The Lions were happy to get rid of Hock. He really did not care to be there, was not going to resign and the Lions had zero interest in paying him $15 million a year. Hock has shown flashes, but was never a huge difference maker.
I get they were happy to make the deal given all those future issues, but I'm talking about the here and now of pro football, Week 14, 2022 season and 2022 season alone. You'd have to think they'd rather have Hock than Brock Wright and James Mitchell.
The folks who were around him every day for two years decided the team was better off without him. He's a talented guy. Trading him made about as much sense as...IDK, firing a highly respected positional coach...when every aspect of your defense is failing? Do these sound like winning moves?
4-1 since they made those moves. Not sure I want to argue causation on the former, but the latter is a strong correlation to the way the pass D is playing.
They went out and beat Green Bay. NBD, right? Packers aren't a good team this year. It was to Detroit, though, bc they have owned us for 30 years. They won in Chicago. Less of a feat, there was a stretch in the Stafford era where we swept them three years in a row. Still, don't want to discount the first road win in two years. Winning in New Jersey for back to back was impressive, they dominated the LOS on both sides of the ball. Saquon was held 14-26 with a long run of 4 yards. Go ahead and slander the Giants all you want, but the Lions walked in 3-6 and their opponent was 7-2. Thanksgiving was a disappointment. No need to sugar coat it or make excuses. There are no moral victories, and qualifying it by saying it was a good effort against a SB contender is b.s. - that was a winnable game. Forward. They responded with their most complete victory of the season.
2nd youngest team in the NFL, by far the youngest on defense in terms of man games and snap counts. a 3 game streak and 4 out of 5 is nice but TBH the hype is a bit much. An equally futile franchise (next week's opponent) won four straight and five of six a few weeks earlier. Didn't see everyone losing their minds over that minirun.
You want respect in the NFL? You have to earn it. The fawning over Detroit frankly feels a bit patronizing.
Aw that's so cute - the Lions have a HC who is a walking motivation meme and we got to know them a bit over the summer watching
Hard Knocks. While I appreciate some of it is sincere and well intentioned, I don't necessarily want the Lions to be a thing. I don't want popularity for them; the world will always have the Steelers and Cowboys for the casuals. I want people to hate Detroit, because I want them to physically beat the hell out of whoever has to face them.
They have, for the first time in my 56 years of fandom, a distinct identity. They play very physical on both sides of the ball. That alone is different. There is a lot of positivity in Allen Park - and
it cannot be overstated how toxic the culture was when Quinntricia were given their walking papers. Nice, but it has to translate, and the staff (not
just Dan Campbell) is doing a great job of preparing them each week. They come out with purpose and weekly get off to a good start, over and over again. It's awesome to see hard work pay off. They are playing with a lot of confidence rn. They are learning how to win and proving to themselves what they are capable of accomplishing.
Meaningful football in December hasn't happened in Detroit in five years. They have zero margin for error. If you play around with the
playoff machine, there are no reasonable scenarios whereby an 9-8 NFC team can make it in (unless they play in the NFC South.)
Extremely long odds, it is hard to win six straight games at the highest level.
But if they win tomorrow I like their chances. A lot.
