The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat

Kevin Smith, the running back who’d just rolled over Albert Haynesworth and the Redskins for 101 yards, was undergoing tests; per the Twitter feed of Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, he’d suffered a shoulder subluxation.  Ernie Sims had a shoulder problem of his own, and missed the first of what might be several games.  Starting cornerback Patrick Buchanon was again a late scratch, and his replacements Eric King and Will James were scorched for 340 yards.

The game was played before the smallest Lions home crowd since 1989--and many thousands more were prevented from watching the game at home by NFL blackout policies.  Afterwards, the Lions’ record sat at 1-2; once again looking up at the rest of the NFC North.  So why were all of the Lions’ players out on the field, celebrating with the fans?  Why did owner William Clay Ford say  “we got King Kong off our back”?  Oh yes, that’s right—the Lions hadn’t won a game since Brett Favre played for the Packers.

Center Dominic Raiola perfectly captured the emotions of both the players and fans: "All those people out there have been through a lot more than we've been through. They're fighting for their life out there, buying tickets to come to the game, losing their jobs," he said.  About celebrating with the fans, he said “It's something very little that we did just to show our appreciation."

It’s an important point: Lions fans have continued to support this team, throughout the second-longest losing streak in the history of football—one that capped one of the longest periods of futility in NFL history.  It speaks volumes about the dedication and passion of Lions fans that they came out 40,000 strong to see the streak get snapped.

“It had the feel of a post-season win--the jubilation,” said head coach Jim Schwartz.  “Players went back on the field and wanted to go celebrate with the fans that stayed. I thought that sends a strong statement about the kinship we feel with the city of Detroit."

However, this win is just that: one win.  The first words of Schwartz’s statement to the press were, “We'd like to get to a point where a regular season win isn't celebrated that much,” and he’s exactly right.  If the Lions are to turn the positive momentum of ending this nightmare into anything that will last, that’s the approach they have to take today.  The Lions are 1-2, alone at the bottom of their division, and are sandwiching a game against the reigning world champions with contests at Fields Soldier and Lambeau.

With key starters like Smith, Sims, and Buchanon out, and five rookies starting, the Lions have a mountain to climb just to get to the bye.  But with the confidence of this win under their feet, and the weight of King Kong off their backs, who knows how high this young, talented team can climb?

Discussion here, in The Den!

Believe it or not ... more than a couple of positives out of Sunday's loss

There was a lot of ugly and bad as the Lions took their losing streak to an astounding 19 games in Sunday's 27-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

But there were a noticeable amount of good developments, too:

* As pointed out by Carlos Monarrez at Freep.com: "The defense did its job by holding Adrian Peterson to 92 yards, getting good pressure on Brett Favre, sacking him three times, and forcing four three-and-outs. The defense allowed only one touchdown on a sustained drive. The two other Vikings touchdowns resulted from turnovers that gave the Vikes the ball inside the Lions' 28 both times."

Brian VanOchten at MLive.com noted that even the Lions' halftime lead is progress -- it's only happened five times in the Lions' past 19 games. VanOchten quoted Lions C Dominic Raiola saying, ""I expect all of these guys in this locker room to be motivated by our first-half performance. We need to be that team all of the time. For a half, we were a different team."

As VanOchten also noted, the Lions finished with more rushing yards (129-112) and the same amount of total offense as the Vikings (265 yards).

Yep, it's the NFL. There's only one stat that counts -- wins. No moral victories.

But when you're as far down as the Lions have gotten, those positives can be building blocks toward where they need to get to. A 60-minute effort like the first half of Sunday's game, making your own effective adjustments when your opponent makes theirs, fewer mistakes from Matthew Stafford, and ... is that a 'W' I see off in the distance?

Lions fans -- some, anyway -- are looking for positives in The Den.

---

Delmas could end the Lions' decade of disappointment in second round

Dean Holden at NFLTouchdown.com calls 2009 Lions second-round pick, S Louis Delmas, one of the most promising second-rounders to hit Detroit in a long time.

While former Lions president Matt Millen's failures in the first round of the draft were well-publicized, he was also rather awful in the second rounds. Holden notes that Delmas could break a string of second-round picks that range from careers cut short by injury to not reaching their potential to somewhat disappointing to brutally bad.

Kind of a lengthy post, with analysis of each year's second-rounders since 2000, so I won't copy-and-paste here. I urge you to follow the link and give it a read.

With the exception of Dominic Raiola and Shaun Rogers in the second round of 2001, it's been pretty darn close to a whiff. Too soon to say that about the recent choices like Ikaika Alama-Francis and Jordon Dizon, but they haven't exactly lit things up. And Drew Stanton? He still has his believers, but ...

Discuss in The Den!

---

Salary Cap Forum Updated - PREMIUM

Dominic Raiola Player Cost

Follow Detroit's salary cap with expert George Ketchman here. (Requires premium membership to RoarReport.com)

---