Optimigo Band Reunion….

[TheLondonLion]

5-1. A master motivator for a head coach. One of the best offensive coordinators in the league drawing up plays. Lions fans taking over any stadium they play at.

We are through the looking glass.

This is the best Lions team I’ve ever seen and with drafting at this level, there is no reason why the success can’t be sustained.

I sense some wobblers even among you grizzled old SOLsters.

Who is all in and who still isn’t quite ready to commit?

[-Deborah-]

I'm over here playing the tambourine!

I don't know how far this team will go with all these injuries stacking up, but so far they've managed through them. I'm having the most fun this season, EVER. SOL is not in any way associated with this team. The coaches have managed to improve the play of the vets and develop the rookies far sooner than expected in many cases!! It's exciting to witness!!

[foxhopper]

If they get by Baltimore I will probably fall dumbstruck optimigo in love just fearing a broken heart.

[Marko69]

I will remain pessimista, TLL until they deliver......, BUT....., WHEN they DO deliver, I will unashamedly deny all of this --->> claim full optimgo and get my fat arse on the bandwagon.

[whatever_gong82]

I'm not only sipping the Blue Kool-Aid, I'm eating it frozen!! I'm still trying to remove SOL. We need a Playoff win soon.

I'll later have it -Brand New Lions- pumped into my blood.

In a lot of ways, this is way more fun than the 1991 season. For one, I think Dan Campbell is a way better Head Coach than Wayne Fontes ever was, and our management team are all on the same page, even though they had talented people like the late Ron Hughes and future Pittsburgh Steeler Kevin Colbert in the Front Office. If we could've kept both, and eventually promoted Mr. Colbert to GM instead of hiring Matt Millen in 2001, then I'd say that both eras of Management were equal.

What tips things over to this era is Ownership. Sorry, the late William Clay Ford Sr. might've been a nice guy, but he sucked as a Owner, as his only Playoff win was with the 1991 team. I think that his daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp, is way more creative, assertive, and willing to win, than he ever was.

[Mainevent]

It's funny how the momentum and the changing expectations get you. If you told me before the season they would be 5-3 heading into the bye week, I'd think that's pretty damn good. A 6-2 record, I would have been ecstatic. But now, I'm a greedy bastard and I want that 7-1 record at the break!

[whatever_gong82]

It's funny how the momentum and the changing expectations get you. If you told me before the season they would be 5-3 heading into the bye week, I'd think that's pretty damn good. A 6-2 record, I would have been ecstatic. But now, I'm a greedy bastard and I want that 7-1 record at the break!

Let's get Baltimore first, and then get the Raiders on Monday Night right before the Bye.

[froot loops]

Give it a few more weeks. I love the direction they are going though. This team seems like it is much more solid than anything during the salad days of the 90s. The 91 season is a cautionary tale, that was a young team on the rise. It was a 9-7 team masquerading as a 12-4 team, but the future was bright. But they never took the next step.

If you go by DVOA, no other Lion team comes close to this one since I have been watching and it's not even close. But it's only 6 games in. This defense is better than the 2014 team even if that team had the #2 defense.

[edindetroit]

I will remain pessimista,

That's just the alcohol poisoning

[wcfwtf]

Don’t have to commit because I never de committed 😎

[edindetroit]

Same here. I even watched every single game in the 0-16 season.

[El Axe]

I am totally riding the wave right now. I do believe in this front office and coaching staff. I'm an optimigo because that's the only way I can enjoy the team. While I still root for the team when they are bad, I admit that I just don't give them my attention because I'd rather spend my life in a more positive frame of mind.

Anyway, I agree with the idea that until they actually win a playoff game, we can't fully remove the SOL stink -- though winning 12+ games would at least take away some of it.

[Sanders Fan]

The only time I wondered if why the hell I was a fan* was probably when Patricia was coach because I didn’t know what the fuck they were gonna do or who would bother coming to Detroit to fix it. Campbell is exactly that coach that they needed because he played for those shitty Lions teams. He knows what happened and will not let it happen again.

*I will always be a fan of the Lions because it was something that was shared between my grandfather and I and it’s my way of keeping him around.

[chemiclord]

Give it a few more weeks. I love the direction they are going though. This team seems like it is much more solid than anything during the salad days of the 90s. The 91 season is a cautionary tale, that was a young team on the rise. It was a 9-7 team masquerading as a 12-4 team, but the future was bright. But they never took the next step.

If you go by DVOA, no other Lion team comes close to this one since I have been watching and it's not even close. But it's only 6 games in. This defense is better than the 2014 team even if that team had the #2 defense.

This is where I'm kinda at. They've got an excellent core of players, a rock solid coaching staff, and they aren't at all one-dimensional in the way that a lot of other "good" Lions teams were. They've been able to beat other "good" teams in a lot of different ways. Defensively, when the Lions had good defenses in the past, it was usually on the backs of an inordinate amount of turnovers in their favor. This defense actually hasn't been all that much of a beneficiary of turnovers. They've been focused on denying opponents 10 yards. That sort of defense is sustainable over the course of a season and multiple seasons.

But yeah, as Froot mentioned, it's only six games in. Seasons are fluky things, and a lot of things can happen. But if something does drive this team off the rails, it's at least going to be due to the fickle hands of fate and bad luck rather than a glaring flaw in the team that causes the house of cards to collapse.

[froot loops]

You can be an optimist without having to have false bravado about the team. Most of the teams at the top of the power rankings (Niners, Eagles, Chiefs, Bills, sometimes Cowboys) have all had at least one successful season where they had some playoff success. Those teams and fanbases have earned the right to be confident about their team. Even if the Lions might be theoretically on par or better than some of those teams, that type of confidence can only be true at the end of the regular season at the earliest but realistically next year.

Think of the best years of the Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons. All three reached a point where the confidence or optimism in the team wasn't a question. The greatness was self evident. The Lions aren't there yet but they are trending that way.

But this is the fun part, the journey up the mountain always is. Once you get there it is never as exciting because the expectations are high. It gets more nerve wracking. Seasons that were good to great become disappointing if they don't ever cash in on a championship.