FanPost

Lions' Mayne's Preseason Game 3 Observations & Thoughts

  • The Lions were obviously excited to play this game against, likely, one of the best teams in the entire league this year and it showed. This was much needed after a poor performance overall in week 2.
  • Injury Report: I'm not worried about Calvin Johnson missing the game. Schwartz has been showing that they are going to be pro-active about injury management. I'm sure if it was a regular season game or the playoffs, Megatron would have played. It was also pretty great to see Louis Delmas out there, recovering that fumble that Quin caused. It seems like the Lions have been pretty smart about Delmas' injury management as he's dealing with knee tendinitis. How sad was it to see Montell Owens hurting his leg on the turf during a routine cutback? Ford Field's new turf has got me concerned about potential injuries for the players this season. Ziggy's knee injury looked to be something like a minor knee bruise. He soon came back out on the field and made a big run-stop on 4th & 1. (That run defense already looks better than KVB & Avril, huh?)
  • 1st Team Offense - first half: Reggie Bush is a legit play maker! People were mad at the dink & dunks last week vs the Browns (even though there were some deep pass routes ran by the WRs that they didn't get separation on), but we have officially seen what Reggie can do in open space out of the backfield if his teammates block for him. Wow that 67 screen/swing pass was stellar! Jason Fox, Larry Warford, Dominic Raiola, Matt Willis, and Brandon Pettigrew all made crucial blocks to help spring that pass forward. But once again, designed run plays looked atrocious from a run-blocking stand point on both sides of the O-Line. This has really got to get improved somehow before the season. However, after so many run plays this preseason we finally saw a single good run-block that Riley Reiff made to open a hole for FB Montell Owens. There are multiple options to do that, but I don't know which of those the Lions will pursue. We finally gave up a sack this preseason, but the pass blocking has generally been good because the Lions have decided to mask our O-Line weaknesses with a higher tempo offense/throwing the ball faster, even at the expense of more incompletions for Matthew Stafford. 16 points after 4 turnovers isn't really acceptable.
  • 1st Team Defense - first half: A lot of play-making was going down that first half. That showcase was the dream that Mayhew & Schwartz have had for years when they thought of building the defense from the D-Line to the back. 4 turnovers caused the first half and a 5th one almost occured due to Willie Young's QB pressure! Every player on our D-Line has gone out and proven that they deserve to be on the team and have flashed their potential, especially players who were questioned such as Jason Jones, Willie Young, & Ezekiel Ansah. The preseason isn't about caring about wins and losses. It's about evaluating individual talent and how those individual can be cohesive as a unit. Our DEs have undoubtedly shown they deserve to be here and all three of them could be starters. So that debate should be ended after the end of that game. Willie Young was balling, but made a knucklehead penalty after a great pressure on Brady. It's unacceptable, as he's done this 2 games in a row. I believe the coaches and his teammates will get him in line.
  • Joique Bell: Jim Schwartz and the coaches had better see that Bell is the definite no. 2 RB on our team. After last year and no this preseason, it's time to promote him. He's hitting his running lanes hard, running North to South, efficient in his movements, and being a smart pro with his opportunties. On top of that he's being elusive and making athletic moves even though he doesn't have game breaking speed.
  • Kellen Moore: Moore has undeniably proven himself people. He may have a weaker arm than a lot of QBs, but he's an accurate passer (which is more important than arm strength by itself). That reminds me of a young Chad Pennington, when he was healthy. I'm not sure if a Chad Pennington-type could ever been a 16-game starter again in the NFL, but Moore is a guy can perform under pressure. He's a proven winner in college. Even if he doesn't make the team, he's shown he can be a serviceable backup QB in the NFL and deserves the respect from all the Lions' fans, especially all the fans who use P.o.D. and have been overly-critical WHILE Moore has been accurate & making plays. Just ask yourself how many QB no. 3's are accurate in the NFL if you think I'm wrong.
  • Joseph Fauria: Looks very good. He shined while Michael Williams was out dealing with an injury. Running good routes. Faking defenders & creating separation. I think he deserves to make the team. Which means it could be soon that we see Martin Mayhew try to make a trade to get some assets for Tony Scheffler (perhaps trading him to the Patriots, who have been reported as of 8/22 to be fielding offers for an additional tight end). Even though we now know Michael Williams has a broken hand, he could be back before trade deadline even thought that's uncertain at the moment. Fauria has now got to stay healthy
  • Patrick Edwards: Some might believe the Lions WRs really don't have talent and didn't show much vs. the Patriots, but that's not really the case. Stafford displayed enough inaccuracy during the game over throwing Edwards twice. And Nate Burleson got held about 10 yards down the field that didn't really give him a shot to make a play on the ball, so we couldn't really see if the WR corp is improving or not. Stafford has really got to get his timing down with Edwards at the other players before Game 1 of the regular season. However, Edwards got to show a little bit of burst on a 6 yard short pass. I still think he'll get to show his talent off in the regular season.
  • Bill Bentley & Rashean Mathis: Bentley had a forced fumble and a pass defensed in the game, which was definitely a better showing for him. He gave up some catches too that didn't look too good. But he improved from game 2. Mathis had a pass defensed too, but it almost seemed like he had better technique than Bentley in the game. I'm not too sure about that though as I didn't see every one of his plays
  • Sam Martin: When the Lions drafted Martin, I thought they could have waited to the end of the 6th round, the 7th round, or acquired him as an undrafted free agent because I'm not sure how many NFL teams had him on their radar. However, he's shown his value during this preseason and I expect him to
  • David Akers: Had one FG miss, but he looked good. He's likely gonna be our guy. Sorry, Rugland! You've been good and I hope you get picked up by another team.
  • Penalties: Completely unacceptable personal fouls that we racked up. 11 Penalties overall. I will say that when Willie Young got his stupid PF that Israel Idonije quickly got on his case on the sidelines, which was good to see someone holding a teammate accountable. Hopefully the coaches get this under control or this will definitely cost the team some games, if not many games.

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