Lions have a lot more to be sorry about than officiatingBy Kyle Meinke | kmeinke@mlive.com
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on October 06, 2015 at 4:59 AM, updated October 06, 2015 at 6:10 AM
SEATTLE -- James Ihedigbo was so tired, so sore, so emotionally and physically spent, he had a reporter open his bottled water for him.
He was either too sore to do it himself, or too broken to try.
Yet while many of his teammates ducked out of the Detroit Lions locker room, evading writers better than the tailbacks evade tacklers these days, Ihedigbo stood at his stall through the pain and answered every question.
And he made it very clear -- the Lions are sick and tired of apologies.
They got one last year from the NFL when officials blew a pass interference call -- or at least the execution of a pass interference call -- in a playoff game against Dallas. And they're about to get another one after the NFL admitted officials blew an intentional batting call that should have given Detroit the ball at the goal line in the final minutes of Monday night's game against Seattle.
Instead, officials basically said there was nothing to see here -- even though K.J. Wright can be seen clearly, and intentionally, knocking the ball out of bounds -- and gave possession to the Seahawks.
A totally unreviewable play left the Lions totally powerless. They lost 13-10.
"It's costing wins and losses," Ihedigbo said, speaking in bursts of staccato frustration. "A simple, 'Sorry, we made a mistake,' doesn't suffice."
He's right. An apology could never be enough to make up for the blown pass interference in the playoffs. Could never make up for giving the ball back to Seattle with less than 2 minutes left, rather than to Detroit at the goal line.
The Lions swung from probable winners to certain losers based on that one blown call. But the NFL isn't the only one who has something to be sorry for here.
The truth is, the Lions, at 0-4, simply stink.
And if they didn't, maybe they wouldn't find themselves in these types of situations time and time again.
They've lost games in just about every way imaginable over the years, including once on a rule that is now named after Calvin Johnson. And five years later, Rule 12, Section 4, Article 1b of the NFL rulebook is about to get awfully famous in Detroit too.
But at some point, it's not about everyone else making mistakes that kill the Lions. It's about the Lions putting putting themselves in a position to be killed. And doing it often.
Consider Monday night's game, when Detroit's defense played really well, including sacking Russell Wilson six times and forcing three turnovers. They allowed only 13 points.
But the offense did not score a touchdown, which left the team in a position to need a defensive score from Caraun Reid just to be in this thing, and then a 91-yard drive in the final minutes to finally take a lead.
Detroit wound up getting about 90.5 of those 91 yards. That they came so excruciatingly close will drive people crazy, and will drive players and coaches crazy too. But let's not lose sight of just how bad this offense is, which made them vulnerable to the crazy in the first place.
The Lions continue to say they're getting closer, even if we can't see it. Maybe that's true, but it's awfully hard to see what they mean when their last 15 drives look a little something like this: Punt-punt-fumble-interception-downs-punt-punt-punt-field goal-punt-punt-punt-punt-punt-fumble.
So blame the officials if you want. They owe Detroit an apology, no doubt about it. But how many games can you really expect to win -- on the road, no less, and in one of the league's most hostile venues to boot -- with such a naked ineptitude on offense?
So maybe it's the Lions who have something to be sorry about. Namely that offense, which they continue to tout as being "close," yet 21 games into the Joe Lombardi era, continues to cost this team more than the officials ever could.
This stuff's gone on long enough to make one wonder whether the Lions will ever work out under Lombardi.
They rushed 18 times for just 53 yards against Seattle, in yet another truly awful day -- and actually bring their numbers up. They are the only team averaging fewer than 3 yards per carry (2.7). They are the only team averaging fewer than 69 yards rushing per game (47.0).
Detroit is now one of just four teams scoring fewer than 17 points per game, along with Miami, Jacksonville and San Francisco -- all last-place teams. All truly awful teams.
And it's time to acknowledge, at 0-4, that this is an awful team too.
They have no answers. They are all apologies.
