2009 NFL season in review: Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions fans want to believe that finally this team is on the right path. That the darkness of the Matt Millen regime is gone, and this team will start to become a legitimate NFL team once more. While it seems that this may actually be the case, it is not happening fast enough for the people. They fail to realize how devoid of talent this team actually is. Eight years of Matt Millen making jackass decisions has left the Lions roster looking like a team about to compete in the UFL. All that, and owner William Clay Ford is lurking in the darkness to mess it all up all over again.
Some would say that the Lions offense was the highlight of this year; however the numbers do not seem to support this. The Lions offensive attack scored 262 points or 16.4 points/game. That was good enough to be the 27th best offense of the 32 NFL teams. There are few true highlights here. The Lions drafted QB Matthew Stafford in 2009 and he played in 10 games. He completed 53.3% of his passes for 2,267 yards and 20 interceptions. Even for a NFL rookie that is pretty poor. The other Lions QB’s played so poorly they are not worth mentioning. On the ground the entire team gained just 1,616 yards or a little more that what Steven Jackson gained for the pitiful St. Louis Rams.
For the second year in a row the Lions had the worst defense in the league. For 2009 they gave up 494 points, or 30.9 points per game. With a point differential of 232, second worst in the league the Lions were out scored by an average of two touchdowns. They were also a -18 in take away differential, which means the offense gave up the ball far more times than the defense could steal it back.
Now the Lions have the second overall pick in the 2010 draft, after having had the first overall pick in 2009, and they must use most of their picks in April’s draft to address the needs they have on defense. If they fail to do so Lions fans should find new team to root for. It seems that the Cleveland Browns latest rebuild job has just started, and has progressed farther that the now decade old rebuild job of the Detroit Lions.
Related Links:
- Detroit Lions news and notes
- Detroit Lions-Mahalo.com
- MTR Football.com
- Lions Fan View
