FanPost

The View of Lions Dominating the Bucs From Section 329


What a great game! Thorough and complete domination. The only way the Bucs could move the ball was with penalties.

Matthew Stafford is a great football player. Period. People who call in shows or write on sites about how we need a QB just plain don't know what they are talking about. Watching him live the last 2 weeks, you realize how incredible he is. He threw BBs all day, threaded the needle on numerous passes. And his deep throws, incredible. 60-70 yards in the air and on the money. I cannot explain why a total cover 2 team like Tampa suddenly plays a single safety so much, they are begging for a deep pass to Calvin, and they got it. When you watch Stafford in person, and compare him to the other QB like McKown, it is embarrassing for the other guy. And he really sees the field and reads the defense well. I think there was only one play all day where he threw to the wrong guy, Tate was wide open pretty deep one play and he didn't see him. There was a third down play near the goal line where he missed a chance too, had Calvin and Tate on one side, and Fauria and Ross on the other, same coverage on both sides of the field, and he threw it to big Joe incomplete. Calvin and Tate were both open there.

I though Suh was gonna permanately injure McKown on a couple plays, ,enormous hits. That takes guts to hang in there like that, McKown reminded me of Eric Hipple, who I will always say was the toughest QB I have ever watched. Not the best, but one brave SOB.

This was the first game of the year that our entire regular offensive line played, and they were much better. Waddle played great, I thought, but I iwill see if PFF scores agree with my assessment. It looked like Swanson played for a short time in place of Warford, and we gave up a big hit to Stafford then. We still lack in run blocking though.

Every time we brought in Collins, Tampa countered by bringing in number 49, an extra LB. And we could not run against that at all. We have no luck running the ball against a team stacked against the run at all. We should run out of 3 WR formations, spread out the defense, then run against pass defenses, much easier to do.

The time early in the game that we went for it on fourth and one, I thought that was a blunder. They had an 11 man box, and we ran right into the middle of it and got nothing. Why remove Calvin and Tate ever, if we leave them in and split them wide, they cover both and back off both safeties, thus a 7 man box. If they don't back off the safeties, throw it. We are not a 3 TE and 2 RB team, stop trying to be one.

The substitution patterns still drive me nuts, but one play in particular. We had first and goal from about the 9 and ran Joquie for about 7 yards to the 2. On the play, Lavonte David got hurt and there was a lengthy delay. Because of the delay, every player got a rest, all were available for a second and goal at the 2. We then substituted Winn for Bell, and tried to throw a quick pass. Tampa blitzed, Winn totally whiffed on his block, and Stafford got sacked. Why was Winn in there over Bell? No logical reason, he is not as good a runner, or blocker, or receiver as Bell. DUMB ! Luckily we scored after the sack, nice pass to a twerking Big Joe.

On the play where Ihedigbo intercepted and then fumbled, that was right in front of us. He had no chance to get near the 20 after he caught it. Clearly should've taken the knee. Even if the guy who he didn't see wasn't there, he wasn't getting very far. Bad decision.

Just before that play on a third down, Tampa completed a pass along the sideline that Evans seemed to bobble, only saw one replay at the stadium, but it sure looked like a play that we should challenge. We did not, foolish. Caldwell has only challenged one play all year, that one was very iffy, looked incomplete both live and on replay to me. Maybe it looked different on TV.

Mike Evans pushes off on almost every pass play, and it never got called. Jackson does it too. Could've called 3 or 4 off PIs on Tampa easily.

Tampa scored with 5 seconds to go in the first half. Shouldn't happen. We could've just tackled the receiver if necessary, taken the PI, and they would've had to kick a FG or run out of time. No way a back shoulder fade should work there. Plus, you had to know that was coming, only offense they had was throw it up to the big guys and hope.

Reggie Bush was not healed yesterday, playing on 1 and 1/2 legs. Not effective either. Riddick should've been in there.

On the early play where Fauria got hurt, the guy who tackled him clearly twisted his ankle really hard after he was down, basically attempting to injure him on purpose. He should get a huge fine for that, I hope the Lions pursue it.it was really obvious.

The Vikings game next week is going to be a tough one, they are better than they were last time. Huge game.

I am debating going to Chicago for the Bears game, but I'm not going in bad weather. We will see, but that would be fun.

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