Enough Excuses We Were Out Coached

Does talent play a role as to why the Lions are 0-3, yes. Losing your #1 QB is bad, Losing your #2 WR when there is nobody to replace him is horrible, and losing your #1 RB to top it all off is so unbelievably bad all you can really do is shake your head.

Through 3 game even with the injuries piling up, coaching could have easily turned two if not all three of our losses into victories. Let me start with my favorite target since week 1 of this year, Scott Linehan. Now Scotty's play call hasn't just bothered me this year, no, his play calling has bothered me since he was hired. From a article I wrote last November...

"I just don't believe in Scott Linehan at all; I'm willing to give him till the end of next year to show me something, but right now, he really isn't. Yeah, it's the players' first year in his system, but his system looks like crap."

"I swear that I sit there every Sunday feeling like a physic when the Lions offense is on the field. The worst part about it is the plays I'm predicting don't match the situation the Lions are in on the field. Case in point, if I see a 3rd-and-short, I predict pass because that's what this genius usually dials up, no matter how many times it burns us. Even if they are in a position where they have to go for it on fourth down if they don't convert, it's still a pass!”


"Linehan has managed to take us from crap to crap, but we're all okay with it because we have low expectations."

Linehan tried pounding the ball with Best up the middle all game in Chicago and it didn't work. He came back in week two and ran Best up the middle on 3rd and short against Philly then Schwartz let him do the same crap on 4th and short. Shockingly we didn't pick up the first and the worst part about it was we were in field goal range. This week against the Vikes I think it was Morris they tried it with but we got the same result, if Linehan is dead set on running right up the middle in those situations why not use Felton? Jahvid Best is more talented? Very true but how many times do we have to get stonewalled on 3rd or 4th and short before Linehan realizes that JAHVID BEST IS AN OUTSIDE THE TACKLES RUNNER! I'm not saying Best can't run up the middle but obviously he is better in space not trying to pound the ball up the middle with 8 or 9 guys in the box.



I’m sure everybody noticed the quote that doesn’t quite match up well with the others, last year I was complaining that Linehan always passed on 3rd and short and it burned us, this year I’m doing the same thing because he’s running and its burning us. Smith is 6‘’1 around 220, Best is 5‘’10 around 200, Linehan should have rolled out some of these HB Dives last year for Smith instead of trying to pass it on 3rd and short all the time. This year it seems as though watching HB Dives on you tube during the offseason has become Linehan’s new fetish of choice. Running the HB Dive a a couple times is fine but running it to the point where every fan watching at home knows your going to run it is downright stupid. There are things called HB pitches, there are HB off tackles, there are HB sweeps, there is even something called a play action pass. When everybody is stacked in the middle waiting for your small speedy HB to try to pound the rock between the tackles, good teams usually utilize one of the plays I’ve mentioned to pick up first downs. If Linehan doesn’t stop being so damn predictable I hope Schwartz takes Linehan out for dinner at the end of the season and buys him a big plate of “Your Ass Is Fired”.



Next on my **** list is Gunther Cunningham aka Rod Marenelli. What the hell was Gunther thinking this week against the Vikings? I seriously can’t come up with an explanation as to why we were letting the Vikings negate the talent on our defensive line by having the CBs playing 5 to 10 yards off. We could have had 4 clones of Reggie White playing on our defensive line today and it wouldn’t have mattered because as soon as Farve got the snap his was chucking it to the outside for an easy completion. It went on all game and I honestly don’t remember us adjusting to it and playing press any, it was kind of like having Rod back.



　

Last but not least is Schwartz and the special teams, again I’ll revert back to the articles I wrote last November...




“Secondly, does Schwartz not realize that not one person who the Lions have trotted out there has even resembled a competent kick returner?

We started the year with Aaron Brown taking kicks, but the Lions figured they would get more production out of Derrick Williams. Well, it hasn't happened and Williams' stats are actually worse than Brown's. On punt returns, we have Dennis Northcutt—do I even need to say anything else? It's Dennis Northcutt.

Meanwhile, the Lions had a good college kick returner on their practice squad in Tristan Davis and they cut him. I also wrote an article earlier in the season about the many good free agent return men out there.

However, the Lions still stubbornly continue to handicap themselves on special teams and on offense since they're getting horrible field position. So I guess Schwartz is okay with the fact his team will never have good field position. “

　

Anybody else think this sounds eerily familiar? If Stefan Logan isn’t cut this week it’ll do nothing but make my argument stronger and make me think I stepped into a time machine and went back to last year.