/prepare for the worst against some of the best teams in the league this year & will continue to hold on to my hope for the best.

Sorry for the long post…and sorry as this probably has also been repetitive

i didnt read any of the other post but i thought Eggaxly as u thought at around the 3rd qt ended..they got away / taken from the out let and try to get it to c.j. 2 much.. i thing i only say 1 pass to Bryant j for a catch kev