10 win 6 seed but back to where Brees could have put up 40 pts is he wanted. Suh wasn't there but it looks like any elite passing attack will just lace us back to the drawing board.
It was the lack of defense that did us in. Front line men were only able to get to Brees 2-3 times. Line men couldn't slow down the run, or tackle anyone on the 3 rd and 4th down situations and the secondary could not keep anybody in front of them and missed out on at least two INTs. The Saints scored everytime they had the ball with the exception of they time they had the two turnovers. ....and failed to score on those two times...including when the whistle blew the ball dead.... Need secondary help next year and some line backers with "tackling hands" Detroit got triple bamboozled with the Pistons,.Wings and Lions losing tonight... at least my alma mater EMU won their game BB game tonight....
Negatives I saw..................... We didn't stop the running game, nor did we stop their passing game. They offered us 2 turnovers but we didn't capitalize. We allowed them to make 4th down plays which they had no business making. We did not force Brees to make passes in a hurry. He had all day. Not enough short passes to the TE or RB to continue drives. We offered not enough creative running plays. With poor field position, they scored on 4 drives of more than 80 yards. Lots of blown tackles. I might have ran a dime package more to change things up. They had the ball 62% of the time to our 38%. No wonder they gained 60% of the game's yards. Positives I saw...................... Calvin Johnson played like a beast. O-Line blocked well on passing downs and against blitzes. Matt Stafford showed great leadership. We forced them to make long drives. We actually won the battle of field position. I saw no stupid penalties.........
ridiculous officiating. the lions would've been up 14 at the half had the zebras allowed them to go down field on the fumble recovery. in the beginning of the 2nd half they clearly stopped the saints in the red zone, they would've scored after the punt, then possibly have been up 21. instead the zebras give the saints three extra foot and a 1st down. the saints drive and a blatant hold allows their next touchdown, no call. playing with a 21 point lead, its a different game with a different outcome. if i was a niner fan i'd be very worried about just how many men the saints really have on the field in these games. imo those officials shouldn't be allowed to officiate another game this season. it's bad for the sport and bad for the nfl.
There were a few bad breaks for sure, but when you allow more yardage than any other team in playoff history, it is hard to expect a W. On the Brees fumble, the whistle was blown before the Lions recovered the ball, so technically, the ball should have been awarded back to the Saints. Luckily, on instant replay, there is no audio. Strange play all around. It's too bad that the ball somehow went 10 yards forward, which was evidence of a pass attempt and fooled the officials.
if his arm was moving forward my grandmothers a professional break dancer! the ball moved forward because the lion defenders hand was all over it. that was just one of the many horsecrap calls made by the blind, incompetent or "otherwise' refs. if the saints held anymore than they did they'd be forced to marry the lions today. i'm dumb but not blind. in the immortal words of paul simon; "There were two men down And the score tied In the bottom of the eighth When the pitcher died And they laid his spikes On the pitcher's mound And his uniform was torn And his number was left on the ground Then the night turned cold Colder than the moon The stars were white as bones The stadium was old Older than the screams Older than the teams There were three men down And the season lost And the tarpaulin was rolled Upon the winter frost"
I agree that it was a fumble, but I'm just saying that the ball ended up going forward out of his hand after Young tapped it. The other refs just assumed it was a pass and blew the whistle to help avoid confusion and possible injury. It was a very tough call to make. The ref who saw it got it right. The ones that didn't screwed up by blowing their whistle and meddling with a possible game altering play.
The officials blew a play or two, but everyone in the world (except Nemo) knew the Lions had no chance. The Detroit defense is simply way too weak to stop Drew Brees and Co. and the Lions offense would have had to play a perfect game to match the Saints drive for drive.
With instant reply... refs should be taught to swallow the whistle if there is any doubt.... but yea, I doubt the final outcome would have been much different.
I agree. If the Lions took care of business by beating Green Bay then they could have avoided the Saints in the first round. The Lions are new to the playoff stage so the Saints being the more established team and the home team got more of the breaks from the refs. Overall, the Lions have a few tweeks that need to be made. I believe the wide 9 that they play needs to be altered and be used as a scheme more than a every down system. This system causes wide gaps on running plays and the defensive lines agreesiveness coming up the field is used against them. We need all new corners.
I concur...a win the previous week would have possibly given them a perceived better chance vs the Giants, but still the refs probably would have given the breaks to Eli and Co, just because...... Have to wonder now if we would have moved the ball as well on the Giants today as we did on the Saints? Then again..would Eli have shredded our secondary?? Good year, nice improvement....definitely playoff bound next season!!
One interesting call that I didn't think of was the 4th down play where Brees extended the ball over the plane of the first down line and then voluntarily pulled the ball back as he fell into the pile. Technically, since this wasn't the end zone, it's not a first down unless he ends up with the ball across the line or his forward progress was deemed to be across the line. In this case, since he voluntarily pulled back short of the line, he should not have been given forward progress. Shouldn't Swartz have challenged that? It would have been a big stop at that point in the game. Maybe he got the 1st anyway (without the reach), but it would have been really close. Let's not forget how close this was midway through the 4th.
There were questionable calls, but the Lions got it handed to them. I woulda felt better if we coulda at least stopped them on one of their 4th down attempts, or forced them into a punting situation.........or at least, scored after on of their 1st half turnovers. Sure, they blew an early whistle on our fumble recovery, but we recovered the ball on the porch of their goal line..........and we couldn't score anything. After watching Denver climb similar odds, I just think that they found a way and we didn't..........
so clearly I win the ref suck" vote. Lions D is poorly coached. Just last week the Pack were diving on loose balls and getting T/Os they didn't earn. With any questionable T/O you run the ball to the end zone. These guys were so timid they looked like they needed the refs permission to advance the ball. The whistle means nothing especially if the refs are found to be wrong. That's what I like about the NFL, they'll fix errors but they seem to be digging a deeper hole with every fix.
