The Quest Continues. Playoff Game Day Thread. Commanders at Lions. 1/18/25

[chemiclord]

1) The reason teams on the bye week get the opportunity to interview for HC positions during said bye is because a lot of teams like to have their new coach hired (or at least have an agreement in principle) before the Super Bowl even ends. Not letting assistants of playoff teams get the opportunity was crippling their success.

Honestly, if I was King of the NFL, I'd simply forbid any interviews or hirings of coaches until after the season is over... but how could you enforce that?

Regardless, Glenn and Johnson interviewing during a period where they didn't even know who their opponent was had literally nothing to do with why the Lions lost last night. They may have had shitty game plans, but that wasn't because they talked to other teams during their bye week.

[klondike]

It's happened before and sometimes it backfires, sometimes not. In the end the coaches have to have the dignity and fortitude to get the job done the same time they're interviewing. Their heads should be on their tasks whether it happens before, during or after the season.

[UMStan White]

Worst defeat in your lifetimes. And you hope for next year?

[froot loops]

I don't buy the interview angle. It was a two day window on the bye week. It's a fact of life in the NFL, you want assistants that are in demand and this is the system. They didn't have two weeks to prepare, they didn't know who the opponent was until Sunday night.

The coaching criticism is justified, they were not very good defending the read option or the RPO but some of that is just on the players. Washington didn't do anything different than what they have faced before.

[chemiclord]

Worst defeat in your lifetimes. And you hope for next year?

What I hope for is a team that can contend for a championship, because winning a championship often features a lot of lucky breaks that you simply can't plan for. And considering how long the NFL season is now (and the league wants to add another regular season game, mind you) it may very well be that the champion winds up having the best injury luck more than anything else.

[klondike]

What I hope for is a team that can contend for a championship, because winning a championship often features a lot of lucky breaks that you simply can't plan for. And considering how long the NFL season is now (and the league wants to add another regular season game, mind you) it may very well be that the champion winds up having the best injury luck more than anything else.

Unless your the Chiefs. They are lucky bastards

[froot loops]

This loss sucks but was it worst ever? I doubt it, last year was much worse. The problem with last night's game is even if they pulled it off they weren't winning next week. You can't lose 3/5 of last night's starting secondary and think you have any chance of winning They became the Black Knight

[froot loops]

Unless your the Chiefs. They are lucky bastards

No, they aren't lucky they are very good at roster management. They have been doing it a long time, Andy Reid has been doing it a long time. The Lions had a great season but this is still fairly new stuff for the franchise.

[chemiclord]

No, they aren't lucky they are very good at roster management. They have been doing it a long time, Andy Reid has been doing it a long time. The Lions had a great season but this is still fairly new stuff for the franchise.

I mean, there's a degree of luck to the Chief's run... like there is with any champion.

[chemiclord]

This loss sucks but was it worst ever? I doubt it, last year was much worse. The problem with last night's game is even if they pulled it off they weren't winning next week. You can't lose 3/5 of last night's starting secondary and think you have any chance of winning They became the Black Knight

Right? Hell... think of it this way... by the time the last second ticked off the clock, the team the Lions fielded was missing 4/5ths of their starting secondary, 3/4ths of their starting D-line, and had been missing 2/3rds of their starting LBs for about half the season.

That's insanely bad luck, and yet they still got this far. Fuck, take any other team in the league, take away that from their defense, and ask yourself which teams even make the playoffs, much less squeeze out a 15-2 record.

[Sanders Fan]

Worst defeat in your lifetimes.

Let’s see:

1) 2024 NFC Divisional

2) 1993 NFC Wild Card

3) 2023 NFC Championship

4) 2014 Wild Card

5) 1995 Wild Card

[chemiclord]

Whole lotta recency bias speaking there.

[Sanders Fan]

Whole lotta recency bias speaking there.

No, I think I judged it accurately according to my personal feelings. If I was my teenager self seeing last night’s game, I would be comatose right now. I feel bad for the youngsters far more than us old fucks. The 93 game I couldn’t be consoled for a couple months it felt like. The losses over 30 years ground me down to a fine pulp.

[Dan V]

Worse loss of my lifetime? No way
I am proud of this team and they will be back next year.
Dallas pick up the flag loss was worse, Phily 58-37 was worse, Rogers gift Hail Mary was worse. 66 yard fg when delay of game was not called was worse, 49er loss up 24-7 was worse ,
losing last game in 1981 and missing playoffs was worse.
Thanksgiving 1980 was worse.

As my son said this year, and he’s very wise for his age, these are the good old days right now dad
relish them!

Foxhopper if you don’t last till next year, remember in heaven, every day, the Lions win the Super Bowl enjoy it!

[maxreturn]

It's astounding to me that they finished the regular season 15-2 given the catastrophic attrition on defense. That is truly a testament to the belief and resiliency that DC and the rest of coaching staff instilled. The question that's nagging me is how is it even conceivable that a team can get decimated to the degree that the Lions have experienced? If you look at it from a probability standpoint what they have experienced would definitely fall outside 2 standard deviations if not 3. Since I don't believe in curses I'm choosing to accept that this year was simply a statistical aberration and hope that next year their list of players in IR are far fewer than the average for the league. Like others who have expressed, I don't know what to think about Goff and his ability to lead this team to the next level. I can't help but think that he felt too much of a burden to carry this team and that led to far too many mistakes. I think its pretty clear where the glaring need is defensively. Whether by the draft or making other deals, Holmes has got to get at least one, or ideally two more defensive pressure players.