Urlachered

I debated whether or not the title of this post should be Urlachered or Harringtoned. Either would’ve worked. The Lions lost to the Bears 38-6 as I’m sure most of you know. I wish I could say that I’m shocked and appalled. However, to be shocked and appalled, I would’ve needed to expect something different than what actually transpired in Chicago. My reaction was a mix of laughter and confirmation. The Lions are back baby! For one week in early September, it looked like the old Lions might have skipped town. I know that made a lot of people sad but never fear, the mediocre, underachieving, mistake-prone, befuddled, ever optimistic, Ford owned, Harrington-led, excuse making, Detroit Lions are still in town.

On a day when Daunte Culpepper was clearly taking the reigns as worst performance of the week with five interceptions, Joey Harrington apparently felt that Culpepper should not stand alone in that distinction. Harrington equaled Culpepper’s five interceptions and raised him a loss to the Kyle Orton-led Chicago Bears. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought Steve Mariucci would bring some legitimacy to the Lions franchise. I thought the mistakes and miscues would subside allowing the Lions to win or lose based on talent and nothing else. Even with an overwhelmingly untalented cast, Mariucci hasn’t really done anything positive in his two plus years in Detroit. The quality of play hasn’t improved. His offensive philosophy hasn’t put points on the board. He had a chance to bring in Norm Chow (or at least contact Chow) as the offensive coordinator but instead he brought in Ted Tollner whom might be the only active NFL coach in the centenarian club. The Lions were wildly under prepared against the Bears. I understand that Harrington’s five interceptions made it almost impossible to maintain any form of offensive fluidity but there are two sides of the ball. The Lions should’ve dominated the Bears putrid offense.

Instead, the Bears put up 38 points. How is that possible? The Lions should’ve blitzed Orton all over the field. Harrington is the four year veteran and Orton is the rookie running a bad offense. Incomprehensibly, the roles were reversed once the game started. Orton sat back in the pocket with no pressure while Harrington looked like a rookie with no knowledge of the play book. The Lions defense should’ve given the Lions a chance no matter how bad the offense was going. The whole team flopped in one of the teams most important games in years. A bad performance by a player is on the player but a bad performance by the whole team is on the coach. Joey proved once and for all that he’s not good enough to lead an NFL franchise but a lot of us already suspected that. Mooch proved that he’s virtually ineffective as Lions head coach. 38-6? Bring back Wayne.