Jay Cutler Throws for 4 Touchdowns as Bears Beat Lions 37-23
The Lions put up a fight in the season finale today against Chicago, but ultimately all of the issues this team has had all season long, such as an awful pass defense, poor tackling, costly turnovers, and bad passes at the worst times, caught up with Detroit as the Bears won 37-23. Detroit managed to keep it close in the first half, which has been the case the last few weeks, but in the second half the Bears simply pulled away. The Lions tied it once and had a chance to tie it again late in the fourth quarter, but Daunte Culpepper missed an open Calvin Johnson in the end zone. Chicago put the game away after that with a touchdown and a field goal after a fumbled kick return by Detroit.
At one point in the second quarter it looked like the Lions might take a lead into halftime, but Chicago scored with around 11 seconds left to go up 13-10. In the third quarter it was a typical second-half effort by Detroit early on, with a terribly-executed fake punt not doing anything but give Chicago good field position. The Bears turned the mistake into a touchdown to take a 10-point lead, but the Lions fought back as the third quarter came to an end, adding a field goal to make it a 7-point game. Then, after a stop to start the fourth quarter, the Lions went down the field and Daunte Culpepper connected with Calvin Johnson on a fade to tie the game at 20.
Chicago wasted little time in taking the lead back, scoring on only the sixth play of the next drive. The Lions looked like they were going to respond with a touchdown of their own, but Culpepper threw a pass over Calvin Johnson's head in the end zone on third down. It would have been a touchdown if the throw was good, but it was a bit too high, forcing the Lions to settle for a field goal. That proved to be costly, because the Bears went down the field and scored another touchdown and then sealed the game with a field goal right after thanks to a fumble on the proceeding kick return.
The loss today means that Jim Schwartz's first season as Lions head coach will end with a 2-14 record. Obviously the hope was for more wins, but injuries and obvious holes both on offense and defense led to another extremely disappointing season. As we look ahead to the offseason, it will be interesting to see how many new faces there will be when the first game kicks off next September. There was a large roster turnover this past year, and based on how this team played all season, it seems necessary for even more turnover if there is going to be any substantial improvement in 2010.
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I think the defense is more pressing.
yes Staff needs protection, but this team still was able to score pretty well. the problem is keeping the other team from scoring. plus close games means that Staff won’t be forced to pass as much and will take less of a beating.
Plus, we can get good guards later in the draft
And that will help a great deal in the efforts to protect Matthew Stafford.
Look at the bright side...INFINITE improvement!
Because, well, technically, 2 wins divided by zero wins equals infinity, the whole dividing by zero thing. I think the way the Lions’ season went, though, might be defined as the negative side of infinity….
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I like your thinkin...
2009 = The start of the Lions Golden Age (We hope).
Zack Follett: he will hurt your mind.
by Hyperion Ecta on Jan 4, 2010 6:26 PM EST up reply actions
Detroit Lions Need to Let Go of the Past and Focus on the Future in 2010 by Chris Steward
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Contributor Written on January 03, 2010
Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images The breakup is over.
It has been over for almost two years. At some point we need to get off the couch, put down the ice cream and quit feeding our emotions. The guy wasn’t a knight in shining armor, as was advertised. He was supposed to take us to the next level. Instead he used us and left us to wallow in our misery.
Matt Millen just wasn’t that into us.
But now, its time to move on.
It’s time we take off our sweats and start looking like someone who has a purpose. The only uses of the past is to remember good times and learn from failures. Well, our recent past has only left us with one option.
What I mean by that is to quit living in the past.
It’s true. The Detroit Lions are not a good football team. It’s also true they’re losing at an historic pace. What is also true, however is there is nothing any one can do about it. At least not right now.
Matt Millen left this team in terrible shape and to expect a brand new staff to fix it overnight is—to put it plainly—stupid. The roster is the equivolent of a huge practice squad. It’s the place players go to get on the field. It’s a reason all these players were available in free agency and on waivers. The last time I checked, waived was another word for cut and claiming players off cutters just doesn’t sound right.
The new regime needs time. If I understand the rules correctly, each team gets a max of ten players per draft. We all know, ten players will not improve this team enough to satisfy our expectations. Admit it, even if this team won six games this season, fans would’ve been mad about the other three that could have gotten us in the playoffs.
The 2009 draft class turned out to be pretty solid. The first overall pick, Matthew Stafford, turned out to be better than advertised. The unwanted first round pick, Brandon Pettigrew, drew some praise as the season progressed before his injury.
Second round stud Louis Delmas is a monster and seems to be the anchor of the defense for the future along with third round pick DeAndre Levy, who is making quite a name with his opportunity. Sammie Hill, a fourth round selection from a D-III school is a starter who playing well after being considered a prospect.
Aaron Brown, drafted in the sixth round, seem to be solid when he is not making mistakes and Zack Follet is a heatseeking, kickoff missile who destroys returners. The jury is still out on Derrick Williams, Dan Gerberry and Dan Gronkowski. Williams doesn’t do the one thing he was brought to do well, but the special teams unit as a whole has been unimpressive. How much of that is his fault? I’m not sure.
So, Lion’s fans, let us take the first step towards moving forward. Matt Millen is gone and will not be missed. In order to move on, we have to forget the damage he caused. We know the team is not good, but instead lets look at what they do right (quit laughing).
From here on out, we should turn our attention to the youngsters, at least the healthy ones. We have one more game. Considering the turnover about to take place, this is identical to the last preseason game. We know who will be here long term and who is just auditioning. Is there a hidden gem? I honestly don’t know, but there’s nothing wrong with a treasure hunt.
Basically, the constant mentioning of losing is not helping anyone. Its not helping the coaches, the players or our own psyche. It’s nothing but a constant reminder of the Millen Era. We knew the damage was long term, and we still gripe about it. This is 2010, a whole new decade. No reason to worry about the old one.
We’re showing the league that we are finally over Millen, because he was over us in 2002. It’s about time we catch up.
Please don't copy and paste full articles
Just link to them and quote a paragraph or two.
Pride of Detroit, SB Nation's Lions Blog
I think it's a copyright issue
When you post somebody else’s original content (e.g. somebody else’s article) on Pride of Detroit.
Maybe I’m wrong.
Too many wasted opportunities
The thing that hurts me is the lagk of killing instinct in too many situations ; just before the 1st Td of Cutler we had the opportunities to intercept in end zone in a poor pass from Cutler but James softly defected the ball instead of grabbing ; on 3 and 10 in 4th quarter Hester found a unbelievable open space, leading to 3rd Bears TD ; C-Pep missed pass to CJ open.
The hope is for a new good draft like past year ; Follett (7th rounder !!) is awesome on Special Teams and today saved a TD on ko return ; if I mind how many bust on draft, also in 2nd round and so on (Alama Francis ?) I see some light at the end of this tunnel
Now it’s time to hope the Rams go for a QB giving us Suh
Pretty indicitive of the entire season really
Made some good plays, plus a lot of bad plays. Our offence was mostly inept with spurts of excitement and our defence was horrible apart from a couple of players.
Lots of work needs to be done in the off-season but at least there is some very solid potential here for a change. Something to build on and if we build correctly, in a couple of years time we could be looking at division title hopes.
2009 = The start of the Lions Golden Age (We hope).
Zack Follett: he will hurt your mind.















