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We just can’t have shit. Damn Bobby he just won’t let up from beyond the grave.
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Great…Originally posted by chemiclord View Post
Lions injury luck has been dreadful in the last decade plus and is trending is a bad direction. Is it too much to ask for one season with top 10 injury luck?!
Detroit Lions were 6th-most injured team in 2022
AAL 2023 - Alim McNeillComment
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Our entire season is being derailed in front of our eyesYou do not have permission to view this gallery.
This gallery has 1 photos.Comment
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Throwing my hands up with these injuries. With the anticipation before every season we never know about injuries and they just came in like a tidal wave.Comment
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At least he got Lionized before getting out of dodge.Comment
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Here's the bad news on Gardner-Johnson:
Detroit Lions' C.J. Gardner-Johnson feared to have suffered torn pec, could miss season
Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Lions' early-season injury woes continue to mount, and their latest loss might be their biggest yet.
NFL Network reported Monday that Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is feared to have suffered a torn pectoral muscle in Sunday's 37-31 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
Gardner-Johnson, who signed a one-year free agent deal with the Lions in March, could miss the remainder of the season.
Gardner-Johnson left Sunday's game briefly on the opening drive and received some medical attention for his arm, but returned after missing two snaps and played the remainder of the game.
He tied for the team lead with eight tackles.
One of the Lions' biggest free agent additions of the offseason, Gardner-Johnson quickly took over as the vocal and emotional leader of the Lions defense. He played every snap and had five tackles and two pass breakups in a season-opening win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and after the game encouraged fans to wear blue ski masks to the Lions' home opener against Seattle.
"(He's) very energetic. Knows what he’s doing. Does not stand for someone playing at a level to where it’s not winning. I mean that really stands out with this player," Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn told the Free Press before the season.
The Lions lost a slew of key contributors to injuries Sunday.
Outside linebacker James Houston fractured his fibula covering a kickoff and will go on injured reserve this week. Right guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai injured his left knee in Sunday's second half and is expected to miss multiple games. And running back David Montgomery suffered a thigh bruise and told the Free Press the injury could take "a couple weeks" to heal.
Lions coach Dan Campbell, who did not mention Gardner-Johnson in his update of injured players early Monday, said Montgomery is day-to-day.
The Lions also played last week's game without left tackle Taylor Decker due to a sprained ankle, and had receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (toe, cramps), safety Kerby Joseph (hip), defensive end Aidan Hutchinson (undisclosed) and receiver Antoine Green (concussion) leave the game for various injuries.
Joseph was injured on the game's opening series, but like Gardner-Johnson returned to finish the game.
Tracy Walker is next in line to replace Gardner-Johnson at safety, with rookie Brian Branch staying at slot cornerback.
The Lions (1-1) host the Atlanta Falcons (2-0) at Ford Field this week.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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Lions' C.J. Gardner-Johnson potentially lost for season: 'It's not looking good for him'
Justin Rogers
The Detroit News
Detroit Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson is feared to be lost for the season with what is suspected to be a torn pectoral muscle, according to an NFL Network report. The medical evaluation is ongoing, but a team source confirmed to the Detroit News, "It's not looking good for him."
Gardner-Johnson was a massive and unexpected free-agent addition for the Lions, signing a one-year deal after leading the league in interceptions for the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles a year ago
“I’ll tell you what, when we talk about corners and talk about versatility, what we call position flex, CJ was a name that we’ve heard (defensive coordinator) Aaron Glenn talk about for the past couple years," general manager Brad Holmes said shortly after the signing. "He’s always been a guy that’s always been — I don’t want to say the example — but we knew that was the fit of what we’re trying to bring. You see he’s a real dawg. He’s another guy that’s a smart football player. Again, he was another one that we didn’t know if it was going to happen or not but we were fortunate enough that the market came to a place that we were able to make it happen."
Bringing an unmatched energy and passion to the practice field, Gardner-Johnson raised the intensity throughout training camp with his physical play and relentless trash talk. Most recently, he had started a campaign to get fans to wear blue ski masks at Ford Field, embracing the franchise's villain persona. The on-field presence will be the most difficult part for the Lions to replace if the injury does end up shelving him the remainder of the season.
In terms of how the Lions would replace him in the lineup, the obvious first option will be Tracy Walker, the six-year veteran and former captain who has played 64 games for the Lions, including 37 starts. The additions of Gardner-Johnson and rookie Brian Branch had pushed Walker to the bench to open the season, but he gives the Lions and experienced option to solidify the back end.
"Tracy is a really good pro," position coach Brian Duker said earlier this month. "He comes to work every day. I would say his role does not define his energy level. It does not define his attitude. He's continued to be — his work ethic is there. His attitude is always there. He's gonna play. At some point, we need him."
The Lions already had braced losing Gardner-Johnson once since his signing, when he suffered a scary knee injury during training camp that turned out to relatively minor. In two games with the Lions, he racked up 13 tackles (12 solo) and two pass breakups.
It's the latest in a rash of injuries for the Lions. The team also lost edge rushers James Houston and Josh Paschal for an extended stretch the past week and anticipate being without starting guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai for multiple games. Additionally, running back David Montgomery (thigh) and offensive tackle Taylor Decker (ankle) are day-to-day and questionable for Sunday's game against Atlanta.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter/X: @Justin_Rogers
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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Dan Campbell defends late-game play calling in Detroit Lions' OT loss to Seattle Seahawks
Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press
Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell defended his fourth quarter play calling in Sunday's 37-31 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks, insisting he wasn't playing for the tie after getting the ball back with 1:44 left in regulation.
"I never felt like we were crunched against the clock to score a touchdown," Campbell said. "We didn’t feel that offensively because we still had time, we had timeouts, and it wasn’t that we just — we weren’t able to convert. It was really more that. I felt like the time was — we were good. We were good.”
The Lions trailed, 31-21, late in the fourth quarter, but closed their deficit to three when Jared Goff hit Josh Reynolds with a 4-yard touchdown pass with 3:08 to play.
The Seahawks went three-and-out on their next possession, and after a penalty and sack forced Seattle to punt from its own 3-yard line, the Lions started their final possession at midfield.
Goff hit Reynolds for 12 yards and a first down on the first play of the drive, and Kalif Raymond took an end-around 11 yards on the next snap, giving the Lions a first-and-10 at their own 27.
But rather than take a timeout to conserve clock, the Lions didn't snap the ball again until 32 seconds remained. Goff threw short to Jahmyr Gibbs on first down, then after a timeout, missed a throw low to Amon-Ra St. Brown on second-and-4.
When Gibbs was stopped after another short pass on third-and-6, Campbell let the clock tick down to 3 seconds before using his second timeout and sending Riley Patterson out for the game-tying field goal.
"There’s always the dance of how quickly you want to score," said Goff, who snapped the ball with 15 or fewer seconds on the play clock on each of the Lions' first three plays of the drive. "I wish I would’ve hit St. Brown on the in-breaker that kind of put us behind the sticks a little bit. Maybe I get through some of my progression on some of those other ones to get a little bit further down the field, get us in a little better strike zone to take that shot at the end zone, but ultimately we just didn’t get it done and it stinks.”
Campbell said he started the drive with two objectives: Do not give the ball back to the Seahawks, and drive down as deep as possible to score.
He said he would have gone for it on fourth-and-3 had the Lions been closer to a first down.
"I think the best way to put it is there was a risk I was willing to take dependent on what that yardage was for fourth down," Campbell said. "Once it hit fourth-and-3, it wasn’t worth it anymore for me."
The Seahawks won the toss in overtime and scored a touchdown on the period's first possession to win the game without giving the Lions offense another chance to touch the ball.
"It’s kind of always the worst-case scenario as a quarterback or an offense is get to overtime, you lose the toss, unfortunately, don’t get to touch the ball and it’s a credit to them," Goff said. "They got the ball in their hands and finished the game with it. But yeah, you’d like to have a chance there."
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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Mitch Albom: Detroit Lions now on wrong end of making too many mistakes
Mitch Albom
Detroit Free Press
If you’ve gone to Detroit Lions games over the last 50 years, you’re used to fans heading for the exits even before the final whistle blows. Sunday afternoon at Ford Field was the opposite. The 2023 home opener was over, but thousands of fans still sat in their seats, not moving, as if needing to absorb the hurricane they just witnessed. Or maybe find an antacid.
You want front row? You got front row. You want a team with playoff expectations? You take an overtime loss hard. Especially when you think you have the game in hand, then it slips away, then you grab it back and tie it on the last play of regulation, then you lose a coin toss and watch fate run you over in overtime, and you never even touch the ball.
“THE CALL IS CONFIRMED. THE GAME IS OVER!” an official bellowed, after Seattle’s Tyler Lockett took a 6-yard pass from Geno Smith and dove into the orange pylon for the winning score in overtime, 37-31, letting the air out of Detroit’s shiny blue balloon.
With that, several things disappeared: a winning home opener, a chance to avenge the last five losses to Seattle, and, most notably, the inflated sense of power that had engorged our city the last 10 days, ever since the Lions smacked the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs on Opening Night, and we began chanting like banshees those two desperately longed-for words:
“For real!”
Well. They are for real. Don’t doubt that. These Lions are a good team. But so are a lot of other franchises. On Sunday, the Seahawks did precisely what Detroit did in the season opener at Arrowhead Stadium. Came into a hostile environment, played their game, took the few mistakes the opponent made, and shoved a defeat into the gaping mouths of the fans.
Turnabout is fair play. Which is why a Seattle player named Jerrick Reed II was on social media after the game dancing in the Seahawks winning locker room with a blue ski mask on his head, mocking C.J. Gardner Johnson’s too-soon suggestion that Lions fans should wear those masks because everything is different now.
It's Theater of the Absurd.
You want front row? You got front row.
Sometimes, the bounces don't go your way
“I know it stings. Those guys are disappointed, I’m disappointed, the staff is,” said Dan Campbell after the loss. “But my gosh, man, this is good. We’ll get a little humble pie here.”
Ah, so that’s the foul taste in our mouths this morning. Humble pie. Well, many bites are admittedly hard to swallow — like another “Damn the torpedoes!” fourth-down Lions’ try by Campbell that was broken up by the Seahawks, leaving them just 45 yards from the end zone, which they quickly traveled for a fourth quarter lead.
Or a picture-perfect game by Jared Goff coming unraveled with eight minutes to go in regulation, on a pick-six interception that gave Seattle a 10-point lead.
Or a coin toss that bounced Seattle’s way to start overtime, and a nine-play, 75-yard winning drive that saw three first downs surrendered and two third downs converted. Fans can whine all they want about Aidan Hutchinson perhaps getting held on that winning touchdown pass to Lockett, but as Campbell said, “We should never be in that situation.”
The Lions have now lost the last six meetings to Pete Carroll and his blue and green band of merry men. Two seasons ago, Detroit surrendered 51 points. Last season, 48 points. This season, 37. That’s trending in the right direction. But it’s still too much to overcome, especially if you turn the ball over multiple times.
The Lions' defense, much improved on paper from last year, couldn’t get the pressure on Smith that everyone anticipated, especially with Seattle missing a few starters on the offensive line. Detroit had one sack all day, albeit an impressive 17 yard-loss that ended with Alex Anzalone running a mile to plow Smith into the ground.
But that was the defense's highlight. Hutchinson and the defensive line had no other sacks or quarterback hits. The Lions surrendered a 75-yard touchdown drive to open the game and another one to end it. In between, they had some good moments, but short fields from a David Montgomery fumble and Campbell’s fourth down gamble were too much to overcome.
“We didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Hutchinson said.
Seattle did.
Like I said, other teams are good, too.
Things can go south quick
The shame of this is many things were swept away with the defeat, including a mammoth afternoon by Goff, who played about as well as a stationary quarterback can play in the NFL — for the first 52 minutes of the game. He was patient, precise and pinpoint accurate. At one point he was 11 of 12 with two touchdowns and 155.2 passer rating, which is almost as high as is humanly possible. He came into the fourth quarter without a stain on his pants or much sweat on his brow.
But like a cruise missile that gets pulled off course by a decoy, Goff’s masterpiece was suddenly derailed with just over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. His best receiver, Amon-Ra St. Brown, went out with an injury, as did offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai.
Two plays later, Goff was swarmed and sacked for the first time all day.
And under pressure the next play, he threw behind rookie Jahmyr Gibbs and the ball was picked off and returned for a touchdown.
“Sometimes, it doesn’t go your way,” Goff said.
And sometimes, it goes all the way the opposite direction.
But the Lions came back. This was another thing buried by the “LIONS LOSE” headline. Goff and company overcame a 10-point deficit with two strong drives of their own. The latter saw them run the clock down until it was basically too late to do much beyond go for a tying field goal. You could argue this was smart because it kept Seattle from a last crack in regulation. You could argue it was foolish because the Lions' defense wasn’t as good at stopping Seattle as its offense was at pushing them backwards. Perhaps a touchdown to win it was better than the tying strategy.
But Campbell played it the way he saw it, and you either trust the guy or you don’t. Had the Lions won the toss and driven downfield for a winning TD, he’d be brilliant this morning. Sometimes the difference between genius and goat is a bouncing coin.
“If there’s some magic world where we can take away the turnovers from today,” Goff said, summing up the afternoon, “I thought we played pretty well.”
Then again, in a magic world, you don’t lose fumbles, coin flips or games. And you don’t pay for your seats. In the real world, everything comes with a price. Which means sometimes you’re left sitting there after the final whistle, wondering “what just happened?”
You want front row? You got front row. The Lions are playing with real talent now, and real expectations. It’s big boy stuff. And in big boy battles, you’re gonna get bruised. They won a game they weren’t supposed to. They lost a game they weren’t supposed to. Let’s put the air back in this balloon and see where it flies next week.
But leave the ski masks at home, OK? We don’t need any more of those videos.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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Looking at the Vikings game in Minnesota last year, the Bills game last season, and the Seahawks game this year, Campbell’s late game decisions when there’s something on the line seem to be his weakness.Comment
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A sport of attrition...Last man standing winsComment
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He is petrified of scoring too quick to the detriment of his team. This is an ailment that afflicts a lot of head coaches now, this wasn't a thing 20 years ago. If you score a TD to go up 4 with a minute left, that is a good thing. Make them go 75 yards for a touchdown with a quarterback who is not a deep threat.Comment
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WHen he first took over the team the decisions were basically "well we have to go for it because the defense isnt stopping anyone"......GOing for it on 4th and 4 instead of taking the lead with a 48 yard FG (well attempt anyway) seemed odd....There may be kicker trust issues anway....I guess we just live and die with these consequences....Some will be goood, some not so goodOriginally posted by Tom View PostComment
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I was thinking the same thing....1:44 to go from midfield with 3 TOs should be a huge chance to win the game in the NFL.....It felt like he was afraid they would score too quick and Seattle would get the ball with :30-45 seconds to go and would his defense hold? If he cant trust his defense at all then the Lions are in deep trouble anyway.Originally posted by froot loops View PostComment
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Campbell is correct far.more.often than not in being aggressive and that is something to be applauded. For the longest time coaches would play the old army game and punt all the time in situations where they should have went for it. It's a form a blame shifting to the players. Greg Olson noted that Pete Carroll went for it when he normally doesn't because the pressure that Campbell's aggressiveness puts on the opposition.
I worked on a high school football staff and whe you played teams that always went for it on 4th, it sucked. Wing T teams would only really punt it if it was more than 4 yards to go. It puts pressure on the opponents defense, getting a stop on third down isn't enough. But you are never going to be 100 percent.
The one thing I don't really like is it seems like they do a lot of 3rd and 5 draws when they have determined they are in 4 down territory. That seems like they threw away the down.Comment
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