Offensive Blame Game

[tpaulus_2]

Who do you think is the most responsible for our offensive woes?

 

[broncosmitty]

Caldwell and Lomardi are lucky the answer is Mayhew.

 

[tpaulus_2]

For my money, the majority of the blame goes on the O-line. They're simply performing very poorly. It starts and stops up front, and when they're not opening running lanes or giving Stafford time to make his reads, well then the offense will look like crap, just as it has so far this season.


Next up is Lombardi. I'm willing to give him time to figure it out, but he's now on the clock, imo, to start getting some results out of a talented offensive unit.


Finally Stafford gets some blame as well. He's been better with the game-killing turnovers (and the turnovers in general this year), but he's also been erratic and inaccurate at times. His protection has been sub-par, but if he does a better job working his reads we'd be humming along a lot better.


From a percentage standpoint I'd say blame goes 70% O-line, 17% Lombardi, and 13% Stafford, give or take a bit either way...

 

[Naughtymax]

Obama.

 

[tpaulus_2]

Obama.

Haha, naturally!

 

[TrustMeIamRight]

1a. The offensive line
1b. Lombardi
1c. Just because I know everyone expects it -- Eric Ebron.

 

[TrustMeIamRight]

To break it down by %:

50% Lombardi, as Linehan had no problem coming up with the play calling and blocking schemes to give the QB time. They weren't that good at run blocking last year, so that hasn't changed with either OC.

45% OL -- they can't block anyone. Arizona hasn't put pressure on anybody all year and finished with 4 sacks against Detroit

5% Ebron --Simply because, Detroit could have multiple #3 WR who have tore it up this year and instead drafted him. How would Odell Beckham look? Or Brandin Cooks, pre-injury? Or Kelvin Benjamin? Hell -- Allen Robinson. The WR rookie class is absolutely obnoxious with the numbers they have put up. Our pass catching TE has 140 yards and an 8.9 ypc.

 

[Rollingthndr]

20% OL- O-line has regressed big time. Especially Ravioli and Sims. Injuries to Waddle and Warford haven't helped.

30% Stafford- Mechanics have been better but it looks as though he is seriously scared to turn the ball over even though he is still at about an INT a game. 13 td in 10 games is pathetic. With or without Calvin.

30% Lombardi and Caldwell- I am pretty sure they put the fear of God into Stafford about turnovers and turned one of the games youngest gunslingers into a game manager (who still turns the ball over).

 

[Rollingthndr]

5% Ebron --Simply because, Detroit could have multiple #3 WR who have tore it up this year and instead drafted him. How would Odell Beckham look? Or Brandin Cooks, pre-injury? Or Kelvin Benjamin? Hell -- Allen Robinson. The WR rookie class is absolutely obnoxious with the numbers they have put up. Our pass catching TE has 140 yards and an 8.9 ypc.

He has been injured and stunted his development a bit. On a positive note, he did flash a little bit last week and he looks like he has potential to be a star if he worked on his route running with Calvin or Tate in the off-season.

We've pretty much on this, it blows to spend a top ten pick on a TE. Especially when he isn't being used the way we were promised by the GM and coaching staff about how he would be used. Saw him BLOCKING for Joquie and Theo a lot last week.

 

[LPinSLC]

1.Scheme

2.OLine. This is partially due to scheme. They weren't great last year but they were much better than this year.

3.Stafford? Hard to tell for me as it feels like he can't get into rhythm due to the line woes.

 

[gvsulaker82]

I think while every area needs to see improvements, I also think the lions have played quite a few games against the better defenses. Just like I thought the secondary was overrated last year because of their schedule I also think the offense will be much better. They have also been missing most of their key players for large amounts of time.

 

[Naughtymax]

The injury bug was gonna be my excuse after Obama, but there was no point in creating a distraction.

 

[Thruthefog]

Caldwell and Lomardi are lucky the answer is Mayhew.

Should have been a thread ender.

I could see the OL taking a backseat to the pretty baubles he loves if the Lions had big Ben at QB. Short of that he needs to give the baubles they have some help up front.

 

[tpaulus_2]

Should have been a thread ender.

I could see the OL taking a backseat to the pretty baubles he loves if the Lions had big Ben at QB. Short of that he needs to give the baubles they have some help up front.

That's hardly fair, imo. In the last 3 drafts we've taken an O-lineman in the first 3 rounds each time. Reiff, Warford, and Swanson this year.

This is just my opinion, but nobody without an agenda against the guy would blame the offensive woes on Mayhew. The pieces are there to succeed. We need to replace Sims and Raiola, which is obvious, but it wasn't nearly so obvious in the offseason.

Zach Martin over Ebron would look great right about now, but other than that it's pretty hard to point a finger at Mayhew on this one, imo...

 

[Thruthefog]

That's hardly fair, imo. In the last 3 drafts we've taken an O-lineman in the first 3 rounds each time. Reiff, Warford, and Swanson this year.

This is just my opinion, but nobody without an agenda against the guy would blame the offensive woes on Mayhew. The pieces are there to succeed. We need to replace Sims and Raiola, which is obvious, but it wasn't nearly so obvious in the offseason.

Zach Martin over Ebron would look great right about now, but other than that it's pretty hard to point a finger at Mayhew on this one, imo...

That's why I said 'taking a backseat' instead of 'ignored'. I'm not crazy about exaggeration.

 

[Old Lion]

O-Line has no continuity. Not sure why it is such an issue. Maybe the scheme. Not convinced Lombardi is going to be an effective OC.


I am also getting a bad feeling that Caldwell is more involved in the offensive calls than he should be.

 

[LPinSLC]

O-Line has no continuity. Not sure why it is such an issue. Maybe the scheme. Not convinced Lombardi is going to be an effective OC.


I am also getting a bad feeling that Caldwell is more involved in the offensive calls than he should be.

Maybe that's why we've seen a more effective Stafford in the no huddle late in games?

 

[Thruthefog]

Maybe that's why we've seen a more effective Stafford in the no huddle late in games?

Maybe Stafford needs to go rogue like Terry Bradshaw did and win a few Superbowls. Chuck Noll would call some stupid running play up the gut, and Bradshaw thinking, 'we need to score some points'. So he would throw it up 40 yards downfield and let Swan or Stallworth go up and get it.

 

[BigKen]

I haven't seen much of the Lions, but I did watch the Arizona game last week. From an outsiders point of view......When Stafford throws to Megatron, it's always downfield. Why not have him alter his route and go across the middle or run a seam route up the middle? Manning does the same with D. Thomas and it's always a play designed for a big chunk of yardage. Blocking for Bell was absolutely horrendous.


Your coming to Foxboro this week and the O-Line has to give Bell some holes to run in or the pass will not work. Look what the Patriots have done to Manning and Luck. Took away the run and forced them to throw the ball. So what if they give up 400 yards passing........nothing went into the end zone. Lions defense is good but so were the Colts...#1 against the run and Jonas Gray ran for 201 yards on 37 carries. Patriots are not a great team, but the coaches know exactly what they want to do every week.


Since the Lions don't have a stellar record away from the Silverdome, it's up to the coaching staff to figure out what the Patriots want to do.............a little secret......they'll run to set up the play/action, suck the safties toward the line of scrimmage and burn them in the middle of the field.

 

[gvsulaker82]

The lions are 7-3 away from the silverdome..