What a freakin nightmare. And I don't mean the way the Lions are playing these days. No, I'm talking about the way that absolutely nothing can go right. The amount of injuries to key guys is absolutely absurd. I mean you aren't gonna win many games when you throw two critical redzone picks and give up an 80 yard touchdown run, but their isn't a team in the league that could compete without their starting quarterback, their starting middle linebacker, their starting outside linebacker, without their #2 wideout, an injured running back, and a dinged up starting safety? Plus you pile on the excruciatingly terrible officiating that we've had thus far and it's the perfect storm of shit.
And as much as people are gonna want to call Lions fans a bunch of whining bitches, it ain't gonna keep me from bitching. Ed Hochuli should be wearing a big red nose and huge ass shoes out there cause the guy is a fuckin clown. He should've handed over his paycheck when this one was done because he let Brett Favre control that entire game. I mean I knew Favre was the quarterback and the coach of the Vikings, but when did they start letting him referee too? That shit was embarrassing. Favre would throw an incomplete pass and then just point at the play and the refs couldn't get their flags out fast enough. And not only was Favre getting absolutely any call that was close, the Lions were having first down conversions in the redzone brought back on phantom holding calls. The one backwards pass that Favre threw and they called incomplete was so beyond egregious. Had that been the Lions, they would've 100% continued on with the play and checked on it after the fact but since it was Favre it was immediately blown dead. I mean if we go out there and lose on our own lack of skill and execution I'm fine with that, but for fuck's sake, stop stealing shit from us.
Now, the Lions themselves played pretty bad and regardless of the officiating they would've lost in the end. You can't muff punts and expect to win. You can't blow tackles and expect to win. And you can't lackluster play calling and terrible clock management and expect to win. Seriously WTF was up with them not spiking the ball so they could get another shot or two at the endzone before half? That shit isn't difficult, in fact it's coaching 101. Sometimes it even seemed like the Lions conceded the ball as soon as they got it. A couple of those 3 and outs took 20 something seconds off the clock. It's getting fuckin brutal to watch.
But on the bright side, I was impressed with the offensive line as they only allowed one sack against the Vikings which is something to hang your hat on. Not to mention they came to the aid of Hill when Ed Hochuli completely lost control and let the Vikings start throwing punches in between plays. Mid game I even found myself raving about how the Lions had kept Peterson in check all day and then he busted that one for 80 yards. Spoke a little too soon on that one.
Bottom line is that the Lions would only be 1-2 at this point anyway so being 0-3 isn't that shocking. What's more shocking to me is that with everyone healthy, I think we actually would've had a shot at being 3-0. I was a 5 win guy all along and I was never thinking playoffs like some of the slappys out there. So take this season for what its worth. As much as karma continues to fuck us, we're not the "same old Lions". This team can play defense, sort of. This team can run the ball, sort of. And this team has leaders who know the game, sort of. It's just extremely frustrating to have to wait another season to see these young guys grow up. I don't have many more seasons like this left in me.
