Game 5 Analysis

The curse of Bobby Lane may have ended, but the curse of bad officiating has not. I don't think I've ever seen so many blatantly bad calls (or lack of calls) in my entire life. Were the officials the difference in this one game? Yes, I dare say, they most certainly were. The Lions are not good enough to overcome that kind of thing.

Still, this game was interesting. Orlovsky may not be the next Peyton Manning, but he did okay for his first start... except for that bonehead safety when he stepped out of the back of the endzone. Then again, starting from the 1 yard line and having Colletto call 3 pass plays in a row (one of which CJ could maybe have tried a touch harder to catch) didn't help.

The defense played much much better. Of course they did so only when they were playing man and blitzing. Every time they played a zone (Tampa Two) defense they got yards gained on them. But for most of the game they blitzed and played man and they did tremendously better. Proving my point, it's not ALL on the talent and the players, it IS INDEED the scheme and the coaching as well !!!

Speaking of talent, Lenon still doesn't have much. He really and truly needs to backup Dizon (who got a few bad calls on special teams he shouldn't have gotten). Last week he ducked on a pass that just cleared his head as he was blitzing the QB and this week he was out of position a few key times as well. Not saying Dizon will play better, but even if he's only "just as good" he has much more upside, and when you are sitting at 0-5 you need upside, lots and lots of it.

It did appear the Lions were replacing guys who were struggling for a change. Too bad the coach will not replace ANY player who is struggling, just those he's not too keen on to begin with (or so it would seem).

Colletto and the offense are still a joke. The occasional good block is almost always wiped out by a penalty or sack in the same series of plays sooner or later. Less drops this week so maybe the WRs were a bit more focused... probably trying to help the newbie QB... but I do not believe for a second they have a shred of confidence in Colletto's ability to be the OC. I can't say as I blame them.

Sooner or later they need to play Cohen, Fluellen, and 5-0, as well as Stanton, to see what they have for next year, as DLine and QB will need addressing next year. But with some decent coaching and schemes (as in no! T2 or Colletto O), and with 4 Olinemen and 2 linebackers, this team could actually do something worthwhile on Sundays.

That being said, the Lions need to worry about the next game and it will be most interesting to me to see if Barry / Marinelli will continue to play the much more successful man coverage or if they will try to force feed the T2 to the team once again. As for Colletto, I pretty much figure the offense is a lost cause (as the WRs do) but who knows, maybe someone {cough Kippy Brown cough} can influence him somehow and ... oh man, what am I thinking, Marinelli isn't going to go there, he's put all his and Millen's faith into Colletto after firing Martz. That did succeed in getting rid of Millen however, so if he wants to get himself fired as well, keep up the good work.