Detroit at Dallas (1 Viewer)

[Da Guru]

Pretty deep DL, good talent.

LBs were exposed at times but schematic changes helped (still a WTF on that Zeke 55 yarder - you could see presnsp exactly what was about to go down, & Dre jumps out of the gap away from the flow.) 

DBs were solid until Quandre got hurt, Slay was the final nail - you can't win games with PS talent covering a pro bowl WR.

OL was better than expected for the most part, Decker & Graham are solid, Swanson gets healthy they're good there, Warford is a road grader (though whatever the cap hit is to cut Tomlinson, should do it - he's turrible), Reif is servicable. Keep building it, keep adding pieces.

HBs - good when healthy (first 2 games.)

WRs/TEs - Marvin fell off badly, Tate is a effective gadget playmaker, Ebron...ugh...let's see if he takes another incremental step forward. Boldin has been great but need another WR3 next year probably. Considering who they lost, about as expected.

QB - the litmus test is six days away. Either beat the best QB / best team when it matters most or you're just a prettier Jay Cutler. Been good for most of the last season and a half, not as good the last three weeks. Who are the playmakers on this team? Tate and...and....and...exactly.

Ks/STs - overall very good.

Need more playmakers & upgrades in at least four areas (in order: LB, OL, DB, WR) but if you compare to other teams, mediocre talent is the norm. I'm feeling good about Wuinn going forward. I've actually come to respect JC. He's a good organizer, has made some good hires. Although he's ultimately responsible for everything, he's done a good job of staying out of the way and letting JBC and Austin's Wayne game. Clock management improved this year. 

People love to rip Caldwell, he's seemingly an easy target & doesn't waste a lot of calories being egotistical. He doesn't care what you or anyone else thinks, he's just not built that way.

SCOREBOARD: Over his first three years, Caldwell has more wins than any Lions coach except Buddy Parker. That's 87 years. More wins than any Lions coach in the Super Bowl era over 3 years (27-20.) I get people are frustrated we can't get to the next level, but "Fire Caldwell" doesn't accomplish much at this point.

 NOTHING ELSE MATTERS: beat GB at home. That's the simplest & truest measure of success for Caldwell & Stafford. 

Really though Jones would be more of a contributor. Not sure Stafford trusts him because he will go long periods without even looking his way. Boldin is much better than expected, no speed but they never throw to him deep..just the 4-8 yard routes and he never drops the ball.  Ebron made a couple of nice plays yesterday but again had a big drop...not sure what to make of Ebron since he can`t block at all. I have never seen a TE get blown up at the line on running plays as much as Ebron does. Tate is Tate..there is rom on any team for Tate.

Stafford has grown into a top 5-6 QB and seems to be moving around much better this year..looks faster and more elusive. Lions need a stud RB!  Love Riddick on third down and Zenner is a nice change of pace guy but they need to improve the ground game.

 

[BobbyLayne]

This detroit team has very little talent

Talented Lions:

• Golden Tate (pretty much the only guy who can make you miss)
  
• Matthew Stafford - good when he has time, not so good when things break down
  
• Ziggy Ansah (hurt much of the year, sacks have dropped from 14.5 to 2.0)
  
• Darius Slay (missed 3-1/2 games)
  
• Theo Riddick (3 or 4 games missed? and not as effective as last year, but we're talking about a specialist who does one thing well...because we ran out of talented players to talk about)
  
• DeAndre Levy - in theory...two lost years, may never get it back. Was good last week, was horribly out of position several times last night
  
• Martin & Prater - outside of Oakland probably no one has invested more LT in their kicking game; odd point of emphasis
  
• crafty vets like Haloti and Boldin
  

Rest of the squad are guys you could probably upgrade on Day 3 or UDFA. 

Weak sauce. But the depth was OK this year, until Diggs and Slay went down they were effectively dealing with inevitable injuries. Need more talent but I like Quinn and think he's going in the right direction.

 

[Anthony Borbely]

This team badly needs playmakers on both sides of the ball, but especially on defense. Levy is playing like a player that doesn't want to get hurt. Maybe its just being off for so long but regardless its a problem. The other LBs rarely make impact plays (sacks, turnovers, etc.). A'Shawn and Ngata push the pocket and bat a good amount of passes down but don't get many sacks. Ziggy is a stud. Hyder has developed into a good rotational lineman. Bryant looked good in limited time. The rest of them don't make plays. Slay is great, but they need more depth at CB and another playmaker. 

Lack of a pass rush is the biggest single issue to me. 

 

[Cowboysfan8]

For every happy FF player there is an equally pissed off one. 

Congrats

Yes. The way my season went this year I was thinking "I can definitely see my self losing like his opponent just did'