FanPost

Overall, a disappointing season but definitely some light...

We seen the Lions lose a lot of close games this season and people called it "improvement", even during games where we should of won, the Lions managed to put up another “L”. A lot people said the Lions are improving because “we are no longer getting blown out”, “now we are actually playing hard”, “we are beating teams at one point in the game” or “here I have a bunch of stats to throw in your face to show otherwise” but still losing. Everything mentioned should be expected not something to get excited about or even defend but as the loyal fans that we are, we accepted it. Throughout the season I seen it as the “Same O’ Lions”: ‘01 and ’06 always come to mind, when playing hard throughout the whole season and losing a lot of close games to finish with a staggering record of a few wins and losses in double figures becomes acceptable for Lions' fans. This season, having a record of 2-10 and having memories of past seasons where there were similar results, I have seen it all before. Even at 2-10 people said this team was one of the better teams in the NFC or even NFL, how? At least 8 of the 10 losses were all decided between a TD and FG, good teams manage to pull out at least half of them and the ones they are leading in, in the dying seconds, good teams hardly ever choke. The Lions did the opposite and at that point in the season the record spoke for itself and not to mention, the Lions were not the only team with a losing record to lose a lot of close games this season. In my eyes, that was not improvement.

All I ask from this team is to get wins and not worry about who you lost due to injury and who is replacing those individuals, just play football and make plays when you are called upon. At the end of the day, no matter how you slice it, this team did not do that for the first 3 quarters of the season. Same ‘O Lions. But I will tell you what the Lions did do that I haven’t seen them do in a long time and that is keep playing until the final game and get wins in those final games.

I compare this season to ‘06 season a lot because I felt that team played with a lot heart throughout the season and only had a few wins to show for it. And even though that team didn’t pull out as many victories at the end of the season, they still fought to the bitter end and lost some close games to some premiere teams at the time. In week 17 with nothing to lose, those Lions went into hostile territory in Dallas, TX against a playoff bound Cowboys team and managed to win in a shootout against one of the leagues best offensive teams with a career backup QB, an XFL 3rd string WR, and one highly touted WR still trying to earn his stripes. I thought to myself, “Wow, this season was heart wrenching but they put their balls to the wall and finished the season with a bang. If they come back healthy with a few improvements, they could have a winning record next year and possibly playoffs.” That team did come back healthy the next season with a few improvements and managed to go 6-2 to begin the season and then the Same O’ Lions came back took that team away from me and everything went way down hill from there.

Even with the final victories in this season, I’m still going to be skeptical but I’m still proud they managed to finally overcome the adversities of a long and grueling season. But one thing I’m not going to do is let this team sucker me in again until I see more “improvement” and more wins at the beginning of the season, play consistently in the middle, and finish a season off strong. I’m actually pretty anxious to see what this team does during the off-season because like the previous teams I feel like this team could be a couple players away from being a winning team and maybe a playoff team. I’m just glad we didn’t tank the season, it does nothing for morale and then we get stuck with another highly paid first rounder at a position we probably don’t need.

The Lions were the Same O’ Lions but with everything shown here at the end, they do get my nod of approval and now we can talk about “improvement”.


This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.