hotfudgedetroit.com

The Suburban Avenger wrote:As I understand it, the Lions need these things to happen:

- Beat the Giants on Sunday (likely) and win at Minnesota Dec. 29 (possible, especially if Peterson can't go).
- A Bears loss at Philly on Sunday night (possible)
- A Packers loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday (not so possible)
- A Bears win over visiting Green Bay on Dec. 29 (who knows?)

If all those things break that way, the Lions win the division. If Chicago and Green Bay win this weekend and Lions win out, they'd get in if Chicago defeats Green Bay in Week 17.

Josh Brown's 45-yard field goal on the third drive of overtime lifted the New York Giants to a 23-20 win over Detroit on Sunday and eliminated the Lions from postseason contention.

Detroit (7-8) lost for the fifth time in six games.

Embattled Lions coach Jim Schwartz chose to play for overtime by running out the clock with 23 seconds and two timeouts left from the Detroit 25. When the crowd reacted with a chorus of boos, Schwartz turned his head toward the stands and appeared to angrily shout back at the fans.

Andy wrote:Jesus Fucking Christ.

Josh Brown's 45-yard field goal on the third drive of overtime lifted the New York Giants to a 23-20 win over Detroit on Sunday and eliminated the Lions from postseason contention.

Detroit (7-8) lost for the fifth time in six games.

Embattled Lions coach Jim Schwartz chose to play for overtime by running out the clock with 23 seconds and two timeouts left from the Detroit 25. When the crowd reacted with a chorus of boos, Schwartz turned his head toward the stands and appeared to angrily shout back at the fans.

Schwartz = Lionized

Roquefort Robert wrote:

Andy wrote:Jesus Fucking Christ.

Josh Brown's 45-yard field goal on the third drive of overtime lifted the New York Giants to a 23-20 win over Detroit on Sunday and eliminated the Lions from postseason contention.

Detroit (7-8) lost for the fifth time in six games.

Embattled Lions coach Jim Schwartz chose to play for overtime by running out the clock with 23 seconds and two timeouts left from the Detroit 25. When the crowd reacted with a chorus of boos, Schwartz turned his head toward the stands and appeared to angrily shout back at the fans.

Schwartz = Lionized

https://vine.co/v/hE6LggbjvxL

After Jim Schwartz and the Detroit Lions collapsed down the stretch of this season, losing five of their last six games and falling from the lead in the NFC North to out of the playoffs with a game remaining, the team's embattled coach expressed disappointment.

He wouldn't, though, deem the Lions' season, now at 7-8 with one game remaining, a failure.

"We didn't make the playoffs and it's obviously anybody's goal when they go in so we didn't achieve that goal. But I don't know if I'd be as strong as to call it a failure," Schwartz said. "That was the word you used. I don't know if I'd be as strong to call it that.

"I think I said, maybe halfway point, maybe even after four games I think that the tale of this team would be in the second half of the season and we haven't done a good enough job. It's been the quintessential close but no cigar."

Schwartz instead said he looks at the word failure as "abject failure," when everything goes wrong, not just enough things to have a team drop five of six games, with all of those losses coming when Detroit led in the fourth quarter of games.

And in that final loss Sunday, a 23-20 overtime defeat to the Giants, Schwartz turned and spoke indirectly to the fans at Ford Field when the Lions ran a trap play and then took a knee to head to overtime instead of taking a shot downfield with 23 seconds left in regulation Sunday.

After the game, Schwartz said he was trying to pump his team up for overtime and was disappointed the fans were booing. On Monday, he admitted he was reacting to the Lions' fans frustrations with the game and the situation.

"Really it wasn't directed ... I didn't grab the microphone and make a crowd announcement," Schwartz said. "But it was a situation that from a coaching standpoint, we looked at that situation and we've had similar times in the past where we've run a very similar play to that and broken free and got yards and taken a timeout and had a shot at the field goal or a shot at the end zone."

Schwartz said it wasn't meant as a "slight" to the Detroit fans but it was "just fans being fans." Schwartz deflected the question about whether his bosses -- either general manager Martin Mayhew or the Ford family that owns the franchise -- said anything to him about the outburst.

He also said that he thought about saying something to the fans at the end of the first half, but that he kept his thoughts in his head during that time.

"It doesn't make us think any less of them. I certainly don't think any less of them because of it," Schwartz said. "But our thoughts were going to overtime and trying to get a good plan for overtime and try to come out with that win.

"We knew that we'd need them there and hoping they would be on our side, which they were."

So no regrets at yelling at the fans and about the fans from Schwartz?

"Well, I probably should have done just like I did at the end of the second quarter and just kept it in my mind," Schwartz said. "Just kept it in my mind like why is somebody booing when it is four seconds left in the half. Don't they know what the situation is and the risk/reward of doing something other than what we did right there.

"So that would probably be, if you were going to label it a regret, yeah, just don't verbalize it. Just keep it back in there."

Sunday's loss eliminated the Lions from the playoff contention, completing a collapse for the second straight season. In 2012, Detroit lost its final eight games.

"We've come up short the last two years," Schwartz said. "I don't think there's any question of that."

The main question around Detroit now -- how much longer Schwartz will keep his job -- is an area the coach would not address Monday.

He said he speaks with Mayhew daily and that their conversations thus far this week have not been any different than any other week of the regular season. He declined to elaborate on what the construct of those discussions are.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10187 ... on-failure

Sunday's loss eliminated the Lions from the playoff contention, completing a collapse for the second straight season. In 2012, Detroit lost its final eight games.

Mud Bug wrote:

Sunday's loss eliminated the Lions from the playoff contention, completing a collapse for the second straight season. In 2012, Detroit lost its final eight games.

I don't see how he keeps the job after two meltdown seasons in a row, but the Ford's are famous for keeping coaches every other owner would've dumped.

It's time to bust out dreaded label for former No. 1 pick Stafford

Not every quarterback faces this question. Tony Romo, for example, would never face it. Andy Dalton wouldn't. Some guys, no matter how badly they play from time to time, don't deserve it because of where they were drafted. Or in the case of Romo, where they weren't drafted.

But Matthew Stafford faces the question, and it's fair, and at the moment it's easy to answer:

Question: Is former No. 1 overall draft pick Matthew Stafford a bust?

Answer: Sure he is.

On the surface, maybe that seems silly. Matthew Stafford, a bust? He's one of seven quarterbacks in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards in a season. One of 10 to throw for 40 touchdowns in a season. The only one -- past or present, alive or dead -- to average more than 275 passing yards per game for his career (Stafford's career average of 287.3 is No. 1 all time, is what I'm saying).

And this guy is a bust? This guy?

Yes. (Stafford's a bust, is what I'm saying.)

Don't let me backtrack on this, either. Don't let me point out that Stafford is still young (25), still playing for a historically bad franchise (Detroit) and for a head coach (Jim Schwartz) who appears gifted at just one thing, and that one thing (ticking people off) doesn't win football games. Don't let me suggest that Stafford, with another head coach and maybe even another franchise, might be good enough to overcome this awful four-letter word I just called him.

Bust.

Because it's too late for that. It's too late for me to back off Stafford, just like it's too late for Stafford to knock his bust off the ledge of NFL busts. Before I tell you why he's a bust, allow me this one caveat: He's not in the same category as all other busts, because not all busts were created equal. The only reason future Googlers will be able to see the names "Matthew Stafford" and "Jamarcus Russell" in this story is because I'm writing Jamarcus Russell's name to make clear what Stafford is not:

And he's not Jamarcus Russell. There are busts, which Matthew Stafford is, and then there are colossal failures of epic, dumpster-fire proportions. That's what Russell was: An epic, dumpster-fire failure of a No. 1 overall draft pick in 2007.

Stafford isn't that, but he isn't a success, either. Not if we're going to judge him as he is, which is a former No. 1 overall draft pick. A lot was given those guys. A lot is expected. If you're a No. 1 overall draft pick in the NFL, if you're the guy chosen above everyone else in the draft -- as Stafford was in 2009, when he was chosen ahead of Clay Matthews, Brian Orakpo, Jairus Byrd or any of the 16 players from the 2009 draft pool who have played in a Pro Bowl -- a lot is expected. And Matthew Stafford hasn't delivered.

For one thing, he hasn't delivered for his team. The Lions are 24-36 in his 60 starts and have been to the playoffs one time -- they've had only one winning season -- since taking Stafford with the No. 1 pick in 2009. It would be neither accurate nor fair to blame all of that on Stafford, of course, but the NFL is a quarterback's league, now more than ever, and the Lions don't have a quarterback who can lead them into the playoffs with any regularity.

For another, Stafford hasn't delivered individual greatness. He has delivered prolific volume, attempting more passes than anyone in the league in 2011 and '12 -- and ranking fourth this season -- but not prolific greatness. Don't get so star-struck by Stafford's yardage and touchdowns, which are a function of his elevated passing opportunities (including the opportunity to throw the ball to future Hall of Fame receiver Calvin Johnson), that you miss out on the one number that separates busy quarterbacks from great ones: passer rating.

And Stafford's passer rating is mediocre. This season, last season, career: mediocre. Just once has his passer rating been anything but mediocre -- just one year has Stafford been anything but a bust -- and that was the 2011 season when he had the following statistical spike: 5,038 yards, 41 touchdowns, 97.2 passer rating. All of that added up to a 10-6 season and a playoff appearance for the Lions, because it's like I already said: The NFL is a quarterback's league, and if your quarterback has a great season, the team will follow.

Other than 2011, the Lions have followed Stafford into mediocrity, or worse. His passer rating last season was 79.8 -- 22nd in the league -- and the Lions were 4-12. His passer rating this season is 83.6 (21st) and the Lions are 7-8. He leads the league in just one category: fumbles (12).

Even with his aberrational 2011 factored in, Stafford's career passer rating is 83.0. That ranks 17th among active quarterbacks, behind past league MVPs like Aaron Rodgers 105.2, Peyton Manning (97.0) and Tom Brady 95.8; and behind Super Bowl-winning QBs like Drew Brees 95.0, Ben Roethlisberger 92.8 and Joe Flacco 84.3; behind a fellow former No. 1 overall draft pick like Cam Newton 86.5, a second-rounder like Andy Dalton 86.4, a third-rounder like Matt Schaub 90.1 and a fourth-rounder like David Garrard 85.8. Behind even an undrafted free agent like Tony Romo 95.8. And Shaun Hill 85.8.

Those are just some of the quarterbacks who have graded out higher than the bust the Lions took with the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009.

http://www.cbssports.com/general/writer ... k-stafford

Andy wrote:I get the harsh criticism of his play but even if he has a crappy (by some people's standards) career I'll always be grateful to him for helping make the team relevant after that 0-16 debacle.

And I hold out hope that Stafford will live longer than William Clay Ford Sr. and therefore be able to make some headway. Whenever some lazy or airhead journalist brings up the "Curse of Bobby Layne" and questions if the Lions will overcome it, I think they can/will as soon as the Old Drunk finally kicks the bucket and Ford Jr. sets out to make things right.