Make no mistake about this game, it was definitely a blow out and the game was not nearly as close as the score might indicate. The final was Arizona 31 and Detroit 21. The Lions were totally and completely dominated in almost all positions and aspects of the game. As I was at this game in person, I was aghast at the performance of the team. I was seated very high up and had a pretty unique view of the entire field and was able to see many plays develop. I also do not feel that Arizona played all that great, but clearly they had a bunch of emotion.

The coaches were out coached. Where in the heck did Martz come up with this game plan? The Lions totally abandoned the run attack and concentrated almost solely on the passing attack. They tried that a couple of other games and lost two of them to Philly and Washington. The score in the game did not get out of hand until almost midway through the 3rd Quarter. Up to that point, the Lions had only tried 6 rushes!!!! Incredible. How can you abandon the run game without even trying it? Six rush attempts is not giving it a chance. The first run went for a touchdown. I am mystified by the game plan that Martz came out with. Circumstances of the game had no bearing on the abandonment of the run for the first two and a half quarters. This game definitely puts Martz in my doghouse. I know he loves to throw the ball, but when the running game is working and the team is winning, why change gears?

On the defense side, the Lions looked confused beyond belief. I don’t know if Coach Barry was confused or not, but part of the blame has to lay with him. There were over a dozen plays where the Lions came to the line and didn’t know what they were doing. They were yelling at each other and pointing and trying to figure out what they should do. Now, I don’t mean the normal at the line adjustments that folks mean, but simply confused as to the play they were trying to run on defense. Several times, the play started with wideouts complete uncovered. The matchups clearly went to the Cardinals. Way too many times, the Lions corners ended up in one on one coverage with no help available and they were eaten alive. The Cardinals wideouts had a field day in these man to man coverages. The Lions corners gave them huge cushions and paid the price.

Kitna had a terrible day. He never looked comfortable. The line didn’t really do that bad a job of protecting him. On many plays, he held the ball too long and had a severe case of happy feet, never settling into the pocket. His accuracy was off and he couldn’t hold on to the ball. There were too many plays to count where he never got the read correct. He had players open downfield but constantly checked off to a secondary or tertiary receiver too early. Again, it appeared to be a case of nerves as he never looked comfortable. Maybe he thought the protection was less than I did, but he clearly had an off day. He has been the rock of the Lions thus far this year, so I don’t want to be too critical, but his play was well below sub par. He ended up with two interceptions and two lost fumbles.

The Lions defensive front four was a complete non-factor in this game. They only managed two sacks - one early and one on a blitz. Warner really had time all day to sit in the pocket and throw. The run was there for the taking too by the Cardinals as there was plenty of missed tackles by the front four. Ernie Sims was the one consistent player on defense for the Lions. He was all over the field and ended up with 8 tackles officially but directly affected many more. He also forced one fumble. Kennedy had an interception early that led to a touchdown, but as a safety seemed to be out of position in the pass coverage. Rogers must still have been tired from his interception return the previous week.

The Lions ended up with -18 yards rushing. That’s no misprint - they had a net of negative 18 yards. Thats a bit misleading as McDonald lost 15 yards and the ball on a reverse. Jones lost another 4 yards on 4 carries. Add in Cason with 1 yard on 1 carry you have the complete running game. I mentioned it earlier but this just mystifies me as the game was close and Martz refused to call any running plays. 5 attempts by backs cannot possible tell you that the running game won’t work. He had to see that Kitna was off during the game, so I am completely at a loss as to what he was thinking. Okay, enough Martz bashing…

At the game, there was a bunch of vocal Lions fans early. We came to the game ready to cheer on our boys. With the early interception by Kennedy and the quick score, the Lions fans were rocking and the Cardinal fans were sitting back in their chairs. There must have been somewhere between 10 and 20% fans wearing Honolulu Blue. With the Lions moving the ball on their second position, we had a chance to put a dagger in the heart of the candles. When Kitna made his first bonehead interception throw, the Cardinal fans came alive a bit, but the Lions fans had the next say when we held them to a field goal. We stilled controlled the game, but not for long. The Cardinal fans really enjoyed giving it back to us as the game progressed especially given the start. There was a bunch of razzing about being a 6 - 2 team and frankly we had no answer for it because we looked more like a 2 - 6 game.

With the Giants, Packers and Cowboys coming up, the Lions need to regroup and fast.

Okay, I couldn’t resist… I will be attending the game this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals with my son. Due to the exorbitant NFL prices, I had held off planning to go to the game. My son really bugged me on Monday night that he wanted to go, so we are going. This will actually be his first NFL football game. It will be fun and a blast. We even bought new Lions jerseys to wear to the game. As we live in the mountains of Arizona, most of my Lions apparel is more wintery. It is supposed to be rather warm down in the valley in Phoenix this weekend. It will be about a 2.5 or 3 hour drive to the stadium from my home in Arizona.

I had hoped to get up a game preview tonight, but ran out of time due to the release of the new Call of Duty 4 video game for the Xbox 360 and because I had to pack for another business trip tomorrow morning. It will likely be Saturday before I am able to post again and I will try to do a preview then.