Jason_R

Tater needs a post-trade deadline call from Steve Yzerman. 😊 It was a rough day for the OL, and has been a rough season with Ragnow surprising them with a late retirement and Decker apparently having lingering issues from his shoulder surgery. But before Sunday, nobody was seriously talking about trading for OL help. And the thing that will help them most is if MCDC steps in to provide a bit more direction to Morton. Defensively they will get a lot of players back, including an All Pro safety and their starting CB and DE.

One thing about analytics is that this mindset can lead some to believe that the game is played on a spreadsheet. It is not. I agree that with Skubal, internal improvements, and a few key FA investments, this team could make a deep postseason run. As a front office and as an ownership group, you have to demonstrate to your team and the league that you intend to compete as hard as you can. It would be a massive failure not to go all-in on at least one more season with Skubal.

To the extent you are saying your offense won’t be effective unless your offense is effective, I agree with you. The issue is that this offense is not effective, at least in part, because it has strayed from its identity as driven by play action. Yes, continuity in OL has been a major factor, but a lack of continuity is all the more reason to focus even more intensely on your core identity. It would be one thing if you abandon your core identity because your OC guru is implementing clever play designs that scheme people open. This is not happening. What seems to be happening is they are calling more screens trying to make the passing game lower risk for Goff, and trying to take advantage of Gibbs as a playmaker, but neglecting the downfield PA game that they got a lot of explosive plays from previously. They should have this part of the offense dialed in by now but they’ve been chasing shiny objects for the first two months and aren’t there. This guy captures my sentiments: “Get back to the play-action stuff that made Goff more effective than he’s ever been and everything else will follow.” https://www.prideofdetroit.com/detroit-lions-opinion/147445/detroit-lions-lost-without-offensive-line-identity

There is no rule that says you have to have a certain number of rushes or yards per carry before you use play action. This is a team identity question. This offense has no identity under Morton.

MUST WIN

Can we get back to play action please?

“John Morton’s offense has now delivered the two least successful offensive performances at Ford Field of the entire Dan Campbell era in the last two games.”

Well, at least Detroit didn’t lay as big of a turd as Washington is.

He’s their best offensive player.

The defense did not play all that badly today. Arnold was back and had a big play. The team had two terrible roughing the passer penalties called against them. Those hurt. I am not sure what the problem was with special teams, but there were a few lineman injured, and I wonder if mahogany would have been in on that field goal attempt that got blocked. The biggest problem is offensively. I wonder if Dan will do what he did with Anthony Lynn, and start being more hands-on about what he expects the offense to look like I hope he does.

I agree everybody was bad today from the coaches to the players. But the problem all season has been that this offense has no identity. Last season they started every drive with Montgomery and they ran play action off of him. This season, they have made Gibbs the lead back. I understand why, but this is a different team when they are running it through Montgomery and setting up everything else off of that. I am not sure I saw a single play action drop back today. That is unacceptable when you have the best play action passer in the NFL.

Special teams may have lost this game.

These refs are awful.

Awful coming out of the bye.

They have lost their offensive identity. They think it is clever formations and motions. It is really a power run game with David Montgomery and play action passing based off of that. Once again the officiating has been bad at best.

THAT IS AN NFL TACKLE.

Campbell gets tackled. No foul for holding. Insane.

Where was the delay of game?

Two players holding McNeil on that play.

Thank you Monty.

There. Montgomery is an explosive player.

Pathetic. Give the ball to Montgomery.

Where the eff is David Montgomery? Pound the ball for a while.

Does the defense know this is a tackle football game?