The Monday Morning Microscope: Week 2 - Our "Best" Couldn’t Get Us Over The "Hill"

But shit, how many close games are we going to lose with him being out…

comments on our defense being better? I was just interested in the context.

We are watching a Team that is Learning How To Win. I am greatly more enthused about the potential of this team.

The NFL Season is 17 weeks long, teams have gone 0-2, only to go on to win the SuperBowl. I see Sparkles of Brilliance in this Team, and more specifically the Defense. We just aren’t quite clicking yet. But we also are not getting blown out, with 21 point deficits in the first half.

It’s a work in progress, but man, when this team finally starts Purring. Like a New Ford GT Mustang….. You better look out!

GO LIONS!!!!!

If this happened, if that didn’t happen then maybe they might have won? A team learning how to win? Are you kidding me?

This is PROFESSIONAL sports. These guys should know how to play ball. They have been rebuilding for 57 years!

The only thing more pathetic than this team are your delusions that they really don’t stink.

Wait… did I just make things awkward?

Anyways, it’s telling that both the defensive and offensive game balls go to rookies, both positively and negatively. It’s good that they’re having an immediate impact, but it’s usually not so good when your rookies look like the best players on the team.

And in regards to the secondary, eh… I don’t know. They’ve definitely been more physical then last year, but I’m not seeing much of an improvement in coverage. Still, they’re young, and they should look much more polished and cohesive by the time the season’s come to an end.

Overall, another fantastic read.

He seemed slow to get up, and just sorta talked off the field, as opposed to running off.

Guess it wasn’t anything big, but just wondering if anyone knew.

Jahvid Best: I think they would have used him more but he seemed to be struggling with some sort of nagging injury. I seen him walking awkwardly several times after he made big plays. I think they went away from him to try and avoid making it worse. We even seen Morris and Brown in there getting some snaps. I think he just toughed it out and gave it his all because others were not getting the results the team needed. That makes his performance that much more impressive.

Calvin Johnson: I don’t know what is up here but I agree he should be getting open more often. I also do not know why we are not moving him around in our offense more and finding ways to create mismatches to get him open.

Defensive Secondary: I like what I see from Wade and Delmas (of course), so far Alphonso Smith looks good, and Nathan Vasher seems to be a competent backup. Chris Houston I would like to see more from though. I am not terribly disappointed with him, but I also do not see him as anything I am excited about either when it comes to ball skills. C. C. Brown is a real mixed bag for me. I love him as a backup and run support guy, but the guy has obvious coverage issues. I really think that Randy Phillips must still be banged up, because he should be in there getting the snaps and experience. I am also curious to see how the season pans out for Amari Spievey and see what kind of role he might perform for us down the road.

Goat of the Game / Shaun Hill: While I agree with the basics of what your saying I think the underlying thing your missing is how horrible and inconsistent the offensive line played. Especially on that last drive when our back up was playing banged up because of their ineptitude. I really think had he not gotten rocked, or had we time outs left to let him regroup after getting his clock cleaned, he would have performed better there. If our line does not start to protect we will be seeing Stanton play soon. So my goat would go to them, because a lot of his problem throws were under extreme duress. I also give them a big fail for not getting enough push on a smaller defensive line to gain 1 yard, twice. And they also suck in general at getting out in space on screens and sometimes at opening up any run lanes at all.

I think you could also consider C. C. Brown as a goat for getting torched by Jackson. Except I actually blame the coaches for that one. There is no way they should have him covering Jackson. So that one is on Gun.

The only other player I consider goat-worthy is Landon Johnson. It was pretty clear today why he is a career backup. He got pushed around today in the middle and is the biggest reason McCoy ran all over us. Granted that Gun had our defensive line, or maybe it was KVB that made that adjustment, but someone had a bad scheme there and that left Johnson taking on one of their offensive linemen. Our linebackers in general are a huge concern for me. Probably because we have depth guys starting it makes it worse.

Going forward this season it seems obvious to me that we need a better LT and C. We could really use a shutdown corner that can cover the fast deep threats. And of course we need line backer help. I would also love to have one more viable receiving threat. I just don’t see Scheffler, Burlson, and others getting enough production, and everybody cant be doubled so it has to either be scheme, effort, or lack of ability to get open.

But anyways I agree, expect more ups and downs, I think a lot of the inconsistencies center around the offensive line on the offensive side of the ball. For the defense it is obviously the back seven that need help / work / upgrading. And just being able to narrow down this teams needs to only two sentences speaks volumes about the improvement that has been achieved.

A team that has been overhauled [50% turnover in roster from last year] and is struggling to find their identity. Between the youth and inexperience, and the unfamiliarity of these players with each other, consistent, high level play would be difficult to achieve……RIGHT AWAY!

We are two games in and people are freaking out over a loss on a bad call and a comeback that fell a final drive short. This team has flashed a lot of big play ability on offence and defence, but at that same time still gives up the big/negative play too many times.

Personally this game, and the first in retrospect, have encouraged me. We lost to a petty damn good Eagles team. Not great, but potentially a playoff team. Yes, we are at home, and yes we do need to win these games, but I saw some good progress Sunday. Especially in the team spirit. This team scraps, and claws, and fights to the last. That is the kind of team I want, and I think will eventually be successful.

My confidence on the direction of this team and the season went up.

Tough to pick Hill as goat of the week. I agree with your reasoning, but he hung tough and made some very good plays against an Eagles defence that was coming for him all out. I think he made enough plays to offset his mistakes…….at least so that he would not be goat of the week.

My single worst play of the day was the missed sack by Leonard Jackson near the end of the first half. KVB had just gone out with an injury and Jackson came in for a few plays. He was left unblocked and had a clear shot at Vick. Vick did not go down and I believe he scrambled for 12 yards to the five. If Jackson makes that sack, it is third and seventeen at the twenty-four. Could have saved four points and a lot of momentum.

For the record, I thought Hill’s decision making was terrible at times. The INT on the first drive, we needed to get some points on that first drive, and his final four throws were not very good. He must get better. He looked so good on the drive previous that I was pretty confident that the Lions would at least get a field goal. Wha-happened?

Damn. Mick Vick is sick. Did you see the play when he got hit and still had the strength to complete a pass for a first down?!! If Kolb had played we may have gotten 10 sacks And I mean that. All game long Vick was running, moving the pocket because Suh and Co. kept collapsing it. But he has the ability to do that. Next week, however…we get Old Man Winter, who is playing on an ankle that is suspect, and in an offense that is out of sync. Our front four is scandalous. Suh has been getting double teamed every play since he has been a pro. From the door they knew! Look at the pressure we got on Vick— Jackson came free, KVB was his usual high motor self, McBride has been unreal. We didn’t even have Avril. If only our back seven were not two players deep. Lets be honest. Peterson and Delmas are the only two in our back seven that would start for a winning NFL team. Adalius Thomas is out there. I know he wants to play for a winner, but as the season drags on…maybe he’s got something left in the tank, what have we got to lose? He’s got to be better than Landon Johnson or Ashlee Palmer! And when are we gonna stop getting linebackers with girl names? We already got rid of Paris. Now we got Landon and Ashlee? Get us a shut down corner and a skilled linebacker and we will be a playoff team (with Stafford healthy).

Now to be a winning playoff team, we need to address the obvious. Jeff Backus can no longer play tackle in the NFL. If he wishes to continue his career, he may need to consider moving inside to guard. He has been playing on one knee for years and it has always limited his mobility. Speed rushers generally wreak havoc on the old warrior, and Peppers destroyed him on a number of occasions, as did the Eagles undersized unit. Stafford gave him the vote of confidence to keep morale high (signs of being a leader), but he knows in his heart that he can’t survive with Backus as his blind side. Dominic Raiola is just too damned small to play center in this league. Most of these DT’s are going 315 and up. Raiola weighs less than 295. Most of the D-lineman are tall 6’2, 6’3…Raiola is a smurf. He has heart, and he battles, he always gives effort, he’s passionate, and he gets blown up by linebackers. He spends the majority of plays on his backside. That is not good for your center. And Cherilus? OMG!!! First round pick on third round talent. Our best two lineman are Sims and Peterman. I hope Pete is okay, he got shook up on one of those plays. Glad Pettigrew is finally showing why we drafted him. The recievers are so-so without Burleson out there. And where is Cal Johnson? I see Andre Johnson and Donald Driver and DeSean Jackson beat their double coverage. Is he never open? Anquan Boldin gets doubled. And when they play off him, giving him that 15-20 yard cushion, why not just throw a slant or a quick out and let him make plays in the open field? Or run the reverse? He’s an athletic freak of nature. We need to take advantage of that. And for that matter, why not try Best on kickoff returns? Not full time, just situational-like if they just scored and we need some good field position to answer late in a game. Also, Schwartz has got to trust Jason Hanson to hit amazing field goals. He could have made that field goal on the fourth and one with Suh as the fullback.

I saved my last comment for Jahvid Best. I am simply amazed at what this kid can do. We have not seen this much flash since you know who. The stutter step, the cut-back is so subtle, the hips so fluid that it almost looks like he’s standing still, then—BANG!! He’s running past your LB and your safety is thinking "Oh, God he’s coming my way!! FAST!" You don’t have time to figure out he’s gonna do. You just try and hit him. And that’s what he wants you to do. He is a very instinctive runner, sees the play well. Has a knack for getting positive yards (the one yard notwithstanding). Soft hands too, that’s why I think he’s more Roger Craig, rather than you know who (we can’t say his name cause we don’t wanna jinx Best). He should have had 15 catches. He was underneath and open on many plays that Hill missed, forcing the ball downfield. We have got weapons. We have to find a better way of using them. The last drive was disappointing in that we could not find a way to get the ball to the TE or a HB to get some yards and run and spike and get a field goal to tie. But Best’s 75 yard screen pass run where he showed a sixth gear almost blunted the stale taste of defeat. Almost.

P.S: If Derrick Williams is our emergency backup QB, do we have a wild cat package for him? Like I said, we got weapons. We gotta utilize them any way we can in order to start winning.

I have been a Lions fan for a long time and these last two games have been more painful than many I can remember. We were robbed in Chicago and we almost beat an Eagles team that with Vick, was giving the Packers (many peoples SuperBowl pick) fits last week.

I will not concede this season however until next Sunday. We should be able to beat the Vikings. The defensive line is going to hammer Favre and if our linebackers will just fill the holes we should be able to handle Peterson. Favre is not going to have time to get off deep routes with our pass rush.

As far as offense is concerned open up the damn playbook! Best, Johnson, Burelson, the tight ends. Are you kidding me? We should have one of the most high powered offenses in the league. Hit the flats, throw the screens, dump it down. Give Calvin some chances deep. If he has man coverage just put the ball in the air and give him a chance. We are a better team than Miami. Lets go get the W! I only have one week left in my heart this season to be this fired up. Now go get it Detroit! I have nothing left to give after next Sunday.

With Stafford we r 2-0 and looking to beat the Vikings and be 3-0 and playing for 1st place in division against Packer’s

Since not only would Stafford be playing but we might actually have a hole to run through on 7 man fronts.

I personally wouldn’t say that Hill was the goat of the game, since I think he did enough good things compared to some other players, like those in the secondary.

I gotta say that I’m fairly optimistic by where we are. The defence is concerning, as we thought it would be, and without the Stafford the offence isn’t chugging along like we would hope, but we are sticking with teams, and playing some fine football for certain stretches. We just gotta be more consistent.

Good write-up for the most part, but a couple of things caught my attention:

When Mayhew hits home-runs on guys like Jackson and Alphonso Smith – which at this point, it seems he has

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What game were you watching? Jackson was the worst player on the D-line for the Lions and Alphonso Smith showed me nothing in the secondary. To suggest they are even solid, let along “home runs” is hyperbole at best, and borders on dishonesty.

After two weeks, I think it’s safe to say that this secondary is better than last year’s version

Based on what? They may be younger, but they don’t seem to be any better. As mentioned by djzielin above, opposing QB’s have a 108.1 QB rating against the Lions. Last year the QB rating was 106 something, I believe. There doesn’t seem to be any tangible evidence that the secondary is any better, just different.