Let's play a round of Liar's Club.
Who among you actually thought Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo WASN'T going to lead his team to victory in the final drive of yesterday's game, despite needing 83 yards with 2:15 left and sans timeouts?
Who among you were surprised when Lions linebacker Paris Lenon failed to scoop up a Romo fumble in the final drive?
Who among you actually felt that Jason Hanson's miss of a 35-yard field goal in the final quarter WOULDN'T come back to haunt the Lions?
If anyone raised their hands to any of the previous questions, then you are a candidate for the Liar's Club.
The Lions did it to us again yesterday, waiting till there were 18 seconds left to surrender a lead that they held all afternoon in losing to the Cowboys, 28-27 at Ford Field.
Moral victories have been very familiar to Lions players and fans over the years. Often, the "victory" was in simply surviving without getting blown out. Sunday, the moral victory was almost upsetting the 11-1 Cowboys -- when another blowout seemed very, very possible.
But the ironic thing is that the Lions were in a position to need a REAL victory in December. In the past, a moral victory might have done the franchise some good in this late stage of the season. But it didn't get the Lions from 6-6 to 7-6 yesterday, which they so badly needed to do if they have any hope of making the playoffs.
Ahh, the playoffs. Does it really matter, when you stop to think about it? Would anything be accomplished beyond just extending the season by one more week? Let's play more Liar's Club. Who thinks the Lions would even win a playoff game, anyway? They certainly wouldn't get home field advantage. It would smack of the 1999 season, when they started 8-4, finished 8-8, and got smoked in Washington in the first round.
So it's not really about the playoffs anymore -- at least not in the same way. When the Lions were 6-2, the talk wasn't just about making the playoffs, but of perhaps getting a home game and maybe advancing a round or two. Now, even if by some miracle they win their three remaining games and sneak in at 9-7, winning a postseason game would still be considered a long shot at best.
They can't cover a kickoff -- or a punt -- to save their souls, number one. It's ridiculous how many long returns they've given up this season. More irony here, too, for when the Lions were down in the depths, special teams was one aspect of the team that was relatively strong, all the way around. They had good return men, good kicking and punting, and good coverage. It started all the way back in the Wayne Fontes years with coach Frank Gansz, and continued with Chuck Priefer. The new special teams coach, Stan Kwan, must take some blame here. I don't know what the problem has been, but Kwan may be gone after this season. Kick coverage has been atrocious. Sunday, the Lions were reduced to trying pathetic pooch kicks that they still couldn't cover, giving the Cowboys the same kind of field position as they were getting when the kicks were deep.
"They made one more play than we did," DT Corey Redding said as he walked off the field, speaking to Fox 2's Jennifer Hammond. "We tried our best. But they made one more play than we did."
"They made one more play than we did."
It should be put on the Lions franchise's tombstone.
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