Bubble Players Might Go Pop After Lions Blow It

So if the Lions' reserves and scrubs were to play the Bills' reserves and scrubs, the Bills' reserves and scrubs would win.

That's about all you could get out of the (mercifully) final exhibition game of 2007, a 16-13 loss to Buffalo after the Lions' first-but-mainly second stringers forged a 13-0, first half lead. It's what you can get out of any final preseason game, really. Whose reserves are better?

Clearly, it's not so much about winning or losing as it is about evaluation of the "bubble" players -- those lads who better have a football exit strategy at the ready.

"I was very direct with them," coach Rod Marinelli said of his bubble guys. "I told them that they didn't help their cause," he said, referring to the blowing of the 13-0 lead. "But we'll look at the film."

Ah yes, the film. Football coaches love film more than Leonard Maltin. And it's bound to show them, through their practiced viewing, who will stay and who will go. I'm not quite sure what the pre-requisites are to remain a Lion, but you can bet the coaches will know them when they see them. And if they don't ... well, there's always that afore-mentioned exit strategy.

Over 20 players' heads will be lopped off over the next couple of days. Receivers who wear numbers like 10 and 15, and linebackers who wear numbers like 43, and other similarly out-of-place dudes, will be on the NFL released list. The final cuts are the cruelest, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which that it's harder to find work with another club this late in the game. Everyone pretty much will have their roster set. The last thing teams want to do the week before the regular season begins is to scour the league for someone else's discards. So, in an ironic way, those cut last might have the honor of knowing they survived the longest, but may be in worse shape than those who were cut earlier in camp and have perhaps been able to latch on with someone else. It's crazy, the NFL.

In 1979, the team coming off a brisk second half finish in 1978 to earn a semi-respectable 7-9 record, the Lions watched in horror as starting QB Gary Danielson went down with a knee injury in the final preseason game. There was no real capable backup, except for the creaky veteran Joe Reed. Then Reed, too, went down, early in the season. All that was left was rookie Jeff Komlo, probably a bubble player himself. The Lions finished 2-14. The next year, Danielson healthy, the Lions went 9-7. No bubble QB that season.

The Lions lost last night and it hardly matters. That is, unless you're a bubble player trying to stay in the NFL by the skin of your false teeth. Then helping to blow a 13-0 lead to another team of bubble guys matters very much.

It's all on film, most likely.