Entertaining.
Well, it would have been if I could've seen more then 10% of the game. I was forced to watch it online and the feeds were pixelated horribly. However, I did get to see many of the key plays and was able to participate in the excitement that this game eventually had in it. Even though the Lions lost, it was a very entertaining game.
It didn't start out that way. Too many mistakes and bad play that seemed to be just getting worse and worse as the game went along. As half-time was about to began I posted in the MLive forum that Schwartz needed to bench Culpepper and play Stanton, not because I expected better QB play, but because the whole team needed a slap... something to wake them up. I got laughed at, of course, because so many seem to think that Stanton really would play QB better then Culpepper even without practice snaps most of the season with the starters, but I was proven correct.
The Lions got a spark, played to tie in the 3rd quarter (their best 3rd quarter all season) and only started to get lax in the 4th. They tried to rally again and fell short, but that is what made it so entertaining.
Meanwhile, the coaching staff is starting to figure out who needs to sit even during a game and who needs to get talked to in order for them to respond on the field. I am not so sure all the players have quite figured out yet that repeating the same mistakes will not be tolerated. Or maybe they do know it, they just aren't able to actually play mistake-free ball. That too is an important thing to learn. It's one thing to practice well, it's another to step it up when the team needs you to in a game. This coming off season should be nearly as interesting as last year. It's a shame that without a new CBA that free agency is going to be so... thin.
The coaches are figuring out how to motivate the players to finish the year without any chance of playoffs and in the end, this will make the team stronger.
Now if only Stafford could get healthy to continue his on the job training. He isn't ready to put the team on his shoulders and carry them just yet, but of the 3 QBs on the roster, he too is the most entertaining. And that is what the big picture of NFL football is all about, entertainment.
2 comments:
I was at the game, at you could feel it in the stadium when Stanton came. It wasn't even that fans were exdecting him to light it up, but that feeling that coach schwartz "got it" and knew that doing the same thing in the second half that he did in the first would only lead to a repeat of that half. Benching culpepper seemed to light a fire in the whole team. Even after Stanton's INT the defense came out ready to smack Arizona in the face, and they did.
The draft picks sure do look good -- including Williams finally making some consistent KOR. My brother was with me at the game, and he noticed Levy's speed on ST when he came from behind and across the field to zip in and nail Breaston (or the returner - couldn't tell if it was him) to stop what was close to being a KR TD.
I think Roary could've been installed at QB and the same feeling of change would've taken place. It was simply time.
It didn't last the rest of the game, that's the problem with emotional games, they just don't last unless everyone stops making mistakes... that didn't happen and they started to tank again. The monkey is not yet off the backs of this team... and it'll take more playmakers who can help with these feel good momentum changes to make the team get over it. A few more in this upcoming draft, real play makers, and the entire roster will suddenly appear better then it has.
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