Tuesday Notes: Free Agent DE Paul Spicer Visits Lions

by Sean Yuille on Sep 15, 2009 3:43 PM EDT in Notes Comment 32 comments

Defensive end Paul Spicer visited the Lions today and was worked out by the team. Spicer played for the Jaguars the last four seasons and was released by the Saints in the final round of roster cuts earlier this month. The defensive line obviously needs to get better, especially with the Vikings coming to town, so it's not surprising that the Lions are considering signing someone. With Kevin Carter staying retired, someone like Spicer is probably the next best option.
Ernie Harwell is going to be an honorary captain for the Lions game on Sunday. Harwell recently shared the sad news that he has cancer, and tomorrow night he will actually be at Comerica Park to speak with the team and thank fans for all of the support they have given him in the last couple of weeks.
Louis Delmas was called for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against the Saints. The first one was for knocking the ball out of Jeremy Shockey's hands after he scored. Delmas was pissed that Shockey was celebrating, but Jim Schwartz pointed out a much better way to prevent that from happening.

"I said, 'When a player makes a touchdown, no matter what he wants to do with the ball, he's earned that right,' " Schwartz said. 'You don't want him to dance, you don't want him to show you up, whatever, stop him from making a touchdown. That's an easy solution.' "
The other penalty was for running into a referee, which I had never heard of before Sunday.
One of the reasons Brandon Pettigrew didn't see much action on Sunday was because the Lions were playing from behind. Pettigrew and the other tight ends were getting open underneath, but the Lions needed to move the ball down the field and overlooked him apparently.
Matthew Stafford is a big fan of Brett Favre.
Jay Leno's new show premiered last night, and one of his first jokes was about the Lions.

"I had a strange thing happen to me yesterday. I set my TiVo to record 'The Biggest Loser' and got the Lions game."
Leno has joked about the Lions for quite some time now, so it's not surprising they were mentioned last night.
In case you missed it on Sunday, TMZ has a video of Chris Myers making fun of Whoopi Goldberg by comparing going to the Lions from the Steelers to dating her after dating Beyonce.

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Let the retreads...

from Jax begin…sigh. Been down this road before.

by Brefstink on Sep 15, 2009 3:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

surprise

staff is a fan of favre…i think their stats will have similar ratios too…a lot of td’s to go with a lot of picks…c’est la vie for a gunslinger & his fans.

by londonlion on Sep 15, 2009 4:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

we really dont have to depend on Favre

Vikings lets sign Brett Favre and Marvin Harrison. Ricky Rubio please dont go back to Spain!

by RaysOfHope on Sep 15, 2009 4:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i know...nice to have an arm like his...even better not to rely on it forcing plays like he can

both to the positive & negative

by londonlion on Sep 15, 2009 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

ya he didnt force anything last week like he used to.

which suprised me watching him all my life as a lions and vikings fan

Vikings 4 the superbowl

by RaysOfHope on Sep 15, 2009 4:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

it's the only way he will last all season for you

if he has to throw his way back into games you’ll be looking down the barrel of t-jack or sage. good thing you got a.p….makes favre possible. but you gotta know a.p. can’t play like that for more than five or six seasons…if he’s lucky.

by londonlion on Sep 15, 2009 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Unsportsmenlike Penalties by Delmas

I like the way that Schwartz is approaching the situation… “If you don’t want him to celebrate, don’t let him score”. They were rookie mistakes by Delmas that I think will have a lasting impression on his play throughout the season. If I were the receivers for the Vikings, I’d be watching out when I come across the middle on Sunday.

by Detroitfantc on Sep 15, 2009 4:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

just don't hurt percy harvin or bernard berrrian!

Vikings 4 the superbowl

by RaysOfHope on Sep 15, 2009 4:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Paul Spicer

I thought that name ringed familar. A Lion from 10 years ago. Not a bad career with Jacksonville, good for 3 or 4 sacks a year. Might be worth a look. Need someone to start turning up the heat…

by Keevatron on Sep 15, 2009 4:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

we will get more pressure this weekend...

more blitzing anyway…could you imagine how much more Brees would have thrown for had there been more guys rushing than in coverage???

by londonlion on Sep 15, 2009 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1,000,000,000

by BennieBladesFan on Sep 15, 2009 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can take that statement two ways

But I know this, you can’t throw the ball when you’re on your back. And letting someone like Brees stand back there and hoping that the secondary can cover 4 or 5 receivers for 6 or 7 seconds will never work. It doesn’t work against any top QB, whether it’s Manning, Brady, Rivers or Brees.

by WBL on Sep 15, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yup.....

….thats why you have to get pressure with your front 4

by BennieBladesFan on Sep 15, 2009 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And if your front 4 can't do it

Then you blitz and make sure he has 0 seconds.

by WBL on Sep 16, 2009 7:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

so your saying you'd rather only drop four or five into coverage

and rush 6 and let a top notch qb have man to man at best? you’re nuts. i agree the odd blitz to keep ’em off balance sure…but no way can you blitz someone as good as brees & walk out with a better outcome…maybe if you have the talent of a baltimore or pitt defense…not when you have a bottom tier defense.

by londonlion on Sep 16, 2009 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well obviously

what we did and do against these guys isn’t working (and this is going back years). So why not? Make them throw faster at least. Make them dump it off.

The old definition of insanity (paraphrased) is keep doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result. Well we keep doing the same thing… and hoping for a different result. But guess what? Same thing = same result.

I’d rather see the Lions go down fighting, frothing at the mouth in full attack mode than watch them sit back and hope that the other teams’ QBs make a mistake.

What’s the worst that can happen? We lose?

by WBL on Sep 16, 2009 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

if they had blitzed out the wazoo

the same arguement can be made in reverse…invalid.

he is the least sacked qb in the league for a reason…he gets the ball out & accurately to his receivers.

2006 in three games vs pitt/balt/nyg = 913yrds, 5td, 4sack, 3 int…3w’s
2007 vs chi = 320yrds, 3td, 2int, 3sack…loss

1/4 odds of beating brees…not good…and lets not even add the fact that all four of those teams have personnel on defense that makes our defense look like a bunch of college freshmen. no offense to the lions…but we are no where near the calibre of defense those teams field.

by londonlion on Sep 16, 2009 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

One other thought

The irony of not blitzing because we have a bottom tier defense is that if we had a top tier defense we wouldn’t NEED to blitz (see Giants or Bears). When you have the talent, you can play straight up and match up. When you don’t have the talent, you need the scheme more than ever. And running 6 or 7 guys into coverage is a fairly popular scheme run by teams at the end of the half or game when they have the lead and are trying to run out the clock. It’s called the prevent. And the only thing it ever prevents is winning…

by WBL on Sep 16, 2009 12:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

ummm from what i recall...

those defenses…along with pitt & balt… are so effective b/c of the fear of the blitz. they are so effective on the blitz that even when they fake it, it sends offenses into panic. and last i checked, both giants & bears do blitz and do it very well and that is why they don’t have to put constant pressure on. plus…their front four creates enough pressure on its own.

i agree on the definition of insanity and that is why i say the gameplan last week will be much different than the one for this week. gameplans are situational…and i guess we’ll never know…but i truly believe blitzing someone like bress or peyton or brady only leads to big plays. dropping into coverage helps to prevent the big play as for the most part you keep the ball in front of you & hope to make the tackle…and there were some solid plays made by our coverage. either way, i think brees would have torched us through the air. pick your poison there my friend.

no where on our defense do we have the talent (outside of the lb’s) to even think of running the same kind of defense as any of the aforementioned.

by londonlion on Sep 16, 2009 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Blitzing Manning

is the only way I’ve ever seen him struggle. The Chargers give him fits because they send 5 or 6 people and don’t give him any time to set his feet. None. And he hates it. Even when they don’t send that many people, Manning can’t keep his feet still after the first couple of times he gets hammered. Brady responded the same way against the Giants in the SB a few years ago. Course the pressure there was provided by the DL, but Brady could not settle in after Osi and friends hammered him a few times. While it may not have worked on Brees yet, I’d rather try that than hope that he makes mistakes. Because the reality is that none of the three mentioned makes mistakes all that often. You have to force them to.

by WBL on Sep 16, 2009 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

and again i say

how does our personnel match up against those defenses? if we had a front four like chi or nyg…sure…if we had the lb’s/secondary of pitt or balt sure…but fact is we don’t. gun is a blitzer…rip your head off kind of coach. he hated the tampa two & dropping into coverage. if he saw benefit or a plus side i am sure he would have…i won’t pretend for a second i know better than he or schwartz.

that all being said, i think you will see a completely different defence this week where we have potential to take advantage of applying the pressure.

by londonlion on Sep 16, 2009 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs