When you put out an APB on teams that could surprise this season, I suggest you start with Detroit. The Lions lost 18 players to injured reserve last season, yet still won their final four -- including defeats of Green Bay and Tampa Bay. They're young. They're talented. And they're due. The club hasn't had a winning season since 2000. Worse, it has gone 39-121 (.243) since and couldn't produce a single victory in 2008. That's not just bad. It stinks, with nobody worse over the past decade. Lions draft needs: It starts with a healthy Stafford - NFL - CBSSports.com Football
Without another mauler on the Oline we would need to pass first to help the run. We could improve the won/loss but it's foolsgold.
It really pains me to agree with Thee on principal alone, but in this case, I have no choice. An interesting stat that I heard (and am too lazy to look for now) from last season was that we were one of the best in the league at running outside the tackles and one of the worst in the league at running up the middle. We need to supersize our Centre (<you Americans spell it wrong). Dominic "The Hobbit" Raiola gets pushed into the backfield on almost every single play. Forget about short yardage conversions. We rarely win the battles in the trenches.
Lions were 97/242 on 3rd down. 10/16 on 4th down. Opponents were 77/198 on 3rd down, 5/12 on 4th. Lions also were one of if not the best in scoring TD's in the RedZone. Raiola is an excellent Centre. His knowledge and experience in calling protection schemes are a huge advantage to Stafford. Call it wrong and sacks happen. Actually, no he doesn't get pushed into the backfield every play. That's a bad rumor. Some times he does when the blocking scheme breaks down. A Centre should NEVER be one-on-one with a DT. However, he will be in year 3 of a 4 year deal in 2011. Next year, no doubt, in the 2012 draft, the Lions will be looking for his replacement.
I'm talking exclusively about short yardage runs up the middle. Not including screens, pitches, runs outside or passes. I'm also not going off of "rumour". I'm going off of what I saw, with my own 2 eyes, in every game I watched (which was all of them) last year and for several years now. I don't dislike Raiola and I agree with you about his knowledge and experience. I also love his attitude. He's just undersized and DOES get pushed around. He's much more effective when he's pulling and blocking downfield because of his mobility. Where he sucks is in close quarters, locked up when we need to move the pile. The pile moves alright... backwards.
Reggie White woulda loved to have played against Dominic Raiola. I too agree that Dominic has been pushed into the backfield on more plays than I'd like to remember. I never understood the love for this guy by the Lions.
@ Mogilny...Nice one. Hey, get out and vote for Michael Vick. Only problem is that curse. Madden '12 Cover: Vote for EA Sports' Madden NFL 2012 Cover Athlete - SportsNation - ESPN
Done. As much as it pains me as a Cowskins fan to admit it, I really enjoyed watching Vick last season.
What they need to do is upgrade our centre and then move him to fullback. Seriously. I could see him doing well at that position. He's still get to hit guys, it would play to his strength of blocking on the move and he'd be taking on guys his size at LB, CB and S instead of DTs.
In a 3-4 he would see the UT on running plays. And no he's not moving him. But he needs to make a clean handoff first. I don't think DR is great but he's had to babysit mostly rookies in multipal systems year in and year out.
FULLBACK?????? NO SUCH THING! Raoila is 300lbs. No such thing as a 300lb LB, let alone CB or S. Reggie didn't take on Centers. he ate Right and Left Tackles. man, you guys need to learn some Football 101.
Matt Millen? Is that you? Seriously Oz, you seem to be taking this all rather personally. It's almost like you personally drafted the guy.... First of all, I was talking more about his height than his weight. At 6'1", he'd even be on the low end of the LB range, but at least he'd be better matched up than he is against DTs now. Secondly, WHY NOT FB? Don't you WANT our players to physically dominate the guys they go up against instead of being the one pushed around? Felton has shown he can't get the job done. By upgrading the C position and moving Raiola to FB, you've just made 2 positions better at blocking. Will they do that? Probably not. But I don't think it's a crazy idea either. Raiola wouldn't be the first 300lbs (by the way, I believe that's his soaking wet, holding a 10lb bowling ball weight.) FB in history. Actually, he wouldn't even be the first 300lbs FB in TEAM history. Remember Jon Bradley from a few years ago? Bradley weighed at least 10lbs more than Raiola does. He even had a few rushes under his belt. If you do decide to respond to this post. Please try to do so with facts instead of personal attacks. Have a nice day.
Well, all I got to say is that I've known Jammer since the day this place opened. Up until tonight I thought it was impossible to get him riled up (and lord knows I've tried).
