Two Bro's Talk - Lions vs Bears 2 Postgame

Wow, you guys have been productive and I can see why you’re upset with the loss but I’m really not. Actually, I liked a lot of what I saw and I’m even more positive about the Lions.

The most important reason was that this loss didn’t seem to come from something systemic. Yes, special teams and the OL, in pass protection, are still an ongoing problem but we’ve known that all season.

First off, the problems with officiating are systemic. A multi-billion dollar industry and it depends on part time regulators to control it. This needs to be fixed.

The Lions, however, impressed me. Crap does happen but it isn’t systemic as it has been in years past. They had few turnovers until this game even though they had played against better defenses. How often can we expect for Johnson and Burleson to fumble on successive series? How often has Stafford thrown two pick sixes, least yet 4 ints? Occasionally, the wheels will roll off. It’s random. This was our worse turnover game of the year but it balances out in the long run.

What did I like about this; they kept playing and they kept playing hard. Forte was shutdown and so was Cutler. They didn’t back off of the offense. They went at it hard just like they did at Dallas. Stafford threw four interceptions and you would have never known it from the way he kept flinging it. We were also the better running team on the field.

Take the turnovers and the constantly bad field position away and we win easily. Defense does dictate what the offense can do and the Lions took what they were giving but the turnovers essentially took 6 series off the board and, I believe, 5 of them led to scores.

These people played like they could win this game even when it was clearly impossible. You can have talent but it don’t do you no good if you don’t have character. They showed that to me and I know they will work to keep getting better.

One thing, about Stafford’s throws. This was pure inexperience. He tried to drop passes in while trying to throw against a 25 mile per hour wind. It wasn’t going to happen. They should have been running but the game was too far out of hand so Staff kept heaving behind an OL that was imitating a swinging gate.

I do think that Shawn Hill would have won this game. He doesn’t make stupid mistakes in terms of effort but it doesn’t do Stafford any good on the learning curve or the future of the Lions. We need him in there to get better and if it costs some games, so be it.

Also we have an x-factor and it’s Fairley. He screwed up a bit with the hit on Cutler but he showed me that he’s going to be monster. I think by Thanksgiving he’s going to be a good friend of Rogers.