2015 - Week #6 Detroit Lions vs Chicago Bears @ Home

Okay.

The 1-5 Detroit Lions beat the 2-4 Chicago Bears at home 37-34 in overtime with just under 3 minutes to go giving the Lions their very first win of the 2015 season. It wasn't a great win, not dominating in any regard, but it wasn't a loss either, it was, in a word, okay.

Mathew Stafford was 27 of 42 (64.29%) for 405 yards 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. More importantly, the Lions managed 155 yards running even though Bell was inactive and Ameer Abdullah spent a lot of the game on the bench after losing yet another fumble earlier in the game. Zach Zenner who looked good in his reps in the 1st quarter also left due to injury. The second leading rusher was Stafford with 38 yards on 6 plays. Overall there were fewer errors in the game in blocking, passing, catching, and so forth but the defense allowed a FG game tying drive in the final 21 seconds of the 4th quarter to let the game go into overtime. Coaching was at times good, and other times exceptionally questionable, but in the end they won and that makes it okay. One change of note was the QB coach was on the sidelines while Lombardi the OC was up in the box... a move that seems to have helped.

The Lions play at home next week against the Vikings and the week after in London against the Chiefs before their bye. Both are winnable games but they will have to do much better then just okay. There is a chance now that the coaches are at least starting to move the team in the right direction (no idea why it took them 6 weeks plus 4 weeks of preseason though) and the players are beginning to execute at least some plays with precision, but that's a long way from saying they have it all figured out. We are only 3 losses away from talking 2016 draft, I had expected after today for it to be only 2 more weeks, but that's okay, I'm really not ready to talk draft just yet.

In fact, I'm not ready to discuss salary cap space, free agency, new front office personnel, or a new coaching staff either but had the Lions lost today I certainly would have at least been going off on a large part of the latter. I'm fairly certain I will eventually but this win gives me (and everyone else) at least another week or two. Can the coaching staff continue to fix themselves while they also implement weekly game plans for the players they have healthy enough to play? Are they willing to even admit they are a part of the problem, even if it's not public? I suppose that will be the question each week for the foreseeable future. One we won't get an answer to but only the results of, and if they can find a way to win games then they too know they will be okay.