How they play matters
This past week the Detroit Lions football organization sent out a survey to their season ticket holders asking about everything from their satisfaction with the direction the team is headed to how they would rate their in-stadium experience at Ford Field. Excluding how the on-field product is performing right now that is.
Someone needs to tell me how the stadium experience can in any way, shape or form not be tied into the teams’ performance? If you’re paying good money to watch your favorite team, regardless of the sport or even record, isn’t their performance going to make up the majority of your level of entertainment?
Aside from winning, Isn’t your teams’ ability to play like professionals and be highly competitive on the field going to be the biggest difference between how satisfied or disappointed you are in your experience?
The 2019 Detroit Lions do not receive low marks for competitiveness. They have led in every game this season so far. The low marks come in the form of having such a spectacularly bad defense that they cannot hold any kind of lead.
If the Lions defense had been able to close out even half of the games they’ve lost this year, they would be battling for a playoff position today and justifying much of the hype that proceeded this season.
And most of the fans would be pretty satisfied.
Instead, what is the direction this team is headed? They embarrassed themselves last season with a lackluster 6-10 record and weren’t even that fun to watch in victory, although Lions fans should be happy to take any win they can get.
This season they have gone in two different directions. The offense under Darrell Bevell has become more diversified. After more disappointment in the rushing attack early, Bo Scarbrough has appeared out of nowhere to capture the fans’ imagination while helping to give the ground game some life.
Until Matthew Stafford went down to injury, he was one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this year and the Lions passing game was good. Real good. Like if they had only had a Bo Scarbrough in the backfield at that time to draw some of the attention of opposing defenses, they may have been special good.
But then there is the defense…