Driving home yesterday, I heard not one but two radio personalities predicting a Lions victory over the Bears on Sunday. I know hope springs eternal, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's look at this situation logically...
First, the offense. Many foolish Lions' fans believe the Lions actually possess the superior offense. Not true. The Bears are not sexy, but they're effective. First, the quarterbacks. The Bears have former Pro-Bowler Jay Cutler with a career QB rating of 83.8. The Lions have bright young thing Matt Stafford, who led the Lions to a 2-14 record last year as a rookie and posted a 61.0 QB rating. The Lions may have the supreme Calvin Johnson at WR, but who on the Lions can keep up with Devin Hester (2 Pro-Bowls) or even the unheralded Johnny Knox whose 5 TDs matched Megatron's total last season?
Supporting Cutler and Hester, the Bears have Olin Kreutz (6 Pro-Bowls). That gives the Bears 3 former Pro-Bowlers on their offense. The Lions? Zero. Now, I know Pro-Bowls are not the end-all-be-all, but it shows the Bears un-sexy offense is significantly more accomplished.
The defense just gets uglier. Tommie Harris (3 Pro-Bowls), Julius Peppers (5 Pro Bowls, 81 career sacks), Lance Briggs (5 Pro-Bowls), and Brian Urlacher (6 Pro-Bowls). The Lions do counter with 2 Pro-Bowlers of their own with Kyle Vanden Bosch (3) and Julian Peterson (5), but the drop in talent after that is stark. The Lions front four might be solid, especially with new addition Ndamukong Suh, but the back seven is brittle to say the least. Rookie standouts from last year - Deandre Levy and Daniel Bullocks - are dinged up. Neither practiced yesterday and may miss the game. Without Bullocks, the secondary could easily be the worst in the NFL. In fact, they could be the worst in the league even WITH Bullocks. Folks, they're dreadful, and Hester should have no difficulty running wild.
Oh, and the Lions are also playing on the road, where they haven't won since 2007.
Still feeling good about Sunday?
Now, my point is not to poke holes in the Lions. I do believe that Schwartz & Co. are doing the right things. But, the fact is that Marinelli and Millen left this team in worse shape than an expansion team. At least an expansion team has the "Expansion Draft" where they can pilfer players from other rosters. The Lions had no such luxury, so it'll take even longer for them to build a winner. They've got too many holes, and the opposing teams will have no difficulty exploiting them.
Bears 38
Lions 13
And, since we'll be seeing Devin Hester on Sunday, that's all the reason I need to re-live this gem:
Chicago might just be Really Bad, too. I think that's where the optimism comes in. I've heard that a number of Chicago folks - who normally have ridiculous blind faith in the Bears - are even predicting doom and gloom.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think Mike Martz is going 3 or 4 wide all game long. He'll finish the first half with 4 rushes and 27 passes, and continue that way in the 2nd (unless the game really gets out of hand). The only chance for the Lions is to dominate both lines of scrimmage. One won't be enough.
Yeah, I agree the Bears could have a tough go this year. But, there's bad and then there's LION'S bad. That secondary... oof.
ReplyDeleteAnd no Levy? I dig Zack Follet's attitude, but it's sort of a sad statement when he's the starting LB.