The Weekend Spotlight - Week 10 Edition - Follow Up Post

Cliff Avril forces a fumble on Jay Cutler, during an ugly game for the Lions.

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen, to the Weekend Spotlight, week 10 edition, follow up post.  As we all know, the Lions laid the proverbial egg in this one.  As such, it is with displeasure that I write this follow up post.  The Lions lost their 3rd game of the season, by the score of 37-13, as the Bears were able to create 6 turnovers and capitalize on every single one.  The Bear's offense was not even close to spectacular, and the Lion's defense was rather outstanding given the circumstances, but the Lion's offense just could not get on track.  There were a number of different issues that many fans (including myself) have discussed ad nauseum, including "the gloves", as to what happened and why the Lions lost to a team that they handled rather easily in the first matchup earlier in the season.  I'll talk about that a little bit, and then I will get down to recapping the short predictions that I made, prior to this game.  Of course, this is going to happen...after the jump...

First of all I want to share with all of you, a comment that I posted on a thread over at The Pride of Detroit:

I think the gloves made it worse, but the wind was the real issue. The Lions tried to throw too many middle to deep passes, and not nearly enough short, 3 step drop type passes. That is mainly the fault of the play calling, which falls on the head of Scott Linehan. All I kept thinking during the game was WHY, oh WHY, aren’t the Lions running the ball more? Maurice Morris averaged 4.4 yards per carry. Kevin Smith came in and looked GREAT. He averaged 4.75 yards per carry AND caught 2 passes for 10 yards.I know, the Lions were playing from behind and maybe they felt like they had to pass to catch up…but they were only down by 14 at the half! Stafford had a bad finger, wore gloves that clearly did not help his accuracy, and the wind was ridiculous! Why in the world would you NOT try to control the clock and RUN the ball when TWO of your running backs were averaging over 4 yards per carry?? I think they should have (for lack of better terms) pounded the rock ALL DAY on first and second downs, and then threw SHORT passes to pick up the first downs! I just can’t understand the seeming lack of common sense by our OC at times. The coaching staff blindly sticks to their game plan, regardless of what is and is not working. Stafford threw 63 passes? With a broken finger? In crazy wind?? Come on…The Bears were all over the middle and deeper passes. They had been giving a ton of space to TEs all season, yet they managed to shut our TEs down with ease. Why? Why didn’t Linehan make adjustments and call some different plays? Why didn’t he play to what was working, rather than clinging to the hope that the middle and deeper routes would suddenly come open?We can’t blame it all on Linehan. I understand this. Calvin Johnson, Nate Burleson, Tony Scheffler, and Brandon Pettigrew (I think) ALL had drops…and CJ and Nate both lost critical fumbles as well. Turnovers were what killed us (SIX of them), and those can only be blamed on Stafford, Johnson, Burleson, and the lack of adjustments by Scott Linehan. Lastly, the special teams play was terrible. The rookie punter either couldn’t punt the ball directionally, or nobody told him NOT to kick it to Hester. Either way, the difference in special teams was also palpable, and that difference also killed the Lion’s chances to win.The Lions were brilliant in a number of areas yesterday as well, to be fair. The defense was amazingly stout. The Bears only netted 216 total yards of offense. Compared to the 393 total net yards by the Lion’s offense, one who did not see the game would likely be scratching their head in confusion. That’s not even considering the fact that the Lions only committed 4 penalties for 53 yards, had 10 MORE first downs that Chicago (22 to 12), only gave up two sacks on Stafford (the same amount allowed by Chicago on Cutler), AND won the time of possession battle by 54 seconds (30:54 to 29:06)! Take away the punt return TD by Hester and the 2 pick 6’s, and suddenly the score is 13-16! However, the Lions were just 1 for 6 in the red zone and the only time they scored from the red zone was late in the 4th quarter, in garbage time, on a 10 yard pass to Scheffler. Why the Lions did not get at least 3 more field goals is beyond me (not really…just saying)! They did manage to get 2 FGs in the red zone (one from the 12 yard line and the other from the 18 yard line), but what happened on the other 3 times they were in the red zone? 2 INTs and a turnover on downs…Ok, so obviously the Lions weren’t going to kick FGs on 3rd down…which is when both red zone INTs occurred. They went for it on 4th down in the red zone because they were so far behind at that point that they pretty much had to go for it. So what it all comes down to is poor special teams play, turnovers, and bad coaching. Like someone else said already…the Bears did not beat the Lions. The Lions beat themselves.

That pretty much sums up my feelings for this past game, so now I am ready to move on to what I posted here, before the game, by starting out with the following quote:

The story of this game is how well the Bear's offensive line can protect Jay Cutler from our defensive line, and whether or not the Lions can stop Matt Forte from beating them single handedly.  Don't think that can't happen, because it very well could.  The Lions have to stop the run, force Cutler to make mistakes, and contain Forte in the passing game as well.  If they do these things, they will win.

While I do believe that this SHOULD have been the story of the game, it did not turn out that way at all.  The Lions DID stop Matt Forte from beating them single handedly.  They did pressure Cutler (2 sacks), and they also contained Forte in the passing game.  However, Jay Cutler did not make any mistakes.  In fact, he only attempted 19 passes and completed 9 of them for 123 yards (0 TDs and 0 INTs).  The Lion's defense pretty much shut down the Bear's offense, allowing just 216 total net yards of offense.  Yet, the Lions did NOT win the game, and actually it wasn't even close.  Why?  Matt Forte had a rushing TD in the 1st quarter, and that was the ONLY time the Bear's produced a TD on offense (he rushed for just 64 yards and caught 1 pass for 3 yards).  So what was the reason for the loss, when the Lion's defense shut down the Bear's main weapon on offense, and pretty much dominated the Bear's offense entirely?  The answer is turnovers, piss poor special teams coverage, and bad decision making by the rookie punter, our offensive coordinator, and Matthew Stafford himself.  Stafford threw 4 INTs in the game, and 2 were returned for TDs by the Bear's defense.  Devin Hester scored on an 82 yard punt return, and gave the Bears excellent field position EVERY time he touched the ball!  The Bears made 3 FGs as a result of Malone kicking it to Hester, the special teams coverage being lackluster, and the failure of the coaching staff to get Malone to kick the ball out of bounds.  Scott Linehan NEVER once adjusted his play calling, basically abandoning a running game that was producing a 4.58 ypc average and continuously dialing up middle to deeper passing plays!  We were only down by 14 at the half!  WTF?!?!  Stafford threw the ball 63 times, with a broken right index finger, wearing a brace and protective gloves, AND in ridiculous wind conditions.  Can you say DUH??  I know I can...

Next, I posted the injury reports for your information.  The most significant areas of that aspect was the fact that Ryan Donahue could not play, and Sammie Lee Hill was also a scratch.  Donahue's absence was possibly significant, considering the replacement punter's apparent lack of ability to kick directionally.  That may be a bit unfair, because of course it is possible that nobody told him NOT to kick the ball to Devin Hester, who was banged up coming into the game and listed as questionable.  Maybe the coaching staff was confident that our coverage team would be able to contain Hester, and as such wanted to prove that they were not afraid to kick to Hester.  If that was the case, however, it should have become rather apparent (uhh..can you say BLATANTLY OBVIOUS) that THIS was a BAD idea, as soon as Hester took the Lion's second punt of the game 82 yards to the house!  All ranting aside, here was my prediction for key player on the Lion's offense for the game:

On offense, I feel that the Lion's key player this week is going to be Brandon Pettigrew.  The Bears give up a lot of space to opposing TEs, and I look for Matt Stafford to utilize it.  Calvin Johnson will likely still be the leading receiver, but I look for Grew to be clutch in the red zone and as a safety valve for Stafford this week.

Um, yeah...5 catches for 38 yards was NOT what I had in mind.  The Bears had previously given up a ton of yards to opposing TEs, but against the Lions they did not.  In fact, they gave up just 8 catches, 75 yards, and a TD between Pettigrew AND Scheffler!  If Grew had gotten all 8 catches, all of the yards, and the TD, then my prediction would have been much closer to reality.  However, he did not, and my prediction therefore sucked.  I don't know whether the play calling was the issue, or if the Bears actually just tightened up a great deal against our TEs, but regardless of the reasoning Brandon Pettigrew was nowhere near the key player for the Lions on offense against Chicago.  That distinction certainly fell on the shoulders of Matthew Stafford, who actually did a great job spreading the ball to 7 different receivers in the game.  However, his 4 INTs were the true key to the outcome, and he held the success of the Lion's offense in his hands as usual.  That said, take away the 2 pick 6's and the Bear's still win by 10 points, so it wasn't ALL Stafford's fault.  Still, take away the 2 pick 6's AND the 2 other INTs, and add a TD and a FG in place of at least two of the Lion's 6 turnovers, and the game goes to OT.  Get another FG (making it 3 scores of the 6 turnovers) and the Lions win.  The back to back fumbles by CJ and Burleson just killed us, but the 2 pick 6's broke our backs.

And the prediction for key player on the Lion's defense:

Defensively, I feel that the Lion's key play this week will be whatever cornerback is matched up against Earl Bennett.  Since Bennett's return, he has clearly been the go to guy for Jay Cutler on passing downs.  Whether it be Houston, Wright, or somebody else guarding him, they need to shut him down.  I am also keeping a close eye on the linebackers this week, because they will be key to stopping Forte on first and second downs.  The defensive line should be a major factor as well, and if they can get it going against Cutler, it will make everyone else's job that much easier, as usual.

Yep.  Earl Bennett had 6 catches for 81 yards, and was absolutely key to several conversions for a first down by the Bears.  The Lion's linebackers did a good job stopping Forte, but Cutler and the Bears exploited them for it by throwing key passes to Bennett, behind them and in front of the safeties.  The defensive line was NOT a major factor in this game, as everyone should have expected, as the Bear's allowed just 2 sacks and did just enough to give their defense (who won them the game) adequate rest.  The Bears gained 109 net yards rushing and 107 net yards passing, with 1 rushing TD in the 1st quarter, and that was all they needed to do.  They certainly have no room to complain, as their opponent handed them the game on a silver platter.  Bennett was the key player on offense for the Bears, as 9 of their points came on FGs that were set up by passes to him.  If the Lions had shut Bennett down, the Bears would not have been able to convert those 3 FGs (35, 43, and 50 yarders).  Take away those FGs and the 2 pick 6's and the score would have been 15-13 Bears...and the Lions may have had a chance to win.

Lastly, let's recap my final score prediction for the game:

Man, I am tired of all of these so called "experts" who give Lion's opponents an advantage just because they are playing outdoors, on real grass, in the cold.  Guess what?  The Lions actually CAN practice OUTSIDE, on REAL grass, in the COLD!!  Wow...what a revelation...they're headquartered in MICHIGAN!  Playing at Soldier Field will not be the big advantage Bear's fans are hoping for, and the Lions will leave Chicago with a record of 7-2.  Lions win, AT Soldier Field, 31-17.

Ok...so I was right about there not being an advantage based on the air temperature or the fact that the game was played on real grass, outdoors.  However, the wind did end up being a disadvantage for the Lion's offense and the style of offense that they like to run.  That said, I still believe it was not the key factor to the Bear's win, and as such it was not a significant advantage, even though it was an advantage.  Turnovers and failure to get the Bear's offense off the field were the key reasons for this loss.  The final score was almost exactly the opposite of what I predicted, as the Bears beat the Lions 37-13.  And that is the end of this week's follow up post.

As they say, it's time to go back to the drawing board Detroit.  The Lions are still 6-3, and they are still a good team that has playoff potential.  Here is to the hope that they get back on track against Carolina, come out swinging and get a tough win against Green Bay on Turkey Day, and keep the momentum in our favor for the remainder of the season.  I'll see you all back here, later this week, for the Week 11 edition of your WS.  Until then Lion's fans, this has been KDawg with the WS W10E follow-up.  GO LIONS!