A Tale of Two Halves

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

- Charles Dickens, opening paragraph of

A Tale of Two Cities 

It's ironic that the Lions played a game in London that reminded me of a book written by Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities is about, among other things, the differences and similarities between London and Paris during the times leading up to the French Revolution, and ultimately the simultaneous death & resurrection of the main character. The Lions game at Wembley was kind of like that.

In the first half, that #1 defense was gashed for yards and points at a rate unheard of this season. Falcons QB "Matty Ice" was nearly perfect, Stephen Jackson was ripping off 7 yards almost every time he touched the ball, and the Falcons finished the half with 21 points on over 200 yards. On the flip side, Lions QB Matt Stafford was often inaccurate, the run game couldn't get any push, and the Lions' best drive ended when WR Corey Fuller slipped and Stafford's throw went right into the arms of Robert Alford, who plays for the Falcons.

In the second half the Lions scored every time they had the ball, Matt Stafford's accuracy was much improved, Golden Tate went nuts, Theo Riddick capably replaced Reggie Bush in the passing game (great one-handed catch on the game winning drive), and the run game started getting some push. On the flip side, Matt Ryan got intercepted, the Falcons fumbled 3 times (recovering each fumble themselves), and committed several penalties that helped the Lions seal the deal. It was almost as if the teams started out in their opponent's uniforms and then switched back at halftime.

The endgame was especially weird. Detroit had just scored with 4 minutes left to cut Atlanta's lead to 2. An extra point does nothing at this point, so they tried to make a 2 point conversion and get the tie. The Atlanta defender clearly held intended receiver Golden Tate on the attempt, but the refs swallowed their whistles and Stafford's pass fell incomplete. I wasn't a huge fan of the playcall, but Tate probably makes the catch & gets in if he's allowed to make the catch unmolested. The Falcons got the ball back after the kickoff and proceeded to run clock. They picked up 2 first downs, with the Lions applying their timeouts in an attempt to staunch the hemoraging seconds. One more first down ends the game, 2 running plays and a punt would leave Detroit with around a minute to work with. Then the really weird thing happened.

Ndamukong Suh beat his guy badly off the block and had a shot at tackling RB Stephen Jackson deep in the backfield. At this point in the game, it doesn't matter much to Atlanta whether they gain another yard as long as they can run a bunch of time off the clock.This is what made Atlanta's holding penalty so incredibly stupid. It stopped the clock. At this point it was 3rd and 10 with about 1:50 left to play. Not much chance of picking up the 1st down, but they can probably run the clock down 45-50 seconds with a running play before punting the ball back to Detroit. They threw a short pass instead, Julio Jones dropped the pass and the clock stopped.

With 1:38 to work with an no time outs, the Lions worked their way into what we all hoped was field goal range. They then began the infuriating process of moving the ball into better position to kick and running the clock down (I hate this, always think they should at least take a crack at the end zone, especially with all the bad luck the Lions have had in the kicking game - Bill Barnwell expressed the appropriate of anger at the poor coaching in the last 2 minutes of this game). Stafford clocked the ball with 4 seconds to go. The field goal unit came on, the snap was low, and Prater slipped on his approach, pushing the kick a little too far right. Fortunately the Lions were so disorganized that they didn't get their kick off before the play clock expired. Delay of game (I think this was 100% Prater's fault, by the way. The holder waits for him to signal that he's ready, then the holder signals the center for the snap. Prater was taking breaths like he was entering the 2nd stage of labor. He took a while to get himself together). On Prater's 2nd attempt, now 5 yards longer, he kicked it towards the left upright, it straightened out and the Lions got the win.



You can tell this is a neutral site based on the crowd reaction to the missed kick (subdued cheering and ambling towards the exits), the penalty (confusion, ambling back towards their seats), and then the made kick (subdued cheering and ambling towards the exits).

The bye week is coming at a great time for the Lions. Calvin Johnson is nearly healed up, 2nd round pick Kyle Van Noy should be ready to contribute, and it gives time for Reggie Bush, Pettigrew, Ebron and Fauria to get ready for the Miami game. Fairly went down with a knee injury, and it looked bad. I doubt he'll be ready to go after the break.

After 1 half of the season, the Lions stand at 6-2 (should be 7-1, thanks to kicking issues). We've been here before. It feels different, but it's hard to get hopes too high. This team has let us down before amidst cries of, "these aren't the Same Old Lions" (they were). The only way to know if things have changed is to see how the rest of the season plays out.

I think this team will look different in the 2nd half, with Johnson giving a BIG boost to the offense and rookie OLB Van Noy should help the defense some as well. Currently starting OLB Ashlee Palmer hasn't logged more than 2 tackles in a game since getting the starting job and he's an embarrassment in pass coverage (for comparison, Stephen Tulloch played about 2 1/4 games and has 20 tackles, Palmer's played in 5 games and has only 8 tackles. Tahir Whitehead, playing the same position, had 9 tackles through 3 games before moving to the middle).

Will this season's second half look like the 1st half? Or last year's 2nd half? Will they be the team that shut down Atlanta and scored 22 unanswered points? Or will they be the team that couldn't score or stop Atlanta from scoring? Do you see why the Lions make me think of Dickens' opening paragraph?

***

The less said about Michigan's effort vs. Michigan State the better (if you want more said, check mgoblog's post on the game). 97.1 The Ticket's Jeff Riger pointed out that Michigan OC Doug Nussmeier was inordinately pleased when the offense finally managed to drag itself across the goal line during garbage time (the offense got a huge boost when the defense recovered a fumble on MSU's 33, otherwise they probably don't score a TD). A psyched up fist pump is not the appropriate response when you're still losing to your in-state rival 11-28 with less than 4 min to go. Riger compared it to Notre Dame's DC's reaction after Notre Dame shut Michigan out (this was a more appropriate situation for that response).

MSU responded to Michigan's first offensive TD against them since 2011 by putting together a methodical drive of strictly running plays that Michigan was helpless to stop. That last MSU touchdown drive reminded me of the scene towards the end of Saving Private Ryan when the German soldier kills Adam Goldberg by slowly pushing the knife into his chest. It was brutal and inevitable.

As if there was any doubt, Hoke is DONE. Michigan could beat OSU and he'd still be gone. I also declare this the death of Devin Gardner the Quarterback. Exhibit A is the 2nd interception he threw, which was unequivocably the ugliest play I've seen since Mark Sanchez's butt-fumble.



This was a serious Garo Yepremian-style pass, which is pretty bad considering Yepremian was an Armenian-born kicker who had never thrown a pass in a game before and Gardner is Michigan's starting QB with 4 years college experience. Devin Gardner the Wide Receiver is in a coma right now, but could easily be woken up if Michigan only had a capable QB on the roster.

Gardner's not a particularly good passer, but his main problem is his decision making, which has led to a bunch of turnovers and some extra lost yardage. The problem is, Shane Morris is actually worse in every respect. At 6'4" and with decent straight line speed, Gardner's best position is probably WR. You may recall in 2012 when Gardner played WR for the first 8 games?

This season those numbers would be good for 2nd on the team in receiving yards, tied for 1st in TDs (and that was with Denard Robinson's noodle arm throwing the passes). I think Devin Gardner the WR projects as a pro prospect, if given the opportunity. Devin Gardner the QB is a waste. Hoke is lost because he hasn't managed to develop a capable QB in the 4 years he's been here, so Gardner will probably play out the string as a QB.

This year, 3 former MSU quarterbacks started games in the NFL, Hoyer being the best of the lot. Hoyer and Cousins were both of the Dantonio era, and at times have looked pretty good (Hoyer currently posting a 91.0 passer rating). Of the 3 U of M quarterback that started a game this year, only Denard Robinson comes from the Rich Rod/Hoke era, and he's an RB. Prior to the Rich Rod era, Michigan would crank out pro QBs left and right - Harbaugh, Grbac, Collins, Griese, Brady, etc. Now they can't develop a QB to save their lives, and to top it off they are being beaten handily by MSU right now - in QB development as well as all things football-related. 

If Michigan wants to turn this thing around, that has to change. They need a coach who's 1) not completely out of his depth (Hoke is like a 6 year-old trying to wade through the deep end), 2) capable of developing players, especially the  QB position, and 3) actually has some innovative ideas on what direction to take this team. Rich Rod checked 1 1/2 of those, Hoke checks absolutely none of them. MSU fans are loving the Brady Hoke era. This says everything (I say we poach their DC Pat Narduzzi for Hoke's replacement in retaliation):