Grade Scott Linehan - February 2011

even though early on his play calling was questionable. The fact that he kept us in just about every game with 3 diffrent QBs shows his abillity to just his play calling to diffrent QBs with diffrent skill sets. You can’t put the fact that the run game didn’t work all on him but the offense number wise was excellent. I gotta give him an A but I need to see more from the run game and deep ball this next season a lot of that has to do with Stafford though too.

but would give him an A for the last 6 games …seemed like in the beginning of the season , calvin johnson was the missing man unless we were in the red zone , and it almost seemed like he was showing all of his offense to advertize for another job …using logan as an offensive weapon , with his expeirence in the canadian league was when I started to change my opinion …and making the most of our somewhat C quality offensive line seemed to help seal the deal for me …can’t wait to see what next year will hold for us …and it’s nice to not change playbooks every year, gives everyone time to get on the same page and know each others strenghts a little better

There were play calls this season that I am still scratching my head over. Suh lead blocking on one play is trying new things. Having him do the exact same thing on back to back plays when the first time was completely blown up is crazy. Add to that, the Defense was completely selling out to the run and the potential to flare Suh out for a short behind the LOS passes for one of those FB in the flat type plays. I just could not give him a better grade than a B.

I mean, who the hell wants to face Suh one on one in the flat when he only needs 1 yard for the first down? That was a chance to be extremely creative and involve one of your unique athletes in a role he might only see one or two times in a season.

Let me be clear, I am not busting him down from an A to a B- just for this one play call. This is just an example of a situation where I think he could have done so much more given the scenario.

Very close to a B+. He took a lot of undeserved heat for some failures of execution, but I give him a lot of credit for changing up the running game late in the season and utilizing Logan and Burleson on end arounds a lot. Overall, I thought he did a very good job of putting the offence into positions to be successful.

I am really looking forward to seeing him with Stafford at QB in 2011.

no doubt.

he was operating with 2nd and 3rd string QBs for almost the entire season. a starting RB with two turf toes, our 2nd RB coming off an ACL and then going back to IR, and some real problems in our personnel with run blocking—especially getting push up front for the first 3/4 of the season.

we must consider how well they stack up against other offenses—despite these severe problems. i can’t wait until we get a mostly healthy 1st team out there.

no one should be questioning those conservative calls when we were backed up. that is basically by-the-book NFL football there.

i have to blame Schwartz for our clock management issues that cost us 1 game—even if we put it on Stanton.

Questionable first part of season in some aspects. Later on I thought once we ran the ball more we started doing a lot better. I cannot every really blame offense for any of our losses.

To be fair, he had to use Shaun Hill and Drew Stanton so he limited in playcalling. Especially with Hill’s broken arm and Jahvid’s turf toes. I think if Stafford stays healthy enough we have one of the best offenses out there.

Perhaps that is a bit too harsh given the QB situation, but I really hated the predictability of his play calling. Run up the gut and it fails so run there again, and again, and again, then try outside, then middle, etc. As pointed out the predictable way he used Suh was a joke. The same goes for how he used Logan. Basically if you saw Logan line up as a back he was getting the ball that play, what a joke. If he can’t come up with better ways to keep the opponent guessing next year I’ll be advocating for his head.

He did remarkably well with what he had. There was some iffy playcalling at times, but it didn’t happen a lot.

Due to Shaun Hill’s play the first 3/4ths of the season.

When you have as much talent as the Lions did, you really don’t have to do much to make it successful. You just need to put the players in the right position to succeed. To me, a C grade means slightly below average, and Im gonna give him that because his running game was way too damn predictable and because he didn’t pull out Best soon enough. He should’ve gone to Morris a good month before he did. Maybe the Lions would have won a game or two more if he had.

But after that Buffalo game, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The offense has been downright inept at certain times and a lot of that goes back to Linehan. The last six games made me think really hard about this but overall, Linehan was solid, much better than Bratworst all season.

Like the rest of the team, I think that his performance improved as the season went on. I’d say he started out in the “C” range, and ended in the “B+/A-” range by the end of the season.

I game him a B overall.

I think it is rare that you will agree with every play that is called by any coach. From the fans perspective it comes down to whether the play worked or not. During the course of an NFL game, it is guaranteed that every offense will have some plays that get shut down. The reason the play fails is rarely about the play call and usually much more about execution.

People complain about the play calls because the running game was struggling. But you had a running back that had shown some flashes of being a game breaker in Jahvid Best. If you understand the game, you realize that often the longest runs are in short yardage situations. The defense crowds the line and brings a lot of bodies in those situations. If you can get a couple of key blocks or your running back can make people miss, you can bust a play for big yardage if you can break the contain at the line.

So who was really at fault for those plays getting stuffed? My vote is on poor run blocking in the middle and the right side of the line. It is not a coincidence that the running game got better as Peterman got more healthy. The Lions need to get some depth at guard and center to resolve those problems and make the running game more consistent.

The other point I would like to make is that you cannot abandon the running game. The Lions used to do that and all it accomplished is to let the defense pin their ears back and come after the QB. If you want your passing game to work you MUST run the ball enough to keep the defense honest even if the running plays are not netting many yards.

I hope it works better next year with a good shoulder, two healed toes, and a fresh trench hog. You know Calvin is wide open.