No offense to you...but that's also because he's a fraction of the QB that Stafford is.

Very true. Smith would get buried if he were asked to do the things Stafford has to do.

So true, but I am not taking anything away from Smith though.

He is a fraction of the QB... if harbaugh asked smith to do what stafford was doing your still only looking at a 20-25 TD / 15-20 INT Season. But I think if Schwartz balances the offense it should help Stafford out immensely. He'd probably only throw for around 4000 yards and about 29-33 TD's a year (still incredible) but the turnovers would be minimal compared to this year. With an improved Offense it should hypothetically improve your D, it would then help make the opponent more 1 dimensional allowing KVB, Avril, Suh and co. to rush the passer without getting gashed by running backs like the Gore did. When I look at the D, I see a lot of really talented players... just because Saints dropped 40+ doesnt mean its broken lol.

I'll show another example so you guys dont think I only watch the niners lol, a great example of how this works is watching the Broncos and Tim Tebow. The pundits would say, its not Tebow its the Defense they're playing lights out. Well why are they all of a sudden playing lights out? look at the turnovers committed, when you guys dropped 40+ on them Tebow turned it over 2 times(3 fumbles 1 INT). Same story when they played BUF... generally when tebow keeps the turnovers to 0 his D will dominate. Now, if the broncos could move the ball like the Lions we're talking 11+ wins easy for them.

The Lions are one of those teams that could be 7-9 just as easily as being 13-3 because of turnovers...

With all due respect, turnovers weren't the problem for the Lions....on offense or defense. The problems were third down conversions on both sides of the ball. Teams were able to extend drives on the defense, particularly Green Bay and New Orleans in the final two games. On offense, it was the inability to convert short third downs late in the game AND burning time off the clock by using the running game. Mikel LeShoure, according to Schwartz, was drafted with the purpose of helping in that regard. It was a good plan, but the problem was that A) he got hurt, B) the offensive line doesn't get enough push in that predictable of a situation, and C) Linehan's plays aren't all that great so as to help the running game.

The Lions have to be able to convert more third downs, particularly in short yardage situations. But likewise, receivers need to hold onto the damn ball better in those situations as well. Pettigrew, Burleson, even CJ....I can recall several third down drops by them, and others, through the season. That simply can't happen at the rate it did.

I agree that improving the LB corps needs to happen as well, particularly on the weakside. Levy was a disaster. He should be relegated to backup for all three positions, and get an honest-to-God weakside player. Doug Hogue may be that guy, but we'll see. If the coaching staff thinks he is, then re-evaluate the middle spot, because Tulloch didn't impress. He was nothing more than a slightly improved version of Paris Lennon. Moreso, the biggest area of improvement needed is at safety. Spievey and Delmas started out the season OK, but did a backslide throughout the year. Somebody, ANYBODY, needs to pull Delmas aside and show him how to use his arms in tackling. Take him to a Judo or Jujitsu class, ask him to carry beer barrels in the off-season, tell him to lift the offensive linemen and carry them from one weight station to another.....whatever it takes, he needs to learn to use his arms to wrap up the ball carrier. I appreciate his life-like imitation of a pinball, but I'd rather not see it on the field of play. As for Spievey......he needs to be a backup, I think. Just hasn't got instincts, and his coverage skills are plain bad. I don't know how he got through Iowa as a corner, but as an NFL safety he couldn't cover a blade of grass if he were a blanket.

Well obviously turnovers are big. If your QB keeps turning over the ball it will be extremely hard on your defense.



This. The Lions sucked at stopping the Saints on 3rd down and they weren't much better at picking up the first down on 3rd down.

This

It's our offense, not our D that let us down in Cincy. If we would have taken advantage of those two turnovers, it would have been a different game. After the 2nd turnover and the subsequent 3 and out, NO marched right down the field, effortlessly, and scored. Our D was tired, dejected, and out of gas/emotion. Our offense never matched NOs intensity after that, failed to answer, and our D stayed in the dumps.

Fix the damn OL and this will be a MUCH better team.

I completely forgot you guys drafted Leshoure... and regarding the 3rd down conversions, thats something I didnt notice, and definitely not something I would have assumed as being a problem considering the yardage totals you guys put up. But then again I've been only able to catch a handful of the games, Niners/Raiders/Saints etc... not stopping third down conversions could be a sign of a tired defense as well... which a solid running game with some upgrades on defense could fix.

agree w most of the post, not the stuff on delmas. huge dropoff on secondary play when delmas went out. chris harris more to blame than spievey. spievey still very inconsistent maybe should be a backup but has a shot to stay as a starter. also, the lions D plays right, left positions, not strong/weak - doesnt matter if its DL/LB/CB

So we can score 50 points to win???????? Have you thought about the damn DB's??????

This is cliche' of a cliche'...but seriously, what are you guys smoking?

The offense is fine. I was in NO. That first drive...you have no idea how loud that stadium was, it was like a jackhammer. Stafford marched right down the field and picked apart NO like a knife through hot butter. He didn't even have a RB in the backfield for most of the plays! Then you have the comeback in Oakland, the SD game which was all the Lions O and the Chargers dropping balls..

The Lions have a top 5 offense. How much better does it need to get? You wanna challenge the 07' Patriots, the 99' Rams?

Yes, you can give your D a hand by running an O that controls the clock--but it works the other way, too. If your D can't force one ****ing punt, then your O literally has to play the game in a "we need to score on this down or we're ****ed" mode and then they do stupid stuff like run aggressive plays and throw picks (see Stafford at the end of the NO game, the end of the GB game).

If the Lions D could've forced just one or two punts, or caught one or two of those Bree's picks it would've been a completely different game. The O played nearly flawlessly--that was probably the best performance by the Lions O line in the last 10 years--and then got dumb in the 4Q because they knew they wouldn't get any help from their D.

The risk with the Lions O is that Backus and Raiola get old all of a sudden or their RBs keep getting injured. But Stafford is going to get better next year, his connection with CJ and his other receivers should get better etc.

Just get a D that can force one stop. And "they were gassed in the NO game" isn't an effective counter--they couldn't hold Brees at any point in the game, the beginning or the end.

I completely understand that we have to fix our offensive line. I really do. But can anyone REALLY think that its the offense's fault??? I mean come on. I think our defensive backs are much more to blame than our offensive line. I think other than not being able to run the ball effectively, our O-line has been fairly decent.

I just dont want to look back in a few years and see all the resources we spent on offense and have it be too late. Lets get ourselves another strong defensive player or two and then focus on the O-line. Just my opinion. Im sick and tired of watching our secondary get burned time after time and hear excuses of how its not their fault. When is it gonna be their fault??? I say it is now, so lets fix it. Period.

Good post. I just don't see where the upgrade can come from on Offense. Yeah we COULD get better in a few spots along the line, or maybe get some RB, but these are not huge upgrades. The little resources we have this year need to be allocated to the defense. An upgrade at CB and/or LB

I don't even think the O line is that bad.

Stafford wasn't touched during the NO game. The Lions don't have a healthy RB that would play for any other team in the NFL (Kevin Smith was literally sitting on his couch).

I don't think the Lions O line is great by any means, but it isn't bad. I think its average, and they played above average towards the end of the season.