Preseason Lowdown : Detroit Lions

football, preseason, teams, lions

football, preseason, teams, lions

What’s the story? 

Remember when the Detroit Lions went 0-16 in 2008? And then made it to the playoffs with a 10-6 record in 2011? And then lost multiple games in the final minutes of their 4-12 season last year? The Lions don’t seem to know who they are. Are they the 2008 team who couldn’t win a game or the 2011 team who made it to the playoffs or the 2012 team who stumbled through a mediocre season? It’s hard to tell, honestly, since they clearly have the capacity to be each. And hard to know why they can’t consistently be that 2011 team who made it to the playoffs, since they have such a wealth of talent on both sides of the ball.

Leader and commander:

Jim Schwartz. Fun fact of the day: Schwartz’s first job in the NFL was doing research for none other than the Hoodie, Bill Belichick, when he was the head coach for the Cleveland Browns. Schwartz has been the Lions head coach since 2009.

New kid on the block:

Reggie Bush, who the Lions picked up in free agency from Miami and are hoping will make the biggest impact at running back since the Barry Sanders days.

Last year was…

…confusing. What is a team who made it to the playoffs the year prior doing hanging out in the bottom of the pack? From the outside looking in, it seems like a maturity and discipline problem, not a level of talent problem. With Calvin Johnson on one side and Ndamukong Suh on the other and a whole bunch of good pieces to the puzzle in between…it just doesn’t make sense.

Survey says:

If the Lions preseason is indicative of their regular season, it’ll be another 4th place finish for Detroit. They won their first game (against the Jets…so, take that as you will) and got manhandled in their second game (against the Browns…so, take that as you will). But thankfully for Lions fans, preseason games rarely reflect anything worthwhile as it pertains to regular season success. They might be ranked lowest in the NFC North right now at 24th overall, but you never can tell how the bipolar Lions are going to perform once the season starts.

Author: Beka

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