You know the feeling you get when you go over to somebody’s house and you see they have a movie on, and you think to yourself, “Hey, I’ve seen this one before.”? Yeah, well that’s what watching this joke show was like on Sunday. The Lions handed the Vikings that victory on a silver platter, and I’m embarrassed but not surprised by the fashion they lost in.
Last season, the 3-13-1 Lions received a lot of praise for playing in close games and tricking the casual observers into thinking they were better than their record showed. However, that team had a HUGE problem that went ignored throughout the season. Their issue was their inability to play 2 good halves of football weekly. They’d either get off to a slow start and heat up to try and cover the spread, or they’d do the opposite and play their tails off for a half and then freeze up. Does the second half of that sentence sound familiar? If you caught the game this Sunday, then you know that is exactly what happened. Word for word, bar for bar.
The Lions got off to a scorching hot start. They were up 14-0 early on (should’ve been 17-0), before allowing the Vikings to kill all their momentum and tie the game up before halftime. In the third quarter, the Lions caught fire again and regained the lead. Going into the fourth quarter, look at that, the Lions are up 10! But what did they do with that double-digit lead? THEY BLEW IT. In “Same old Lions” fashion, they managed to be up a field goal with around a minute left deep in Vikings territory and ended up losing the game.
After trying their hardest to lose themselves in their week two game against the Commanders, they tried even harder to lose this one to the Vikings. Serious changes need to be made. Dan Campbell’s inability to make adjustments and to get his team to play with momentum is laughable. I’m not saying I could do any better, but with my 10+ years of Madden experience, I sure as hell couldn’t be any worse.
For as much talent as the Lions have, it is almost taken for granted when you realize they have scrubs like Amani Oruwariye starting on a consistent basis. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again- he is not a good cornerback. He fluked his way into 6 interceptions last year, and this year he looks like he didn’t practice once over the offseason. After getting owned by AJ Brown in week 1, Amani missed last week with a back injury. And what does he do in his return? He gets flagged 5 times (should have been 6 or 7) and looked completely lost out there as always. His lack of discipline and this coaching staff’s poor decisions lost them this game.
That’s enough of my negative feelings about this week’s game, let’s get real. This coaching staff HAS to figure out their consistency issue before things get any worse. They got Seattle next week, so I’m hopeful they can put together a complete performance. Sitting at 1-2, it is fair to say they should be 2-1. But it’s all good. I believe in this coaching staff, and I believe in this roster even more. If they can figure out this issue, I think the season is beyond salvageable, and that they can continue to get better as a team. The sky’s the limit, but there is a lot of work to be done.
Stud of the week: Jeff Okudah
Dud of the week: Amani Oruwariye
