Every championship team has a foundation upon which they have been built. The Green Bay Packers of the 1960’s had Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr and an outstanding defense. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 70’s had the Steel Curtain defense a talented offense and head coach Chuck Noll. The San Francisco 49ers of the 80’s had head coach Bill Walsh, Joe Montana and an underrated defense. Do you see the pattern here?
Even if we look at more recent times, the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990’s had Jimmie Johnson who turned them around with Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and an updated version of the Doomsday defense. Then, of course, there is the New England Patriots with Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and a defense that didn’t surrender many points.
All of those teams had multiple facets that worked together to allow them to become championship teams. Yet what do the Lions have?
Even if we toss the coaching out the window because it’s still too early to make a call on a head coach that runs a specific system or scheme without the players he needs to run it, the question of what the Lions have as a foundation or starting point to build upon still lingers.
For many, the default answer is probably Bob Quinn. Which may be the best answer we have at this time.
But how much of this team or the different facets of the game can the Lions actually hang their hat on?
Think about it, the defense has improved against the run the last few weeks, but the secondary spent their Thanksgiving being burned by a backup quarterback who had only started three games during his 10-year career as he bounced around the league with only one touchdown pass and one interception on his resume.
Enter the Lions defense and Chase Daniel posts an outstanding 106.8 rating for the game. Not to mention doubling his career touchdown pass total with two in the game without one single interception to show for the Lions secondary.
Yeah, I would say that performance could be considered a cry for help.