The Detroit Lions Quiz (2000-2009): Test your fandom!

Answer: Whoever was playing against the Lions

I don’t think there’s any stat that better sums up the 0-16 season besides this one. Okay, 0-16 sums it up pretty well too, but you get the idea.

Technically speaking, Phillip Rivers led the NFL in QB rating in 2008, with a score of 105.5. However, the cumulative total of all quarterbacks during games against the Lions was… a barely believable 110.8. Okay, barely believable in the sense that it’s a pretty high number. However, for those of us who watched the games that season, 110.8 actually sounds a little low.

Matt Ryan started it off on the very first pass of the season, a 62 yard touchdown. That was Ryan’s only TD on the day, but he finished his first career start with a rating of 137. Aaron Rodgers, in his second career start, torched the secondary for 3 TDs and a 117 rating the next week.

It wasn’t just future MVPs padding their stats either. J.T. O’Sullivan posted a 123 rating in Week 3, Kyle Orton went off in Week 4, Matt Schaub in Week 6, and so on.  Any quarterback in a slump just needed to face the Lions’ league-worst defense for the chance to be an All-Pro for an afternoon. Most took that opportunity and ran with it (threw with it, to be more accurate).

In fact, the two worst performances against the ’08 defense came from a former Lions quarterback, Gus Frerotte. Frerotte posted ratings of 82 and 50; not coincidentally, these were the two closest games of the season. Unfortunately, one of those matchups also happened to be the infamous Dan Orlovsky game.

6. Who was the only Lions player to be named first team All-Pro between 2000 and 2009?

(a) Eddie Drummond

(b) Dre’ Bly

(c) Calvin Johnson

(d) Jason Hanson