Week Ten: Detroit Lions (5-3) @ Washington Commanders (3-6)

[Motor City Sonics]

I think what we saw last week was........

 

1.  The Vikings were coming off a bad loss and the Lions thought they had it in the bag going in.

 

2. John Morton really is a ****ty play caller

 

3. Football can be goofy.  The Dolphins are not better than the Bills.   The Panthers are not better than the Packers.    Lions fell into that trap last week.     

 

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Sports_Freak]

10 hours ago, romad1 said:

They never seemed to have the down and distance on the screen until the last second.  

I noticed that too. Very irritating.

[romad1]

3 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I noticed that too. Very irritating.

Another instance:  The lions are going for two?  Why?  What happened?   

[Sports_Freak]

13 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Another instance:  The lions are going for two?  Why?  What happened?   

And the time they said how good Lion fans traveled. They said there were 50 or 60 Lion fans at the game. Yeah, more like 5000 fans there.

 

Edited Monday at 01:31 PM by Sports_Freak

[romad1]

9 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

And the time they said how good Lion fans traveled. They said there were 50 or 60 Lion fans at the game. Yeah, more like 5000 fans there.

 

The elephant in the room might have had something to do with this.   It must have been a huge distraction to the broadcast.  

[holygoat]

43 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

And the time they said how good Lion fans traveled. They said there were 50 or 60 Lion fans at the game. Yeah, more like 5000 fans there.

 

I'm pretty sure he said "the crowd is around 40-60 Lions fans," which I interpreted to mean 40% Lions fans based on the context. So while it was awkwardly stated, I don't think they were trying to say there were fewer than 100 Lions fans in the crowd. 

[RatkoVarda]

13 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

This does not bode well for John Morton.  

obviously, something has been off all season.

Ben Johnson was with the team for 3 years, include a half year as passing game coordinator (quasi offensive coordinator), before getting the coordinator job. He knew these guys and how to use these guys.

Maybe Morton will be better in 2026? the problem is, he may not have/understand the mixture of ground & pound and aggressive play calling that Dan likes. And they do not have time to wait for him to get up to speed.

Edited Monday at 02:34 PM by RatkoVarda

[Sports_Freak]

29 minutes ago, holygoat said:

I'm pretty sure he said "the crowd is around 40-60 Lions fans," which I interpreted to mean 40% Lions fans based on the context. So while it was awkwardly stated, I don't think they were trying to say there were fewer than 100 Lions fans in the crowd. 

That makes more sense. The broadcast showed Lion fans all over DC. The guy going color on the broadcast (Vilma??) was/is pretty bad.

[Sports_Freak]

15 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

obviously, something has been off all season.

Ben Johnson was with the team for 3 years, include a half year as passing game coordinator (quasi offensive coordinator), before getting the coordinator job. He knew these guys and how to use these guys.

Maybe Morton will be better in 2026? the problem is, he may not have/understand the mixture of ground & pound and aggressive play calling that Dan likes. And they do not have time to wait for him to get up to speed.

He's supposed to be an expert pass game coordinator. Dan said he still got a lot of input from him. I did notice we didn't run many trick plays. The 4th down pass play was kind of a surprise but it wasn't really a trick play.

[Jason_R]

Reading between the lines of what Dan said, he highlighted Morton’s background is as passing game coordinator but hinted he seemed to be struggling to integrate the run game. Nothing we didn’t already know. 

It was nice to see that this OL can still blow people off the ball, despite some personnel changes. They will need it next week. It was also nice to see Goff get the ball out quickly and decisively. He is like Drew Brees. He relies on pre-snap reads, quick processing, and timing. With the speed this team has, it makes no sense to have Goff hold the ball in the pocket. 

[RedRamage]

16 hours ago, holygoat said:

My god, this production crew is awful.

It sure feels like SOL broadcasts.

[RedRamage]

16 hours ago, holygoat said:

It's a smart play. WASH gets the ball at the 25.

Yeah I missed that the first time too. I thought an Out of Bounds went to the 40, but I guess not if you kicking from the closer on?? Not sure on the rule, but obviously the Lions knew the rule and took advantage both times.

[RedRamage]

16 hours ago, Jason_R said:

I am not a fan of the new kickoff rules. As if we needed to legalize the game any more. 

Honestly... I kinda am. I was skeptical at first and I do still very much dislike that that the surprise onsides kick is no longer available.

But, that said I like that it's not 90% of the time kicked into the endzone for a touch back. I like that there are returns happening. I think the way the team are lined up prevents high speed collisions so reducing injuries.

[RedRamage]

15 hours ago, NYLion said:

Hard to tell which is true today, that Dan Campbell is a much better playcaller than John Morton or that the Commanders are really bad? Probably both

[RedRamage]

14 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

Win/Loss/Tie record for individual players is a stupid stat. I mean I'm happy for Stafford that he gets to play on a winning team, but really this super duper highlights why it's a stupid stat. Do we really think that Stafford's talent level is increasing as he's getting older? 

[RedRamage]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

And the time they said how good Lion fans traveled. They said there were 50 or 60 Lion fans at the game. Yeah, more like 5000 fans there.

I thought they were talking percentages.

[Motown Bombers]

Montgomery and Gibbs both had exactly 15 carries. Raymond, St Brown, Laporta and Williams all had at least 4 catches. Lions were only in one 3rd and 10+ all game long. These were the same old Lions. 

[MichiganCardinal]

25 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

Yeah I missed that the first time too. I thought an Out of Bounds went to the 40, but I guess not if you kicking from the closer on?? Not sure on the rule, but obviously the Lions knew the rule and took advantage both times.

Rule says the receiving team gets it 25 yards from where the kicking team kicked off. So normally, that's the 40. After a defensive penalty, that's the 25. After an offensive penalty, it would be the +45, basically field goal range.

[Sports_Freak]

48 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

I thought they were talking percentages.

Maybe he was. I kinda tuned that guy out, he is way too long winded and never seems to shut up.

[Sports_Freak]

59 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

They showed several Washington defensive stats during the game that showed they were near the bottom of the league. They are a very bad defensive team. We'll get a better read next week, playing in Philly.

[lordstanley]

 

[Motown Bombers]

Washington reminds me of the Giants. Daboll came in and had a surprise seasons where they beat a lot of bad teams, made the playoffs, and then upset their first opponent in the playoffs before getting blown out. They then doubled down on that season and have been one of the worst teams since. That's what Washington has done. I was surprised to learn Washington has the oldest team in the league and it's not really close. They were supposed to be rebuilding. The future of this team does not look great. 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[sagnam]

9 hours ago, RedRamage said:

Honestly... I kinda am. I was skeptical at first and I do still very much dislike that that the surprise onsides kick is no longer available.

But, that said I like that it's not 90% of the time kicked into the endzone for a touch back. I like that there are returns happening. I think the way the team are lined up prevents high speed collisions so reducing injuries.

The rule is working to fix the problem it was designed to address, returns. And it’s closer to actual football than the old kickoff rules that featured wedges and wedge busters. I’m curious if someone can figure out a way to incorporate surprise onside kicks. I think maybe adjusting the landing zone to allow for shorter onside kicks and to make receiving team blockers play off the line. That might lead to slightly less yardage on each return, if the coverage team can get a little more depth before reaching a blocker and clogging up return lanes.

 

Honestly, the rule is pretty good if one doesn’t pine for the good old days that really were that great.