lions post game thread

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Originally Posted by Caine

I pretty much agree here.

I am impressed by Peterson coming back and being so strong.

I loved the Defense stepping up and shutting Detroit down series after series.

Special Teams was fantastic.

The O-line was solid.

Ponder was.....ummmmm......well.....Ponder was on the field and didn't throw any picks. :think:

I spent years bagging on Jackson for riding the Defense and Peterson to victory...that's what Ponder did today. :irked:

111 yards passing. 3-12 third down efficiency. The vast majority of his completions were dink-n-dunk chip shots.

The Ponder-lead Offense was responsible for only 6 points. Special Teams and the Defense did all the heavy lifting.

I'm not throwing in the towel on Ponder, I'm simply being fair. It was exactly this type of play that soured me on Jackson. Ponder needs to step up and make plays if he is truly going to be the "Franchise" guy.

I thought some of the offensive play calling was moronic - quit trying the "cute" plays. We have a hard time making the basic ones work, let's not waste drives on trick plays that trick no one.

I thought the rest of the team did a GREAT job delivering a solid performance. Hats off to the D and Special teams. They get my "game ball" award.

Caine

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I am not so sure it was Ponder being average, it seemed to me it was play calling. It was different today. Even that direct snap to Harvin near the goal line seemed disjointed. The passing game to Harvin and Rudolf was not as apparent today. I am not sure if it was because they took it away or if we just called different plays. Peterson was averaging 8 yards per carry and yet we continued to mix in the passing to not be predictable. Anyway, Ponder is still growing as a QB. He has a ridiculous completion percentage, 70% coming in to the game. I am looking forward to seeing how Ponder and Musgrave can utilize Simpson in the upcoming game. Can Ponder consistently put the ball on Simpson down field like he did on the last throw to him down field?

Anyways, we are 3-1. I am not impressed, we beat the 9ers and got beat by the Colts. Half our games so far have been the bottom dwellers from last year that we should beat. We should have beaten the Colts.

I may be a little pessimistic in my post, but I am not convinced about knowing we know who we are. If Peterson can run like he did today and the short passing game comes back we could finish well this season, especially with the limited INTs we have from our QB.

We are 3-1. To be in this position at this point of the season is certainly meeting any realistic expectations. We are 4 games into the season and already equalled last years record so there is no denying we have an improved team. We still may not get to .500 but even if we don't the improvement is there.

I don't think there is anything we can do but praise the team for what they have done and to keep an open mind knowing that we may not finish the season at a .750 clip but that we are moving in that direction barring injury.

LOL The pessimism on here CAN get cloying at times. Sometimes, I wonder if the "realists" actually broke down and tried some of the purple Kool-Aid, if they'd just bitch about it not having enough sugar. :p

Gripe all ya want...personally, I enjoyed the Division win (on the road), and am basking in the ambience of being at the top of the Division after 4 weeks. On the heels of that, I can also say with a straight face that we have a real shot at a 8-2 or even 9-1 record going into the bye week. The Cardinals are 4-0, yes, but they had to go into OT against a crappy Dolphins team, so maybe they aren't the "juggernaut" their record suggests. Also, 4 out of our next 6 games are at home.

Am I crazy/delusional? Do I think our team is perfect, with no room left for improvement? Absolutely not. I realize that our Offense stumbled today...but the other units stepped up and carried the load, and that is what turns what could have been a loss into a WIN. Bring on the Titans!!!

JMO

[QUOTE=skum;1129334

And finally.. Calvin Johnson is Harrison Smiths b....!! haha[/QUOTE]

Glad I'm not the only one who thought that. Is it me or is Harrison Smith a young Antoine Winfield? He hits like a tank

Thought it was a great game. We won. We didn't need the offense. I think the play calling was conservative to reduce risk ... it's that simple. Don't know if I agree with it ... but I'll take the win.

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Originally Posted by NodakPaul

I didn't say that there weren't any dropped passes - I said that they weren't as big of a factor as you or your lions friend are implying. I think the punt to the 2 yard line, the turnovers, or holding their rushing game to 40 yards, or holding Megatron to 54 yards, the defensive pressure, the punt return, the kick return, etc made more of a difference.

Why must you always blame the Vikings for any failures but credit their opponents for success? Good Lord, the Vikings D played a great game, as did the special teams. Can't you give them some credit? You didn't have a single positive thing to say in your post - not one. The closest you came was saying you agree with Caine's post (which did have some positives) but then you bolded everything in his post about Ponder and the offense and complained for the next six paragraphs. Did you miss the fact that this was a WIN?

I'll wait while you sputter some reply about being a realist or how you don't have enough faith in Ponder to be happy or how you are sure we are over performing or something like that... We are 3-1, are exceeding expectations, and are seeing a lot of promise out of some of our young players. I agree that the offense did not perform today. But the defense and special teams did, and I'm not going to brush off their performance by thanking God for "all the dropped passes by the Lions."

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Why must you ALWAYS insinuate I'm blaming the Vikings & claim I'm not giving them credit?
I agreed with Caine which meant I agreed with them, gave credit where credit was due & didn't have to restate;

I am impressed by Peterson coming back and being so strong.

I loved the Defense stepping up and shutting Detroit down series after series.

Special Teams was fantastic.

The O-line was solid.

What part of agree don't you get?

I didn't say much about Ponder other than I thought he had some bad throws & looked as if he was locking down on 1 receiver. You yourself stated that you were disappointed with their passing game. Others did as well. But, you aren't jumping down their throat, no one's jumping down your throat for it & you certainly didn't jump down Caine's throat for what he said about Ponder.

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Originally Posted by NodakPaul

Disappointed in the passing game.

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I dwelled on the bad play calling as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you weren't happy with the game plan either, but I'm getting bagged on for mentioning it.

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Originally Posted by NodakPaul

They were having success with the short, accurate passing game before, but it seems like they went away from it today. Maybe because Simpson was back... iDk. But they need to get back to it.

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I'll say it again, whether you agree with it or not, I thought the Vikings played to damn conservative in the second half.

I thought the defense played and exceptionally great game, especially at getting pressure, shutting down CJ and I thought Sanford, who you don't like, played decent except for that first PI call.

Yes, I was grateful for the dropped passes, call me what you will, but those did factor into our win, especially the touchdown drop, but that doesn't mean I don't think the defense played great. Of course though, that's what you tell everyone else I meant.......as per usual.

Our offense sputtered yesterday. We put up 2 FG's in 8 drives. You can be happy with that if you want, but that concerns me & I believe we can & should do better. Our special teams played outstanding, but we can't rely on them always having games like that & putting up the bulk of our points.

That's my opinion, one that I'm entitled to & shouldn't get flamed for it week in & week out when a lot of it is inline with what others have said. Yet it seems to be a weekly agenda of yours.

Bottom line, if I don't say everything is great every week or if I mention anything that I don't like, you'll be flaming me for it.

Sorry about the overwhelming six 1 to 3 line paragraphs. I thought I'd add some context to my post rather than simply say I was disappointed with our passing offense today & the lack of them scoring more points.

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Originally Posted by snowinapril

I am not impressed, we beat the 9ers and got beat by the Colts. Half our games so far have been the bottom dwellers from last year that we should beat. We should have beaten the Colts.

I may be a little pessimistic in my post, but I am not convinced about knowing we know who we are.

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Be careful! You might get flamed for that.

But somehow I feel you won't.

You know what a great team is......A team that can come onto the field (especially someone else) and beat that team by exposing their weaknesses.

Lions primary weakness.....Return coverage.....Result...14 points. Coaches got that one right and players executed it to perfection (except the one missed FG - Walsh let me down on that one).

Lions secondary weakness....Stopping the run...Result....AD goes over 100.

Lions tertiary weakness.....Playing in a game that is slowed down. See their secondary weakness. Running the ball on offense coupled with our great defensive play, absolutely kept them out of synch all day.

You know what else makes a team great? When you can overcome one of your own weaknesses......

5 Sacks and 8 tackles for loss and this was provided by the front 4 more the most part which allowed the S's to play deep (and hit hard) in their zones. Also allowed Jasper to roam further away from the DL (back in his zone were he belongs) which allowed him time to read-react to the play.

Long story short, that's how you play the C2 my friends. Front 4 getting it done (I'm loving me some Ballard, Griffen and Guion today), LB'rs back in their zones, DB's routing receivers to the inside and S's laying the lumber from their zones.

On a quick note, ......Hey Kev.....You still say that Everson only has straight inline speed. Cat put his hands on the QB 3 straight plays when we needed him to and had a 4th later on that was also pretty dang crucial.

For the Ponder Hackers......

You do realize that the focus wasn't to come out and light the world up in the air. The goal was to come out and exploit one of the weaknesses of the Lions.....Run Defense.

The ability to succeed/score points by the ST's allowed us to run a ball control, clock eating, offense frustrating game plan which completely kept the Lions offense out of synch. Most of the play calling reflected that.

Sure, there were a few plays that left one wondering (WTF), but thats what you get with Musgrove I think. He seems to like to just throw something out there that doesn't make sense to see what the result will be.

In the end, 0 turnovers from our QB my friends. Zero turnovers. Some very nice completions when we needed them and some really nice 20 yard + throws to Simpson that got the desired result.

I'm liking this team. We can win with any one of our 3 assets (Offense/Defense/Special Teams) and this team is getting better each and every week. Sure, we will see some inconsistencies (Like we did in the passing this week) but lets not go off the deep end and think the players are crap because of it.

Sometimes its because the coaches have them doing something for a reason. It might just be, that the reason they are doing it is because it limits one of our weaknesses so a team can't expose that.

......Just saying.

On a side side side note.....The PUKERS won, but that win only means they are one point better than the 0-4 Head Coachless Aints.........snicker.......snicker.....

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Originally Posted by highdesertvike

LOL The pessimism on here CAN get cloying at times. Sometimes, I wonder if the "realists" actually broke down and tried some of the purple Kool-Aid, if they'd just bitch about it not having enough sugar. :p

Gripe all ya want...personally, I enjoyed the Division win (on the road), and am basking in the ambience of being at the top of the Division after 4 weeks. On the heels of that, I can also say with a straight face that we have a real shot at a 8-2 or even 9-1 record going into the bye week. The Cardinals are 4-0, yes, but they had to go into OT against a crappy Dolphins team, so maybe they aren't the "juggernaut" their record suggests. Also, 4 out of our next 6 games are at home.

Am I crazy/delusional? Do I think our team is perfect, with no room left for improvement? Absolutely not. I realize that our Offense stumbled today...but the other units stepped up and carried the load, and that is what turns what could have been a loss into a WIN. Bring on the Titans!!!

JMO

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What this guy said......Great post my friend. Great post indeed.

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Originally Posted by Purple Floyd

We are 3-1. To be in this position at this point of the season is certainly meeting any realistic expectations. We are 4 games into the season and already equalled last years record so there is no denying we have an improved team. We still may not get to .500 but even if we don't the improvement is there.

I don't think there is anything we can do but praise the team for what they have done and to keep an open mind knowing that we may not finish the season at a .750 clip but that we are moving in that direction barring injury.

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Bingo...We have another winner.

You know what I fear the most? Our next loss. To me it will be the result of a young team getting beat by a better team, but to others it will mean "I told you they suck".....

Like you said....Moving in the right direction my friend. Moving in the right direction and guess what, I think the coaches deserve a bit of credit for it.

Sanford = depth. Depth comes from player development by the coaches. Something turned the light on for that cat cause he sure has played alot better that last 2 days than he did last year. Makes me wonder how good Mystral is if he beat Sanford out for the starter job.