Rapid response Buc’s lose to the Lions week 7

[Beatles123]

Guys, lets not attack each other like we cost them the game ourselves. We're all upset and on the same side, but let's also remember the season is far from lost. We're 5-2, not 2-5. Let's have hope we can pull it together and the players we do have can get healthy. It's all we can do. Don't make the loss worse by hurting one another...

[bucarican]

Guys, lets not attack each other like we cost them the game ourselves. We're all upset and on the same side, but let's also remember the season is far from lost. We're 5-2, not 2-5. Let's have hope we can pull it together and the players we do have can get healthy. It's all we can do. Don't make the loss worse by hurting one another...

Not to mention they play a Saints team that has not played well on either side of the ball is coming up and then much needed bye. They could be 6-2 going into a bye and a going into a trade deadline.

[Pirate Life]

Left side held up pretty well most of the game actually until the 4th quarter outside of a play or two. Looked bad because of how fast things broke down with the RG/RT - usually because of Hutchison. Our DL actually had a pretty good game, knocked Goff off of his game but he didn't miss the open throws like Mayfield did.

Lions were also jacked up over the game the prior week. The entire team had a Mayfield-sized chip on their shoulder between the perceived officiating issues against the Chiefs, what they felt was an unwarranted suspension for Branch and the return of their #2 DT. So was their crowd.

And I don't think we walked into the game comfortable, look at White's first run. He punished the guy who tried to tackle him. Next play was a pass, Heck got pushed back by Hutchison and Mayfield was seeing ghosts on his right side the rest of the night (granted, the ghost was usually Hutchison...)

Game absolutely sucked for us sure. Defensively, I'd put it on Bowles more than the position coaches. Had the secondary playing soft coverage a lot when everyone back there was healthy, didn't figure out how to counter the Lions running right where Vea would be when we pulled him out for a snap or two (that 78 yarder never happens if Vea's in imo).

Your overall point is valid, but Branch absolutely deserved a suspension. That was a straight up cold-cock. You don't do that.

Might want to read that again. Didn't say it was unwarranted, said the Lions and their fans felt it was.

[CantonJester]

Your overall point is valid, but Branch absolutely deserved a suspension. That was a straight up cold-cock. You don't do that.

Might want to read that again. Didn't say it was unwarranted, said the Lions and their fans felt it was.

LOL no that's not a reason to re-read your screed. I get it. We're mostly on the same page. Branch deserved to be suspended cuz he acted like a punk who might've ended somebody's career with that punch.

[Pirate Life]

Might want to read that again. Didn't say it was unwarranted, said the Lions and their fans felt it was.

LOL no that's not a reason to re-read your screed. I get it. We're mostly on the same page. Branch deserved to be suspended cuz he acted like a punk who might've ended somebody's career with that punch.

That's fair, just reads like you think I said the suspension was bogus. Doesn't matter the circumstances leading up to the punch, once he went after JuJu, suspension has to happen. Just like with Evans with Lattimore back in the day.

[bucarican]

LOL no that's not a reason to re-read your screed. I get it. We're mostly on the same page. Branch deserved to be suspended cuz he acted like a punk who might've ended somebody's career with that punch.

That's fair, just reads like you think I said the suspension was bogus. Doesn't matter the circumstances leading up to the punch, once he went after JuJu, suspension has to happen. Just like with Evans with Lattimore back in the day.

WTF is this a reaction to this game. Who really give a shit. His subs played well.

[Pirate Life]

That's fair, just reads like you think I said the suspension was bogus. Doesn't matter the circumstances leading up to the punch, once he went after JuJu, suspension has to happen. Just like with Evans with Lattimore back in the day.

WTF is this a reaction to this game. Who really give a shit. His subs played well.

Try reading a few posts up. Branch being suspended had the Lions and their fans fired up or did you not notice all the '32' jerseys in the stands? The team requested fans wear them in honor of Branch.

[Cheb]

Finally got back from Ford Field and the downtown area after the game. My thoughts:

- I missed the Midwest. People are really nice here, top to bottom. I am used to...let's say mild animosity if I wear an opposing jersey, some drunk idiots doing drunk idiot things, homeless folks engaging in shenanigans. But nope, the Michigan and Detroit folks were nothing but lovely, even though I had to explain Selmon to too many people (it may be too deep a cut, perhaps). Multiple Bucs fans however got the jersey, and that was nice.
- I forgot how unrepentantly dorky the Lions fight song "Gridiron Heroes" is, and it's sung after every score.
- The Lions are a really good team, and we let them off the hook in a ton of different ways:
- We let Amon-Ra run the majority of his catches versus air. You cannot give elite receivers uncontested released and uncontested routes to go along with uncontested catch points. You will lose to them.
- Dennis was abused in space right off the bat and was consistently picked on by the Lions on money downs, especially on plays designed to out leverage him. He is such an Achilles heel on this defense that it is a weekly liability.
- Our defense allowing the first drive touchdown right off the initial kickoff is a meme. I called it to the guys I was with and they thought I was Nostradamus.
- Only two players went to check on Mike Evans when he was on the ground injured; LVD and Tristan Wirfs. He was otherwise ignored. What the fuck, lads?
- The offense cannot go shotgun fury with our receiving room decimated and win the game. That too much pressure on Baker, too much pressure on guys who were backups for a reason, and WAY too much pressure on the OL.
- The defense played well 80-ish percent of the time, outside of the long TD run, St Brown clowning us on the reg, and Dennis clowning himself.

This team is battered. We need to take Baker off the high dive and strike some semblance of offensive balance. Detroit is a good squad and played a complete game at home.

As I told many people tonight, no matter who wins this game, the loser is likely to see the winner in the playoffs. That hasn't changed.

Have a lovely day.

[__Chef__]

...His subs played well.

The understatement of the decade.

[Beatles123]

We need a major morale boost, fast.

Losses like these can kill a team's confidence.

[13F11B]

The loss hurts. The way the team lost hurts. The fact that Mike Evans may have played his final game hurts. I don't think the injury was caused by the uncalled DPI, but one has to wonder if it would have been different if the defender had not ridden Mike like a backpack before the ball got there. Baker played poorly and looked scared. In other games, he was aggressive. He was not last night. Part of that might be the Lions' reputation of being aggressive and playing with violence. That defense comes to hit and punch the ball out.

We will all feel negative about the team, but we can feel better if they get a win next week. However, we are all worried that the team will have another mid-season skid, which has been common under Todd.

[Bootz]

Honestly it never felt like we had a chance. The Lions were simply too much to overcome and we were not up to task.

I also think this highlights a much bigger problem for this team. Our identity, as we've seen all year is for Baker to pull off a magician act to win close games. We gloss over the slow starts by the defense. Gloss over the bad playcalling and execution on offense. And just hope we can stay close enough to keep it interesting. That's no way to operate as a winning football team.

[Grahamburn]

Honestly with Mike getting fucked out of his 1k, I'm kind of checked out of the season now.

Injuries ruined what could've been been an amazing season.

Glad I enjoyed those first six weeks, was fun to have legit MVP talks.

I'm this close too ... only thing keeping some glimmer of hope is the rest of the receiving room showing signs of hope.

They’re 5-2. Could be 6-2 going into the bye if they can regroup and play well next week.

[Grahamburn]

Mike catches that deep ball and doesn’t get hurt it’s a different game. Reminds me of Baltimore last year. Drops a ball. Gets hurt doing it. Team completely deflated and can’t adjust.

Our plan was to throw it all night and exploit their secondary. We expected them to play zone. They played man, challenged us, and sent the dogs after Baker. We had no answers.

We did very little motion like we had against Seattle and SF. Barely even tried to run the ball. No creativity. We had another “go be him” gameplan thinking we could just out-talent their secondary.

With Hutch bearing down on Baker every single play they barely even needed a secondary.

[Bootz]

Mike catches that deep ball and doesn’t get hurt it’s a different game. Reminds me of Baltimore last year. Drops a ball. Gets hurt doing it. Team completely deflated and can’t adjust.

Our plan was to throw it all night and exploit their secondary. We expected them to play zone. They played man, challenged us, and sent the dogs after Baker. We had no answers.

We did very little motion like we had against Seattle and SF. Barely even tried to run the ball. No creativity. We had another “go be him” gameplan thinking we could just out-talent their secondary.

With Hucth bearing down on Baker every single play they barely even needed a secondary.

This sticks out in a terrible way to me. Other than getting Tez on the move a few times, there was hardly any motion as you stated. I don't understand what the game plan was. ESPN showed a graphic at the end of the game and Baker was like 0-20 on passes with 20+ air yards. Terrible.

And speaking of game plan, if you had told me the Lions defensive staff were in our offensive meetings, I'd believe it. They knew what we were doing on offense multiple times.

Hats off to Kelvin Shepherd and their DB coaches. When you hear that a team will be without a starters, you expect some drop off. When you hear their top 5 DBs are out, you expect a massacre. They had those guys ready to play. And not just play, but perform and be part of the reason they won the game. 12 PBUs and an INT is crazy from a secondary with all backups at every position.

[Bootz]

This should help those who believe there was some conspiracy on the overturned spot on the Otton 4th down catch.

[Phantom]

I think the refs missed the tripping call

[Grahamburn]

That play had little bearing on the game. We did nothing against them all night. Hutch is unblockable and truly relentless. 50 drop back passes is like crack to that dude.

The constant whining about the refs is a loser mentality.

We should have gone heavy and just tried to run it. Play action max protect.

5 eligibles every play with at least one of them and sometimes two helping block Hutch was a loser gameplan. Make them defend a creative running game.

Grizz took a step back in this one.

[Phantom]

Alright, Licht needs to look at the defense roster. It's time to make moves and make a trade to strengthen our LB and DE positions.

[Bootz]

That play had little bearing on the game. We did nothing against them all night. Hutch is unblockable and truly relentless. 50 drop back passes is like crack to that dude.

The constant whining about the refs is a loser mentality.

We should have gone heavy and just tried to run it. Play action max protect.

5 eligibles every play with at least one of them and sometimes two helping block Hutch was a loser gameplan. Make them defend a creative running game.

Grizz took a step back in this one.

66 plays ran, 11 called runs(12 if you include Bridgewater's kneel). No surprise we only scored 9 points.

And it wasn't just Hutch either. Alim McNeill made his presence felt very early, collapsing the pocket, batting passes. The Lions expected we'd try to take advantage of their secondary and were more than prepared.

Grizz definitely took a step back here. This game plan was not it.

[MRM]

This should help those who believe there was some conspiracy on the overturned spot on the Otton 4th down catch.

Thanks for that. I had never seen a challenge on one aspect, get a call, and then look at something else. Just like I've never seen a tied possession on a catch go to the defense.

[MRM]

It's a shame to see the offense get outplayed and outcoached by a bunch of 2nd and 3rd stringers.

[Bootz]

This should help those who believe there was some conspiracy on the overturned spot on the Otton 4th down catch.

Thanks for that. I had never seen a challenge on one aspect, get a call, and then look at something else. Just like I've never seen a tied possession on a catch go to the defense.

The only thing Otton had possession of was the defenders arm. I thought it was a tie also until they showed the replay. Maulett had the ball.

[Jonny]

I personally did not mind putting the ball in Baker's hands a lot more than attempting to run. The reality is, with Bucky rehabbing, White simply isn't the guy that can ever turn a bad situation into semi decent. He will simply get you the yards the blocking is allowing him for. With our O-line getting manhandled up front, picking against their DBs was the correct strategy.

It comes back and comes down to Baker's horrid accuracy most of the game. A lot of those incompletions were drive killers and took away any momentum from the entire offense as well as defense. The pass rush was getting to Baker no doubt, but he wasn't enjoying playing football out there. He looked scared, clueless and almost like he was hoping for good things to just fall in place instead of being razor sharp even in crunch time.

That overthrow to Tez Johnson in the end zone with 4.5 minutes still left to play was the perfect specimen of Baker just not being his heroic self or precision passer self we got accustomed to all year.

I badly hope someone like Wirfs or Shepard are real with Baker on his play for this game.

Don't mind the loss, don't care about the loss, but play like you are having fun and the good things will start to happen.

[Phantom]

It's a shame to see the offense get outplayed and outcoached by a bunch of 2nd and 3rd stringers.

Yeah it was embarrassing.

[Jonny]

Can we see some Devin Culp? He is a big body receiving threat with some sneaky good speed. I'm sure he is trash as a blocker, but we cannot be fielding smallish receivers and slow big bodies in Otton and Miller going forward. Is Culp even with the team?

[Phantom]

5 dash 2

[Bootz]

5 dash 2

With work to do

[__Chef__]

It's a shame to see the offense get outplayed and outcoached by a bunch of 2nd and 3rd stringers.

They didn't just get outplayed, they were DOMINATED.

No idea what the practices were all week but they knew going into the game their DB's were depleted and pressure would be an issue. They should have been practicing quick release deep routes for Tez and Emeka all week to get timing and feel down pat.

Also, WTF is wrong with Grizz not covering his mouth calling out plays on the sideline? For a Yale graduate, that's really foolish.

[KenyattaWalker]

embarassing loss in primtime. loss is on baker (for like 7 bad throws) and the receivers (for not getting open)

[__Chef__]

embarassing loss in primtime. loss is on baker (for like 7 bad throws) and the receivers (for not getting open)

And the OL (for not blocking).

And the D (for not playing as well as the 4th stringers in the building that day).

And the coaching staff (for not preparing for this game).

And the turf (for injuring players at a significantly higher rate than grass, and should be banned)

[acmillis]

I didn't get to see any of the first half, but man, what a complete ass beating this was. Mike's done for a couple of months, but honestly, he hasn't been a factor this season anyway, so not much of a loss this season. Baker will rebound (I can't believe I'm saying that), and we'll be fine. We'll go in to the bye a 6-2 which any of us would have been ecstatic with if given that option two months ago.

As Aaron Rodgers once opined...

R-E-L-A-X.

[KenyattaWalker]

embarassing loss in primtime. loss is on baker (for like 7 bad throws) and the receivers (for not getting open)

And the OL (for not blocking).

And the D (for not playing as well as the 4th stringers in the building that day).

And the coaching staff (for not preparing for this game).

And the turf (for injuring players at a significantly higher rate than grass, and should be banned)

you aint wrong but baker was pissing me the hell off all game

[KenyattaWalker]

I didn't get to see any of the first half, but man, what a complete ass beating this was. Mike's done for a couple of months, but honestly, he hasn't been a factor this season anyway, so not much of a loss this season. Baker will rebound (I can't believe I'm saying that), and we'll be fine. We'll go in to the bye a 6-2 which any of us would have been ecstatic with if given that option two months ago.

As Aaron Rodgers once opined...

R-E-L-A-X.

i aint relaxing after a damning loss and two losses against the teams we will actually be playing in da playoffs

[__Chef__]

... we will actually be playing in da playoffs

That's a big assumption ... Not saying they aren't, but whatever that was up in Detroit needs to be left there in order for this team to have a shot at anything post-season.