DETROIT LIONS MID-SEASON ANALYSIS; PART II, OFFENSE

[Gulf of Brazil]

Now the offense side of the ball through Tim Twentyman's eyes....

The offense has taken its time learning a new system, but there’s a lot of optimism on that side of the ball because they’re sitting at 6-2 and trending up under Joe Lombardi’s system. They won three games without their best player (Calvin Johnson).

THE QB:
The good: Stafford has been able to lead the team back from two big fourth-quarter deficits against New Orleans and Atlanta. Stafford leads the NFL with 913 yards on third downs and is tied for third with seven third-down touchdowns. He’s tied for fifth in the NFL with 17 25-plus yard competitions.

His touchdown-to-interception ratio of 11-to-7 isn’t terrible, but the Lions would certainly like it to be closer to 2-to-1.

By throwing for 325 passing yards in the team’s comeback win over Atlanta, Stafford registered his 25th career 300-yard game in his 69th career game. He also tied Hall-of-Famer Dan Marino for the third-fewest games in NFL history to accumulate 25 career 300-yard games.

The bad: Though his accuracy is up and interceptions are down, he still ranks in the bottom half of the league in both categories.

Stafford ranks 24th out of 35 eligible quarterbacks in Pro Football Focus’ Cumulative Quarterback Summary. His overall rating is the worst among any quarterback with more than a season of experience.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

DETROIT LIONS MID-SEASON ANALYSIS; RB's

The good: The Lions have struggled to run the football consistently all season, but have found a way to pound the rock late in games when they’ve needed to.

The bad: A run that gains at least four yards typically defines a successful run play. Of the 208 rushing attempts by the Lions through eight games, only 79 have gone for at least four yards. That’s just 38 percent and ranks them 29th in the league.

There’s also been no explosion from the run game. The Lions have just one run of 20-plus yards on the season (Reggie Bush's 26-yard touchdown run in Week 3 vs. Green Bay). They’re tied for the league-low in that category.


BB_72: this shit speaks for itself. the O-line sure deserves a lot of the blame but the dancing machine rb's we have need much better vision in the 2nd half of the season if we're going to make a run through the play-offs and finish with a "Kreton record of 17-2"....

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

DETROIT LIONS MID-SEASON ANALYSIS; O-LINE

The good: Like we mentioned above with the running backs, when the Lions have needed this line to step up late in games, they’ve been able to dig deep and do so.

Even last week in London against Atlanta they did their job and kept Stafford clean so he could find targets and lead the Lions into field goal range to win the game. They were very good the entire second half of that game.

The bad: The play of the line has been one of the biggest head scratchers of the first half. This was supposed to be a strength coming in and the unit has struggled too much so far.
Stafford has been sacked 24 times already and hit another 43 times.

The unit has had to overcome injuries at right tackle to LaAdrian Waddle, who’s been in and out of the lineup all year.

Rob Sims struggled a bit to begin the season and Dominic Raiola and Larry Warford haven’t played as well as they did last year up to this point.

The offensive line ranks 31st in the league in the STATS INC protection index (47.0), which measures pass protection by using metrics such as length of passes, penalties by offensive lineman, sacks allowed and quarterback hurries and knockdowns. Only Minnesota is worse (45.5).

As it stands right now, Warford and left tackle Riley Reiff are the only Lions linemen with a positive grade from Pro Football Focus.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

DETROIT LIONS MID-SEASON ANALYSIS; WR's

The good: Golden Tate has been absolutely terrific and has held down the fort while Calvin Johnson has battled ankle injuries for most of the first half of the season. He's been a Pro Bowl-caliber player at receiver.

Corey Fuller got off to a slow start but has steadily improved his play and his production filling in for Johnson. He’s caught 11 passes the last four games, including the game-winning touchdown against the Saints in the final minute.

Jeremy Ross has 15 catches for 192 yards and came up with a big 52-yard touchdown against the Jets in Week 4.

The bad: While their drop rate is much better than it’s been in the past, the receivers (and this includes running backs and tight ends) would be the first ones to say their 14 drops are too many. The Lions have a drop rate of 7.1 percent, which ranks 19th in the league.

 

[Sportsdude101]

The Lions are doing better than I expected, I was impressed with their victory over the Falcons. Their defense is formidable and Stafford isn't making the mistakes of last season. Overall, barring injury, they should go far.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

DETROIT LIONS MID-SEASON ANALYSIS; TE'S

The good: Rookie Eric Ebron had been steadily improving before a hamstring injury sidelined him for an undisclosed amount of time. General Manager Martin Mayhew said Ebron was having his best practice of the season when the injury occurred.

Joseph Fauria showed signs of improvement before his ankle injury sidelined him for five games. The knock on him coming into the season was that he was limited as a pass blocker and was just a red zone weapon. He showed over the first three games of the season that he was much improved as a blocker and could make plays between the 20s.

The bad: There’s been limited production from this position overall, mainly due to injury. The tight ends haven’t exactly lit up the stat sheet. Brandon Pettigrew, Ebron and Fauria have combined for 22 receptions for 220 yards and one touchdown.

All three players have missed games due to injury, which has certainly been a factor in the lack of production, but this was a unit touted for its versatility before the season and their lack of production has been a bit surprising.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

DETROIT LIONS MID-SEASON ANALYSIS;

Midseason offensive MVP: Golden Tate, WR
Tate is third in the NFL with 55 catches and also third with 800 yards. He leads the NFL with 21 catches and 390 yards on third down. No other player has more than 15 third-down catches or more than 241 yards on third down.

He’s also been a big-play threat in an offense missing Calvin Johnson. Tate is tied for third in the NFL with eight 25-plus yard catches and has four 40-yard catches.

Midseason offensive rookie performer: Eric Ebron, TE
Ebron has 10 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown in six games. He’s missed two games with a hamstring injury that’s turned out to be pretty severe.

Ebron was never going to fulfill the lofty expectations fans put on him being the 10th overall pick. The reality of the position he plays is that it takes time to develop in this league. Playing tight end in the NFL is like playing three different positions, all of which you have to learn while taking on the best athletes in the world.

He has shown to be a better blocker than he was given credit for coming in and he’ll continue to improve in all phases when he gets back. He has to get better attacking the football in the air and coming down with it. He’s missed some opportunities to make plays on 50/50 balls.

Midseason surprise performer: Theo Riddick, RB
Riddick has proven that the hype around him heading into the season was warranted. He wasn’t given an opportunity to shine early in the season playing behind Reggie Bush and Joique Bell, but when Bush missed two games against Minnesota and Atlanta, Riddick stepped in and caught 13 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown. His performance in those games has warranted more playing time the second half of the season.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

We all know what is going on here. The O-line sucks bawls almost as much as a h***er does. We had better hope they've changed schemes or the chemistry, cohesion and continuity arises out of nowhere and they preform as good as last year (BTW, I don't think the pass-pro was all that great last year. Run blocking was great, yes. Stafford, imo, made them appear better by getting rid of the ball quicker and that's when the turnovers came).

The RB's definitely need more room/lanes to get going but this shit with all the pitter-patter steps, dancing around, has got to stop. They all need to have better vision and see the holes/lanes opening before they actually do open.

Stafford had better improve his accuracy issues and actually go through his progressions versus keying on pre-snap read only and this will again come to light once CJ gets back, mark my words. The O-Line needs to give him more time to throw but I'd like to see him move around in the pocket or outside the pocket to buy more time to throw open his receivers. I sure as hell hope he doesn't continue to fixate himself on CJ. He has three other reliable, dependable wr's in Tate, Ross and Fuller now.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

I also like the emergence of Riddick and Fuller and hope to see both of them used far more often in the latter half of the season as they both have made several key plays. Good-bye Reggie Bush in 2015 ? he'd count 3.5 MM as dead $ along with a cap savings of only 1.7 MM or you keep him 1 more year at a cost of 5.55MM. 2016 he'd only be a 1 MM dead $ and a cap savings of 4 MM, IDK. I get tired of his injured ass and dancing, prancing around + fumble issues or dropped passes.


Ebron hater's, be patient. Here's a kid who not only is learning a new system (pro) as an in-line TE, a Joker TE and all 3 WR positions. I felt all along that it would be a minimum of game 9-10 before we actually saw the start of his production (that was with him being active all 8 games).

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

At this time, I've read many a post that would like to see Swanson in for Sims, I just don't think it's the right time to try this. This kind of move could end up hurting more than helping. If it was going to be done then it should have happened pre-season, JMO. Give the kid his just due in learning through practice before handing over the reins to him next year, whether it be at LG or C. Many scouts, before the draft, stated he would be better suited for LG than at C. I'm a believer in that he belongs at G not C from what I saw from him in college. I've only seen him lately being brought in as a part of jumbo package. I think you have to remember that the Mgmt and Coaching staff believe this is their year and outside of an injury to Sims or Raiola occurring, I doubt Swanson gets much action other than mop up duty, should that ever arise.

 

[gandydancer]

Good reading Blue.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

BIG LAR IS BACK, BABY...


and feeling alive today... well, I know I'm still breathing at least for now, today.

 

[broncosmitty]

Quite a bit man, quite a bit.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Kreton doesn't want BP back tho.


he'd trade him for 3 bags of Dorito's

 

[TrustMeIamRight]

Ebron hater's, be patient. Here's a kid who not only is learning a new system (pro) as an in-line TE, a Joker TE and all 3 WR positions. I felt all along that it would be a minimum of game 9-10 before we actually saw the start of his production (that was with him being ACTIVE all 8 games).

I so want to comment.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Ebron hater's, be patient. Here's a kid who not only is learning a new system (pro) as an in-line TE, a Joker TE and all 3 WR positions. I felt all along that it would be a minimum of game 9-10 before we actually saw the start of his production (that was with him being active all 8 games).

I so want to comment.

mmmmmK...................

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

. .........................

....... ...............

.....................mmmmmK...................

..

 

[broncosmitty]

Do it MikeD......

........... Don't be afraid.

 

[Kreton]

Kreton doesn't want BP back tho.


he'd trade him for 3 bags of Dorito's

I am including the doritos with BP. For one leaf .

 

[broncosmitty]

^:stinkeye:^