As the Detroit Lions season has progressed, the defense has started to soar while the offense has crashed. Will that impact their first pick in the draft?
The Detroit Lions, despite being mathematically still alive for the playoffs, are realistically just playing out the string of another disappointing season.
All the offseason hype and hope had been quickly flushed down the toilet on opening night as the New York Jets and their rookie quarterback Sam Darnold tore them apart in front of a national audience.
Two wins over quality opponents, the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers, turned into the typical Lions mirage of winning games they shouldn’t as they lost just about every game they should have had a chance to win.
More fools gold. They were just the ‘same old Lions’. Only this time they were led by a general manager and head coach that had more championships in their background than Lions fans could ever possibly fathom or shake a stick at.
Apparently, you can take the people out of a championship environment, but you can’t bring the championships with them. A simple and sad NFL fact that has played out many times before in league history.
How could a sad sack organization like the Detroit Lions believe they were any different than all the other teams in the league that have watched the same thing happen to so many of them?
The Lions were expected to be a one trick pony. A team that might learn how to run the ball a little, but would rely on their superior three receivers and comeback quarterback while the defense tries to figure out how to play Matt Patricia’s defense.
Instead, while the defense was utterly clueless, the offense became inconsistent and incoherent. For those of you scoring at home, that’s not a good combination.
Yet as the season rolls towards a merciful end to yet another cruel Detroit Lions season, there are a couple of surprising developments that have occurred which just might change how Bob Quinn and Matt Patrica do business in the offseason; a rushing attack that seems to be at least efficiently productive and the defense suddenly doing what it’s supposed to.