Lions lose to Saints 17-31

The Detroit Lions went into New Orleans and lost to the Saints, 31 to 17. It was not nearly as bad as the score would make it sound.

Once again the Lions offense came out limp, as it was not until their fourth drive before they gained even 20 yards in a drive. It looked as if Linehan was attempting to do just as I was saying he should not do. He tried to use short passes to move the ball. In the first three drives, Stafford has 4 completions to the running backs and only one to a wide receiver. He also had a few incomplete passes that were screens and dumps. By the time the Lions got the ball for their 4th possession, they were already down 17 to 0.

Then I saw something from Linehan I did not expect. He changed up his play calling! He adapted! In the fourth drive, Stafford has 4 different passes to wide receivers and three of them were for more than 10 yards. The Lions drove down the field for an 80 yard touchdown drive and the game was on.

Unfortunately the idea of playing good offense against a good team must have been too much for some of the Lions players to handle as they inexplicably seemed to cut the oxygen to their brains off and allow their IQ level to bottom out now and then.

More than the great play of Brees, it was stupidity that lost this game. More so than the strange calls by the refs, it was moments where intelligence took a timeout that destroyed the Lions chances. When Titus Young actually reached across a ref to smack an opponent in the head, I sat there with my jaw dropped open trying to understand it. My brain raced a thousand miles a second but I could not come up with a decent explanation other than good ole stupidity! When Pettigrew took it a step farther and actually shoved a ref, I felt like the Aflac Duck listening to Yogi Berra.

As Drew Brees too often found time to throw the ball, or found room to step up into a pocket, I realized how much of a difference Ndamukong Suh makes. Even without the sacks and the tackles, his constant pressure of pushing the middle of the line back towards the quarterback often made things very tough for a quarterback to get comfortable. And I realized how much his stupid act of stomping on an opponent cost the Lions against the Saints.

In the end, the Lions lost in another collapse of gray matter and it would have only been fitting if Schwartz forced them to listen to the Scarecrow sing "If I Only Had a Brain" over and over on their flight home.