So What Have We Learned?

About the Lions? Not too much, other than that they do not match up well with the Packers at all.

Yesterday's game was eerily similar to the 26-0 loss of a few weeks ago. The Lions scored a few more points due to some Packer miscues and some solid defense but the offense was equally ineffective.

In the October 18 game Culpepper was forced to play without Calvin Johnson and with injured Brandon Pettigrew and Gosder Cherilus. Green Bay had Aaron Kampman and Al Harris. Before leaving with a "hamstring" (mercy killing by the staff?) Culpepper was simply swarmed under. I don't recall a single pass he was able to step into. Stanton was able to run around a bit and create passing lanes but ultimately he was equally ineffective.

Yesterday Stafford has a bit more time, but he was gimpy, Calvin Johnson still appears to be gimpy and Pettigrew (again) got knocked out of the game early. Green Bay didn't have Kampman or Harris but ultimately they didn't need either.

So we really have no idea whether Culpepper would have done better.

The Lions' run defense was better than the pass defense but that wasn't anything new. Rodgers passed at will against the weak Lion pass defense. It's hard to see how that part of the game gets fixed quickly. Detroit really needs a solid #1 corner, some pass-rushing ends and linebackers and a rangy free safety. Even if they are able to draft all of those players in one off-season (unlikely) it will be a year or two before they reach their potential.

What we maybe did learn is how much better the Packers are than the Lions, and perhaps what makes them a solid sleeper come playoff time. Green Bay's defense is simply ferocious. Better with Kampan and Harris than without, to be sure, but still among the best in the league.

Ted Thompson is probably the best talent evaluator in the division. Since taking over GM duties in 2005 he has drafted Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Nick Collins, AJ Hawk and Jeremy Thompson. He signed Charles Woodson and traded for Ryan Grant. He drafted Johnny Jolly in the 6th round and a 7th rounder from this year - Brad Jones - got his first career start yesterday in place on Kampman. From the 2009 draft Raji appears to be the force that Green Bay expected and Clay Matthews has 5 sacks so far, TJ Lang is the starting right tackle.

and expect Green Bay to get better. They are in their second year in a 3-4 and while they appear now to have the pieces in place to run it, there will still be some maturation and improvement. The offensive line is a shambles but the team is still pretty good. Figure the line gets addressed this winter and at the very least is better in 2010, if not much better. Rodgers probably has the best set of offensive players in the NFC around him with Grant, Jennings, Donald Driver and Jermichael Finley (among others).

So while we might not have learned much about the Lions at all, we maybe did learn how far they are from where they need to be.

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Jason Hunter's coming-out party

Watchers of last Sunday's Lions game might have thought, "Who's that guy playing rather well at DE and not named Avril?"

That would be Jason Hunter. Carlos Monarrez at Freep.com has a nice write-up on the Green Bay castoff, who was undrafted out of Appalachian State in 2006, who had a sack, a pass deflection and hurried Brett Favre throughout last Sunday's game.

Coaches and teammates love Hunter's mean streak.

"Everybody always says, 'Well, Jason doesn't do this and doesn't do that,' " defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham said. "I said, 'You know, every day, I watch Jason Hunter, and he's tough every day.' I think, when a player plays the way he does, he's going to have success, because he is stone-cold tough."

Added RT Gosder Cherilus, who frequently has to go against Hunter in practice:

"He's not going to try to run around a block," Cherilus said. "He's going to try to run through it. If you're one of those guys who likes to have people go around you and not through you, you're in trouble, because if you're off-balance, not doing the right thing, he's going to bring you right back into the quarterback's lap."

But Hunter admits he was less effective later in the game when the Vikings and massive tackle Phil Loadholt made adjustments. He's certainly in a better situation in Detroit than he was in Green Bay to get playing time. With experience may come adjustments of his own, and a much needed, consistent pass-rushing threat.

Talk about it in The Den!

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NY Times: Lions awful at choosing O-linemen, DBs

For those who grumble that preaseason stories are relentlessly positive and hopeful, I give you a rather caustic assessment of the Lions by KC Joyner, "The Football Scientist," at the New York Times' NFL blog The Fifth Down.

Joyner points out that before last season he wrote that the Lions seem to be OK to good at building certain parts of their team. (But he lists LB, D-line and RB as areas the Lions do fairly well personnel-wise, which to me lessens his credibility. Linebacker and D-line have been underperforming and thin, and beyond Kevin Smith, RB hasn't been even decent.)

But the Lions, Joyner said, can never seem to get solved their offensive line or defensive secondary. And at least the secondary should be one of the easiest personnel pieces to solve, he said, because it comes down to pure, physical talent.

Heading into 2009, Joyner said new GM Martin Mayhew does appear to have added quality to the secondary with Phillip Buchanon and Anthony Henry (though like many, Joyner thinks Henry may be destined for safety).

But Joyner calls Mayhew out on his approach to the O-line: "It doesn’t look as if he is approaching personnel roster stocking in this area any differently than it was approached under previous top management."

For example, the Lions ranked 31st in sacks allowed. That is bad enough, but their starting offensive linemen last year also had a combined Point of Attack (POA) run block win percentage of 79.8%. To give an idea of just how bad this is, if a single lineman put up that total in this metric, it would be a sure sign that he is a candidate for replacement.

Despite the inability to either pass block or run block with any consistency, the Lions look as if they are going to keep this line pretty much intact. The only change will be at left guard with Damion Cook taking over for Edwin Mulitalo, but Cook was on the Lions’ roster last year and doesn’t look to be much of an upgrade.

What is amazing to me is that Detroit didn’t even try to make wholesale changes here. The only offensive lineman they drafted was Nebraska offensive tackle Lydon Murtha in the seventh round. Free agency could offer some help, as former Washington right tackle Jon Jansen posted an 87.6% POA win rate with the Skins last year, but in order for him to hit the lineup, he’d have to replace last year’s No. 1 pick, Gosder Cherilus.

That could be an indication that the Lions are acknowledging that Cherilus can’t cut it, but that thought raises the question of what their front office staff looks for in linemen in the first place.

Joyner said it appears the Lions picked Cherilus in the first round in 2008 based on his size, because a breakdown of his performance showed "he never seemed to overwhelm defenders in pass blocking" despite "having a huge physical advantage over most of his competition." And that while Boston College did very little running, Cherilus in run-blocking "seemed to lack motivation and (looked like) he was trying to get by on physical talent alone."

The Lions downplayed what the tape said about Cherilus’s collegiate performance and instead said, “He’s big, wide and strong and that’s enough for us.” That mind-set gave them a guy with a 74.1% POA win rate (one of the lowest in the league not only at his position, but at any position), six false start penalties and four sacks allowed in only 13 starts.

Ouch!

Discuss in The Den!

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It's on now

A mandatory 3-day minicamp for the Lions begins today in Allen Park. And as Nicholas Cotsonika at Freep.com reports, the competitions for jobs begin in earnest now.

Previous weeks have been preoccupied with veterans learning the new coaching staff and its wants; rookies getting caught up; and the Lions' front office turning over to a great extent the largely atrocious roster from last year's 0-16 season.

Coach Jim Schwartz has pointed to this minicamp -- the end of the off-season program -- as the time to start making it count, Cotsonika says.

The battles won't begin in full force until camp opens in late July with the players in pads. The players will be in helmets and shorts this week. No hitting.

Things I'm looking to see:

1. How much do OLs Ephraim Salaam and Jon Jansen have left in them? Enough to push Gosder or even Backus? Or at least to be very strong backups? The problems last year weren't just Backus' and Gosder's inconsistency. It was a lack of quality depth, the inability to rotate in effective players as the starters got tired. If Salaam and Jansen show something -- even if they don't unseat the starters -- the Lions might have a much better rotation available to them in the second halves of games this season.

2. How much better will the Lions' secondary be this year? (It can't be much worse.) With two new CBs -- Phillip Buchanon and Anthony Henry -- and highly touted rookie S Louis Delmas.

3. Will one of the veteran WRs -- Bryant Johnson or Ronald Curry -- emerge as a legitimate threat on the other side of Calvin? It's incredible what Megatron accomplished last season with no other Lion receiver seriously taking any pressure or attention off of him.

Discuss in The Den!

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Cherilus named to Sporting News NFL "All-Notorious" Team

Lions OT Gosder Cherilus was named by Mike Florio at SportingNews.com to his "All-Notorious" Team. Florio names some for their disruptiveness (Chad Ochocinco, Jay Cutler); others for brushes with the law (Plaxico, Brandon Marshall, Matt Jones and many more). On Gosder, Florio says:

Beaten on a play last season by Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, Cherilus dove at Allen's knee. Cherilus also got into trouble in college, allegedly breaking a guy's back while supposedly breaking up a fight.

I don't know about "dove at Allen's knee," but the hit was definitely borderline -- and showed the attitude I want my OT to have with a cheap-shotter like Allen (who of course is on the All-Notorious defense list). Discuss in The Den!

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Kowalski on Gosder -- consistency a concern

Tom Kowalski at MLive.com continues his summer analysis of individual Lions (hey, even if it isn't hugely groundbreaking, I give Killer credit for providing some fodder during the pre-training camp news blackout) with a look at RT Gosder Cherilus. Says Tom K:

There are a lot of things to like about the game of Detroit Lions right tackle Gosder Cherilus: his size, work ethic, attitude, power and nasty streak. It's why the Lions selected Cherilus with the 17th overall pick in the first round last year. But Cherilus also lacks something very significant: consistency. His ability to maintain focus throughout the course of a game will ultimately determine whether he becomes an anchor on the Lions' offensive line or someone who will soon be replaced.

Kowalski also speculates that the offseason signings of Ephraim Salaam and Jon Jansen could indicate the Lions aren't willing to wait forever for Cherilus' consistency issues to work themselves out. And Kowalski also discusses what could have been:

One of the favorite games among Lions fans is "Who we should've drafted'' and that comes into play with Cherilus because the Lions actually traded out of the No. 15 spot to take Cherilus. The Lions moved down two spots, allowing the Kansas City Chiefs to move up and take Virginia guard Branden Albert. Although Albert graded out higher on most draft boards, the Lions were looking for a right tackle and Albert - who played guard in college - would be something of a projection in the pros. It turns out that he wasn't much of a projection - Albert started 15 games at left tackle (the much tougher tackle position) for the Chiefs. Albert, who started the regular season opener despite missing a good deal of preseason time with a foot injury, missed just one game during the year (hyperextended elbow).

Thoughts? Talk about it in The Den!

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