If any one playing group has had a larger impact for any NFL team during the 2010 NFL season, I would be surprised. The Lions defensive line made the Lions defense (16th in passing defense, 24th rushing defense, 21st in total defense) both imposing and viable, while presenting match-up problems that neutralized Lions opponents ability to take advantage of their under-manned back...

To say that the Lions performance in their last four games changed my perspective significantly, in regard to my assessment of their overall performance, would be an understatement. At 2-10, with several painful close losses in tow, I was becoming concerned that helming the Lions may be a larger task than Lions head coach Jim Schwartz would be capable of. I had begun to believe...

The Lions Congregation is a roundtable of Lions bloggers who comment upon a topic or topics, nearly every week. Here is my response to the question of whether or not Ndamukong Suh is likely to win NFC Defensive Player of the Year, on top of his near shoo-in selection for NFC Defensive Rookie of the Year: Suh Brought Aggressiveness to the Lions Front Four Q: Should Ndamukong Suh...

The Lions and Buccaneers are an incredibly interesting matchup. Each team is in a rebuilding mode, and has young new head coaches (Raheem Morris) and a recently drafted franchise QB (Josh Freeman) and defensive lineman (Gerald McCoy) to show for it. If there is a franchise who rivals the Lions current extended run of losing, it is the “creamsicle” Bucs, who were infamously...

Coming off of five straight losses, and 19 straight losses to divisional foes, it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where the Lions, as led by third string QB Drew Stanton, stand even a remote chance of defeating the Packers. The Packers are on a roll and the Lions remaining prospects for the 2010 season are flagging at best. Aaron Rodgers has come into his own and injuries...

Yesterday’s news was quite harsh for Lions fans. The team’s spiritual backbone, and a template for all that is right and good for the current Lions, DE Kyle Vanden Bosch, and it’s most gifted ballhawk, CB Alphonso Smith, were both placed upon injured reserve. That, along with the news that Matthew Stafford has resumed light throwing, but has a long ways to go before...

The Lions have had an incredibly interesting season, which after several controversial calls have been made by NFL officials, has given Lions fans a vague familiarity with the terminology which is couched in legalese that the NFL is now using to cover it’s tracks, when any officiating decision generates debate. The Lions have run the full gamut of strange officiating decisions...

Lions fans have now endured 10 straight seasons of 10 or more losses. The Lions have also lost 19 straight all-too-important divisional contests. Pairing that with a horrendous 26-game road losing streak and signs of optimism for the Lions are becoming imperceptible, at this point. Jim Schwartz says it best, while discussing the Lions loss: “Like I said, when you play a close...

As if matters couldn’t grow any more bleak, the closest thing that the Lions could cling to as a constant upon their entire roster, K Jason Hanson, will miss the remainder of the season, due to a knee injury. In Hanson’s nineteen seasons, he had previously only missed one game. This season he will only have kicked in eight of the Lions 16 games. However, during his...

The Lions played really well for three quarters of last Thursday’s annual Thanksgiving game. Then during the fourth quarter, the Lions lack of depth, talent-shortage, and bad luck all conspired together to lead to a multiple touchdown loss to the Patriots. As if Matthew Stafford’s injury, along with the Lions now three game losing streak, wasn’t bad enough, the...

After two terrible, embarrassing road losses, the Lions return to their home, Ford Field, to play a game which constitutes their Super Bowl, against a team who has been perennially the best the league has to offer. The Lions are in a unique position. All hope has been lost, after some early optimism. During the first eight games, an argument could be made that they were in fact...

As the Lions season begins to wear on, as Lions fans grow increasingly bloodthirsty, and the losses continue to pile up, the fact the Lions continue to lead the league in penalties only grows as a point of contention. If anything exhibits a lack of discipline and reveals a serious flaw in concentration and preparation, it is the Lions persisting to draw nearly ten penalties per game...

For the Lions, amid a 26-game (and counting) road losing streak, the different manners in which they continue to find the means to lose are near infinite. Since starting the 2007 season 6-2, the Lions are 5-44 in the following 49 games. It goes without question that this is currently the worst franchise in all of professional sports history. The Lions Performance Sunday, in Pictures...

After last week’s penalty and mistake-filled loss to the previously winless Buffalo Bills, it is safe to say that any of the momentum or good feeling that the Lions had garnered from their fan base has been pretty much decimated. As a result, future expectations for the 2010-1 Lions season is dubious at best, or a job for the patron saint of lost causes, St. Jude, at worst. The...

After taking the wind out of the sails of the entire Lions fan base last weekend, with a deflating performance against the previously winless Buffalo Bills, the Lions are starting to look snake-bitten for the remainder of the 2010-1 season too. The Lions put RB Kevin Smith on the injured reserve list this week, after a thumb surgery which would make him unavailable for (at least...

Everybody has a “go-to” album in their collection, one that helps them to get their juvenile, unrestrained party started. One that makes you want to turn over the coffee table and throw your beer cans against the wall in a kind of exulted, jubilant celebration of life, shortcomings be damned! For me, this album, at least for the last 10 years or so, has been Eddie Kirkland...

Just like every Lions coach has their own moment that marks (mars?) their career as a Lions coach, seemingly every Lions Qb also has a similar event which occurs, that places them squarely into the sad lexicon of failure which circumscribes the entire Lions organization. The ball slipped,” Hill said. “I was sick when the ball left my hand. I wanted to put one on him ...

Penalties, sloppy tackling and a general malaise, which are likely to be considered as associated with playing outdoors in the rain (away from the comfy confines of Ford Field, I might add), all contributed to an ugly, embarrassing, and deflating road loss for the Lions today. What Was I Thinking, Dee-troit?! The Lions achieved some measure of history, by losing their 25th straight...

One way or another, either the Bills of the Lions, will march toward infamy, as a result of today’s game outcome. The Lions will either continue on with a 25-game road losing streak, or the Bills the will be 0-9, with a reasonably good chance of improbably matching the 2008 Lions 0-16 season. After a hard fought loss to the Jets at home last week, the Lions are likely staring...

Neil from Armchair Linebacker, sums up the current feelings of nearly the entire Lions fan base here, with a brutal blow by blow breakdown: on Drew Stanton’s decision to pass on third down:So, watching Ol’ Plucky roll out, get chased by a blitzer and then toss a big bag of grit at Jerome Felton’s feet was a special kind of torture, wasn’t it? All the Lions needed to...

When the Lions selected Matthew Stafford in the 2009 draft, there were a number of discussions about his durability. This topic was of particular importance, since many believed that the Lions were possessors of a below average offensive line, which would be enlisted to protect their newly selected 70 million dollar man. The standard response to any questions of Stafford’...

After yesterday’s loss, Jim Schwartz is edging ever closer to becoming part of the miserable pantheon of failed Lions coaches. There are eight games remaining, so Schwartz’s career still could take on another trajectory. After an inauspicious 4-20 start to his coaching career, coupled with a series on inexplicably horrific events yesterday, Schwartz is now facing an...

There are a number of different ways to look at the Lions heartbreaking overtime loss to the Jets today. The 2-6 Lions, who have been competitive in each of their games, with one of their losses, being an example of absolute robbery (The Bears), and all but one of them (the Minnesota loss) being within one touchdown score, right up until the end of the game. The Oxford English Dictionary...

Sunday’s game between the Jets and Lions at Ford Field is one of the more intriguing games that the Lions have been involved in a really long time. With a victory, the franchise would earn it’s 500th victory and prove that even though their season began with a 2-5 start, they are moving towards NFL legitimacy, which seemed nearly impossible during recent seasons. The...

After an incredibly auspicious beginning, Lions RB Jahvid Best has appeared decidedly pedestrian in recent games. After scoring five TD’s in his first two games as a pro, between a bout of turf toe and his becoming a primary part of opponent’s defensive game plans, Best has looked more like a pass-catching, 3rd down back than a feature back. Jahvid Best had 307 total...