Ogunleye has 30 sacks over the past four seasons. Only 5 last year, but 9 the year before that, so it’s not like he’s not a solid pass rusher.
Never said he wasn’t good, though he mailed it in a bit last season and is in a contract year now, I’m just saying he’s not one of a kind. If the Pack struggled this badly with him there are plenty of other guys out there that are his equal or better.
I’ll admit that the Lions don’t look so hot, but as I said in another thread, based on what I saw on Hard Knocks I am thrilled that I’m not a Bengals fan. Week 1 has done nothing to dispel my “insider’s” opinion.
Today the Lions begin their march of victories through the Central. First the Vikes, then one domino after another, until the Lions remain supreme .
My local affiliate is showing that game instead of the Packers. Go Lions!
Yes, the first of the two victories over the Vikings happens today, people.
Your bravado was kinda cute.
How bad will the Packers be if Clifton misses next week and Barbre continues to play like this?
I don’t know what the biggest impediment to the Lions winning the NFC Central is. Could be (1), they’re the Lions, or (2) the NFC Central no longer exists. I’m leaning towards (1), although frankly all your nonexistent division opponents look almost equally shitty.
Sadface.
Looks like it’s going to be a one horse race for the Norris this year.
GO BEARS GO BEARS!
Great game. Yeah Pitt missed 2 FGs but neither of them were gimmies so it was a well earned victory for Chi.
Personally, I think that Minn., Chi., and GB will be dogfighting the whole year. I give Minn. a slightly better chance than the other two of ending up on top. But I can’t wait for the Packers to get their shot at Favre (though, sadly, being Favre, he’ll actually do one of his really on numbers that day, and it isn’t like the Packer defense is a good bet to drill him into the turf and separate a shoulder or something…).
Agreed. Way too soon to draw any conclusions yet.
I want to nominate Green Bay as the early favorite for the division. Those guys are good…
My son is 28 years old. Here is what the Lions have given him since he was old enough to follow football.
When he was 11 they won a playoff game whipping Dallas 38-6
13 ist place Cent.
14 !st place
15 1st place
16 !st cent
18 1st Cent
From 2001 to 2003 they lost every road game 3 years in a row. No other team has done that. They have never once made it to the Super Bowl. Last year lost every single game and lost first 2 this year. They are at 19 in a row.
They have not dropped ticket prices. They steadily climb. We have built them 2 stadiums-The Silverdome and Ford Field. They certainly deserved it.Quite honestly, even as a lowly Bengals fan, if my NFL home team was that bad, I would have to quit watching. I can barely sustain my blood pressure with medication being a Bengals fan. Sometimes it’s almost not worth it.
They’re always so tantalizingly close to not sucking, though. Remember Harrington’s second (third?) year? They drafted Kevin Jones and Roy Williams in the first round to go with Harrington and Charles Rogers, who looked really good as a rookie until going on IR. Everyone thought they would be an offensive juggernaut- the new Colts, if you will. Except Rogers kept going on IR every year, and somebody forgot to tell Matt Millen he had to draft linemen and defensive players and stuff as well as wideouts. Oh, and Harrington sucked.
Then Marinelli came in, and brought along Mike Martz and a bunch of Buccaneers salary cap casualties on defense, and in 2007 they went 7-9 with Kitna throwing for 4,000 yards. The future looked bright. Only it wasn’t.
Now they’ve got Johnson, Stafford and Smith, and a couple of good young defenders, and it looks like they might be an offensive juggernaut in two or three years…
Yes, everyone blasts Millen for drafting receivers every year, but if they had panned out like they were supposed to, or even contributed in any way, shape, or form, there would have been a huge difference. Again, there’s only one player left on the Lions that was drafted by Millen from 2002 to 2006. That’s 4 years of the worst drafting in league, and possibly sports, history.
From the Barry Sanders days, where he could single-handedly take over any game at any point, and a very solid defense that actually stopped teams to this. Calvin Johnson is possibly the best receiver in the league, and I can’t see any way in hell the Lions will be able to keep him unless they overpay like crazy. Our luck would have him breaking his spine on a curl pattern and end his career. Yes, the Raiders have been pretty bad along the same time, but there has been a semi-recent Super Bowl and a young and promising defense. The Lions, almost literally, have nothing on defense. They traded their best defensive player to Cleveland for nothing because they wouldn’t have been able to resign him.
Despite that, even an idiot can see a vast improvement between this year and last year already. Yes, a loss, is a loss, is a loss, but come on, like my dad said, there were a handful of games last year that we could have won. Every team says that, but not every team needs that luck to keep their win total existent.
I remember a few years ago, when I was in college, one roommate was an Athletics fan, another was a Yankees fan. We were all looking forward to baseball season, then 20 games into it, I told them t have fun, that my season was already over (that was the historic losing season by the Tigers a few years back). Same goes for the Lions. My football season is already over.
How depressing. I share your combination of early hope and early exit reality. I’ve been there multiple times, too.
No more though, goddammit. This year is IT.
Which of course, is what we always tell ourselves…but I actually may be on to something this year…the Sun even shines on a dog’s ass sometimes…