First, I take back all the question marks I raised about Anquan Boldin. He's halfway to the season that I projected for him, but yardage- and TD-wise. The guy is a playmaker, and a go-to wideout. I'm really excited to see how he performs now that teams have some game film on him, and against better corners. The real tragedy is that the guy couldn't buy any national pub. All he did was lead the league in yardage, and triple Charles Rogers's production.
Second, Mac is the problem, not the solution. The fact that this team seems unprepared to play every week under his tenure (something I'd never noticed under Tobin) falls squarely on the shoulders of Mac. The cover-your-eyes-awful special teams falls on the coaching, and why our special-teams coach wasn't replaced in this spring's housecleaning is beyond me. We have borderline starters as backups (at LB and OL), these people should be playing above-average on special teams. Combine that with the lack of a home-run threat in Kevin Kasper (there was no comparison between him and Eddie Drummond), and it's going to be a long season. Kasper made me wish for Mar Tay. Give the kid a look.
Third, our O-Line is S-O-F-T soft. If we built the "belly" of this team in the offseason, why was Chris Dishman in in the first quarter, after one injury? No excuse. Pass protection was only average, at best, and run blocking was god-awful. James Hodgins was a non-factor, and was not even the best fullback on the field that day.
Fourth, there was not enough blitzing. Did we send Adrian Wilson, possibly our best blitzing threat, once into the Detriot backfield? Did Levar Fisher ever come from the weak side? Detriot has a good offensive line, and it sure looked like we failed to attack it. I know our corners can't cover, but this D is not good enough, especially up front, to sit back in zones. There were times when Harrington had time to get to his fourth option before unloading the ball. The defense quit on the fourth quarter, and for good reason. They were playing on their heels all day.
Fifth, Jeff Blake looked good, but I don't know where his head was all day. He seems steady, but he definately didn't seem like the leader that Nidan and others have intimated that he is. He looked more like the disinterested player that Cbus has been talking about. The difference between his reaction and passion and Doug Johnson's on the following Atlanta game was telling.
Sixth, Emmitt Smith did a good job. I find myself much more comfortable with Smith on the field than Marcel, especially in the red zone. He spent way too much time in blitz pickup. I didn't ever see him going out into the flat to take advantage of the Lions' young linebackers.
Overall, it was a good half of play, but the wheels came off in the second half, and this team can't come back from two-score deficits. This team doesn't look like a 3-win team, but it looks a lot like a 6-win team. The problems with playcalling and false-starts should work themselves out before the Seattle game (I hope), but the defense looked like a shadow of what we saw in the preseason. If Mac's not in control of the defense right now, he should take control immediately, because at this rate, if Marmie's making the decisions, it's going to cost Mac his job.
