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Not much good, a lot of bad, and a whole lot of ugly in this one.
The Good
Special Teams Coverage-Seems odd me putting this here as our kick coverage teams have been putrid over the past few years but Lion returners never really got going even though it looked like they had room to run. Credit Elijah Penny's pugnaciousness for this. That and the Lion kickoff return guy was as dumb as a box of moldy apples.
Elijah Penny-He warrants his own mention here separate from the special teams as a whole. He was a ball hawk all day. He was reminiscent of Bethel on his coverages.
1st Half Defense-1st half, the defense was great. First Bethel bailed out Palmer after he threw an awful INT on the first drive picking off Stafford and running it 82 yards to the house. The Lion running game never got off the ground at all all day. Of course, the wheels came off in the 2nd half.
Hassan Reddick-No 1st game jitters here. He played very well yesterday and gives us hope for our LB corp for the future.
John Brown-Even though he's still rusty, he showed flashes that made us fall in love with him in the first place so hopefully he'll get into his groove because we need him this season to have any kind of a chance.
Andy Lee-It's so refreshing to see a punter who can punt the ball more than 30 yards in the air.
The Bad
The Officiating-I know this is beating a dead horse but I never saw such an inept group in all my life. This crew was so bad that they made the replacement officials look good. First there was the obvious pass drop by Fitz that the entire planet saw except the 7 blind mice on the field. Then there was the penalty on Detroit where these same 7 didn't know where to spot the ball. Then there were the bogus penalties that no one saw except them. They were horrible for both sides. I mean, doesn't the league care anymore or has officiating gotten terribly lazy since the advent of instant replay?
2nd Half Defense-I'm not putting this in the ugly pile because it's obvious that the defense got worn down and demoralized because it was still anyone's ballgame until the 2nd DJ fumble. All in all the defense played well enough to win but for some reason Bettcher made zero adjustments at halftime or during the game and once Stafford was allowed to find his groove, it was only a matter of time.
Phil Dawson-Why can't this team find a consistent kicker? We haven't had a consistent kicker since Jim Bakken. And of course with the football gods being who they are, our beleaguered kicker from last season was booting kicks in excess of 45 yards, Dawson doinks a game changing FG attempt at the end of the half completely changing the tone of the game. So instead of going into the lockerroom with a 7 point lead, he doinks the kick then the Lions promptly march down field and we watch Prater nail a 58 yarder making it a 1 point game(which should surprise no one considering he holds the record of 64 yards). That is where the game changed right there.
The Ugly
David Johnson-Hate putting him in this category but he was own right horrible yesterday even before his injury. 2 fumbles one for a score and he just couldn't establish a rhythm out there.
Carson Palmer-Where to begin. First, his reads were Max Hall bad and a majority of his throws were worm burners. The pick 6 was just the cherry on the sundae. And just when you thought he was starting to get going, he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. His first half performance he had a QB rating of 20.
Offensive Line-Couldn't open up any holes against a mediocre defensive line and the Lions rushers were in the backfield all day long. Throw in DJ Humphries getting hurt and that's that.
Cajones-This team had none yesterday. In the first half, the Lions were begging the Cards to run away with this game but they couldn't take advantage of several Lions mistakes then once the Lions found their mojo, it was over.
Game Plan-I'm really starting to question BA's competency. Does he think he can simply rely on his bombastic tone alone to win games because it certainly doesn't look like he does much planning from week to week. His game plans are identical from game to game which is why it looks like we're underprepared every week.
Well, hopefully this game is an anomaly but if we lose next week then it's time to prepare for a total rebuild of this team which will require dumping a lot of players because as it stands now, this team is just too old to compete and Keim has done little to keep this franchise competitive like NE or Pitt does year in and year out. Just when you thought the resurrected Same 'Ol Cards were dead and buried after the last 3 season of Vanilla Whiz, I see necromancers hovering over the SOC gravesite again.
The Good
Special Teams Coverage-Seems odd me putting this here as our kick coverage teams have been putrid over the past few years but Lion returners never really got going even though it looked like they had room to run. Credit Elijah Penny's pugnaciousness for this. That and the Lion kickoff return guy was as dumb as a box of moldy apples.
Elijah Penny-He warrants his own mention here separate from the special teams as a whole. He was a ball hawk all day. He was reminiscent of Bethel on his coverages.
1st Half Defense-1st half, the defense was great. First Bethel bailed out Palmer after he threw an awful INT on the first drive picking off Stafford and running it 82 yards to the house. The Lion running game never got off the ground at all all day. Of course, the wheels came off in the 2nd half.
Hassan Reddick-No 1st game jitters here. He played very well yesterday and gives us hope for our LB corp for the future.
John Brown-Even though he's still rusty, he showed flashes that made us fall in love with him in the first place so hopefully he'll get into his groove because we need him this season to have any kind of a chance.
Andy Lee-It's so refreshing to see a punter who can punt the ball more than 30 yards in the air.
The Bad
The Officiating-I know this is beating a dead horse but I never saw such an inept group in all my life. This crew was so bad that they made the replacement officials look good. First there was the obvious pass drop by Fitz that the entire planet saw except the 7 blind mice on the field. Then there was the penalty on Detroit where these same 7 didn't know where to spot the ball. Then there were the bogus penalties that no one saw except them. They were horrible for both sides. I mean, doesn't the league care anymore or has officiating gotten terribly lazy since the advent of instant replay?
2nd Half Defense-I'm not putting this in the ugly pile because it's obvious that the defense got worn down and demoralized because it was still anyone's ballgame until the 2nd DJ fumble. All in all the defense played well enough to win but for some reason Bettcher made zero adjustments at halftime or during the game and once Stafford was allowed to find his groove, it was only a matter of time.
Phil Dawson-Why can't this team find a consistent kicker? We haven't had a consistent kicker since Jim Bakken. And of course with the football gods being who they are, our beleaguered kicker from last season was booting kicks in excess of 45 yards, Dawson doinks a game changing FG attempt at the end of the half completely changing the tone of the game. So instead of going into the lockerroom with a 7 point lead, he doinks the kick then the Lions promptly march down field and we watch Prater nail a 58 yarder making it a 1 point game(which should surprise no one considering he holds the record of 64 yards). That is where the game changed right there.
The Ugly
David Johnson-Hate putting him in this category but he was own right horrible yesterday even before his injury. 2 fumbles one for a score and he just couldn't establish a rhythm out there.
Carson Palmer-Where to begin. First, his reads were Max Hall bad and a majority of his throws were worm burners. The pick 6 was just the cherry on the sundae. And just when you thought he was starting to get going, he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. His first half performance he had a QB rating of 20.
Offensive Line-Couldn't open up any holes against a mediocre defensive line and the Lions rushers were in the backfield all day long. Throw in DJ Humphries getting hurt and that's that.
Cajones-This team had none yesterday. In the first half, the Lions were begging the Cards to run away with this game but they couldn't take advantage of several Lions mistakes then once the Lions found their mojo, it was over.
Game Plan-I'm really starting to question BA's competency. Does he think he can simply rely on his bombastic tone alone to win games because it certainly doesn't look like he does much planning from week to week. His game plans are identical from game to game which is why it looks like we're underprepared every week.
Well, hopefully this game is an anomaly but if we lose next week then it's time to prepare for a total rebuild of this team which will require dumping a lot of players because as it stands now, this team is just too old to compete and Keim has done little to keep this franchise competitive like NE or Pitt does year in and year out. Just when you thought the resurrected Same 'Ol Cards were dead and buried after the last 3 season of Vanilla Whiz, I see necromancers hovering over the SOC gravesite again.
