Lions, The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

     The Lions looked GOOD for one half of football, but Drew Brees exposed the weaknesses of the Detroit D in the second half.   It got as BAD as it could when 2 TD passes were caught by uncovered Saints receivers.   Leaving those guys that wide open is nothing less than embarrassing.  Finally, Mathew Stafford made the UGLY mistakes of throwing 2 interceptions when there was still time left to mount a full on comeback.   Don't get me wrong, the Lions had an incredible season and did the city proud.   All Motown fans should be proud of how far they have come in such a short time.  Now it's time to take the next steps to furthering their playoff run in 2013.  My humble analysis includes these needs:




1) Go out and aggressively obtain some quality corners and safeties.   They have to be able to defend the pass better than their showing this year.  The Lions ranked 22nd against the pass, giving up 239 yards per game through the air - stinko!




 

2) Get more help at linebacker.   23rd, that's where they rank against the run.  More putrefied air.






3) Pick up a quality running back.   How low do they go in the running game - 29th, at less than 100 yards per game.   There is no smell adjective to adequately express their pathetic and anemic ground game.  I still hope to broker the deal of Nick Fairely for Jonathan Stewart (the Panthers will have to throw in a high round draft, as well), I'm standing by for Carolina GM Marty Hurney's call.







4) Develop Titus Young and Brandon Pettigrew into serious pass receiving threats to take the pressure off Calvin Johnson.

 


5) More live tackling drills, the playoff game showed definite lack of technique.








That's my take on it, we'll see how prophetic I was when next year rolls around.