Gridiron Heroes?

The Detroit Lions started competing in professional football in 1934. They stopped in 1958. The fourth quarter of last night’s Lions v. Packers 13-16 overtime debacle was a microcosm of the sad state of the Lions that has lasted for almost 5 decades, mostly under the ownership of the Ford family, the same people that brought you the Pinto and the Festiva.

The 4th quarter opened with the Packers making a field goal to erase the Lions improbable 10-point lead. That last sentence is like the opening of a horror movie to most Lions fans. History has taught us that this game was going to end badly. To the surprise of many, the Leos proceeded to embark on a 7 minute drive from their own 33 to the Packers 1/2 yard line, 2nd and goal, a scant 18 inches from the end zone. Let’s pause for a minute to review the Packers defense. The Packers undersized defensive backs have given up big plays all year long, the linebackers are stout against the run, but injuries have limited their effectiveness in coverage, and the defensive line is anchored by Grady Jackson, a 400 pound behemoth that you couldn’t move with a bulldozer, let alone an undersized center. Most competent, NFL quality, offensive coordinators would look at that defense and attack it at the edges with bootlegs, fades, crossing routes in the end zone, play action, or a sweep. To pull any of those plays off the Lions would need a scrambling QB (garcia), big WRs (the williams sisters), a veteran TE (pollard), and a decent RB (the lions are out of luck on this one unless #20 was to come running out of the tunnel nWo style* ). So that leaves bootlegs, fades, and crossing routes…but these are the Lions. 2nd and 1 – run into the left side of Grady Jackson, no gain. 3rd and 1 – run into the right side of Grady Jackson, no gain. Now the Lions have 4th and 18 inches with ~7:15 left on the clock, game tied, 4th quarter, on the road, with no running game to speak of. Prudence dictates you kick the field goal and take the lead. It puts the pressure on the other team and you’ll probably get the ball back if they score to tie or take the lead. Lions fans know that the probable result of the hypothetical field goal would be a Brett Favre touchdown pass with little time left on the clock, but still, unless you’re the coach of a high school team you must kick the field goal. Not the Lions. They march right up to the line of scrimmage, waste too much time, and are forced to call a time out. Now the Packers will have time to set their D, so the Lions have to kick the field goal, or not. The Lions offense runs back on the field to take a shot a 4th and 18 inches. They’ve run their 235 pound RB into the 400 pound Grady Jackson two times and didn’t gain a foot. The smart move is to get the ball away from the middle of the Green Bay defense and attack the edge. If they called me, I would have told them to run a bootleg to the right, fade Roy Williams to the corner and drag Pollard across the goalpost. But my phone didn’t ring and the Lions ran their 180-pound QB right up the middle for, surprise, no gain. Turnover on downs, Green Bay’s ball inside the one yard line. Now we just have to sit through the inevitable Packer march down the field to victory, except we forgot the part where the Lions do something right, to set up the punch in the gut that will come later.

*can you imagine Jim Ross if this happened? "ladies and gentleman the lions are in a heap a trouble right now….wait …what’s that music?…what happened to the lights?…OHMIGOD! BARRY SANDERS IS COMING OUT OF THE TUNNEL!!! BARRY IS COMING OUT OF THE TUNNEL!" It would be awesome.

Green Bay starts their drive with a false start, nice, now the prospect of a safety enters the equation. Now it’s 2nd and 10 yards, 9 inches. Brett Favre drops back and hand off to Samkon Gado deep in the end zone. He starts to run off tackle on the right side and the LIONS TACKLE HIM FOR A SAFETY!!! As Gado is going down he attempts to fumble the ball forward, out of the end-zone, in a sad attempt to avoid the safety. Flags fly and a referee’s conference ensues. After conferring for a few moments the referees announce the penalties are intentional grounding in the end zone, which the Lions accept for a safety, and holding, which is declined. The Packers coach calls the refs over, without having to use his challenge, and convinces them that Gado was technically out of the pocket and therefore he can’t intentionally ground the ball. The ref returns to the field, turns on his mike, and explains that the intentional grounding penalty was being waived off and the holding penalty didn’t take place in the end zone, and therefore, would not result in a safety. WHAT?!?!? ESPN goes to the replay, which clearly shows Tauscher tackling the Lions D-lineman on the giant letter "C"in the freaking endzone. Of course holding isn’t a reviewable play, so the Lions went from a 15-13 lead and control of the ball back to the 13-13 tie against one of the greatest QBs of all time. The Lions were left with their only option, to squander what remained of the game.

Amazingly the Lions D forced the Packers to punt with 3:20 left on the clock. The Lions would be getting the ball back with a little more than 3 minutes to go around their own 35. All they need is about 35 yards and Hanson will be in range for the game winner. The Lions line up, garcia is under center calling out the signals. The ball is snapped and Garcia drops back amidst a furious Packer rush. He looks to the right, and snaps a pass to Roy Williams who is wide open and running full throttle around the Lions 45. The pass is perfect and Williams will easily gain 25 yards, maybe even a touchdown…if he would have caught the ball. The Lions then run the ball once, just for laughs, then Garcia overthrows Chaz Rogers, and the Lions punt the ball away, leaving the Packers ample time to march down the field for the game winner. But once again the Lions D holds, buoyed by a 2nd down sack from Big Baby, and the Lions get the ball back at their own 20 with 1:02 left on the clock. The Lions have to make a tough choice. They can either try to move the ball downfield for the score, but risk giving Favre another shot to win, or they can run the clock out and go to overtime. Somehow they managed to do neither. Pinner gets a handoff on first down (o.k., they’ll be running out the clock) and inexplicably runs out of bounds to stop the clock. Once again the Lions hand off to Pinner on 2nd down, this time he stays in bounds, but he also picks up the first down and the Lions decide to call time out. Now it seems the Lions will try to throw the ball to win the game…too bad they just wasted all that time and a timeout to run the ball twice. Incomplete pass, incomplete pass and the Lions are staring at 3rd and 10 with :37 left. Now they should run the clock out and go to overtime. Garcia takes the snap and hands off to Bryson going around the right side. Bryson breaks through the line of scrimmage and then, ba-da-bump, runs out of bounds to stop the clock. That’s right, HE RAN OUT OF BOUNDS!?!?! All he had to do on that play was stay inbounds to keep the clock going, it didn’t matter if he gained a yard. He could have taken the handoff and laid down on the ground and it would have been better than running out of bounds. But, once again, the Lions defense held ground and the game would go into overtime.

Overtime started off with the referee losing the coin necessary for the coin toss. It’s always funny watching the line judge ask the ball boys if they have any change, maybe they should also ask for a rulebook for a clarification on what is and isn’t a safety. As an aside, if the ref’s get a copy of the rules they might want to review what the difference is between a forward pass and a forward lateral. Once the ref located a coin everyone was ready for the all-important overtime coin toss. Even this brings a moment of doubt for Lions fans (Marty Morningwhieg – "we’ll take the wind"), but the Lions lose the toss and the Packers take the ball to start the period. The defense starts off the overtime playing relatively well, they even seem to be about to force the Packers to punt. Then the last wheel falls off and the Lions D does something stupid. In this case it’s the aptly nicknamed Shaun "Big Baby" Rogers throwing Samkon Gado to the ground when he was out of bounds. Personal foul, 15 yards - now the Packers are in field goal range. The Lions, not wanting to make it too hard on the Packers, allow a 20-yard pass to Ferguson. After a couple of runs Ryan Longwell kicks a whopping 28 yard field goal and finally puts the Lions out of their misery, 16-13.

In this short span the Lions managed to get screwed by their coaching, offense, defense, and the refs. For all you optimists, there were 2 bright spots in the game. First, the last thing we need is Dick Jauron winning enough games for the Fords to hire him for next year. Winning a December game in Green Bay is the kind of game that would make the Ford’s irrationally excited. Second, the loss just helps the Lions move up the draft board. The annual NFL draft is like the superbowl for Lions fans and if the Lions continue to lose they might be able to sneak into the top 4 to draft their next bust QB and underperforming WR all in one package, Vince Young. It’s going to be like a Lions draft version of "The Perfect Storm". Maybe if we’re lucky they’ll also be able to pick up a slow, overhyped, tackle to go with him.

Forward down the field,
A charging team that will not yield.
And when the Blue and Silver wave,
Stand and cheer the brave.
Rah, Rah, Rah.
Go hard, win the game.
With honor you will keep your fame.
Down the field and gain,
A Lion victory!
GO LIONS!