9202080457
DETROIT FREE PRESS
921016
Friday, October 16, 1992
METRO FINAL CHASER
1F
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1992, Detroit Free Press
NO DEBATE: THIS GAME STUNK FROM THE START
MINNEAPOLIS -- I would like to tell you how this dead skunk of a football
game ended, but I must admit, I stopped watching somewhere between the
Vikings' third touchdown and the Lions' fifth stupid penalty -- which, I
believe, was about nine seconds into the game. Talk about quick death! I could
have left the stadium knowing the outcome of this game and scalped my tickets
to fans still coming in.
Pathetic? Disgraceful? Embarrassing? There is not much you can say about a
game in which the Lions had the snot kicked out of them by the only team they
have beaten all season, but we can say this: They did something for the
country, our Lions. They forced millions of viewers who were watching this
game on national TV to switch over to the presidential debates.
By the way, if the game were a debate it would have gone like this:
LIONS: Good evening. We--
VIKINGS: HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Right after Mel Gray dropped the opening kickoff, right after Rodney Peete
was sacked on the opening drive, right after Bennie Blades took a boneheaded
unnecessary-roughness penalty on a third down, right after the Vikings scored
their first of several long-bomb touchdowns on the Lions' defense, right
after that -- well, right after that, I sat down. It all happened before I
could take my coat off.
So much for gut-check time, huh?
The Lions came out like a water balloon. Penalties? I haven't seen that
much yellow since the Gulf War ended. Execution? Yes, they played as if they'd
been executed. Our weekly Barry Sanders question -- "How do we use him, since
we got him?" -- went unanswered yet again. And the defense, which had been a
bright spot for this team, obviously took a look at the offense and said,
"Hey, what are we knocking ourselves out for?"
Score after the first quarter: Minnesota 21, Detroit 0.
You know what? I'm really mad at this team. Mad because they had me -- and
a lot of people -- believing they really had turned the corner on their ugly
history, learned how to win, learned how to regroup after a loss. They had a
bad start to this season? OK. They blamed their offensive line. They blamed a
couple of bad breaks.
But here, in the game they absolutely had to win for any chance at saving
the season, a game they swore they'd be ready for, a game they had 10 days to
get healthy for -- here, in this game, they looked worse than ever. They
looked hopeless.
So I stop listening. Right now, this team is bad news, and there is only
one true sentence you can say about it:
The season is history.
More motivation?
"We got beat by a better team; they flat-out beat us," said coach Wayne
Fontes, using a line we have all heard before, after the Lions sunk, 31-14, to
the Vikings. "I know I sound like an old record . . ."
That's all right. The Lions play like one. At one point Thursday night,
they went to the no-huddle offense. Unfortunately, the only thing that might
work for them now is the no-defense offense. Even then, it might take them
several downs to score.
Backwards? Last year, in this same stadium, against this same team -- and
with Mike Utley already gone, I might add -- Barry Sanders had 220 yards.
Thursday, he had 52.
And that's hardly the only bad statistic. The Vikings converted more than
half of their third downs, while the Lions converted only one all game. The
defense gave up nearly 400 yards. Rodney Peete threw two interceptions. The
team took 10 penalties.
The Lions' season has turned into a limbo contest: How low can it go?
And who makes it stop? Week after losing week, the Lions kept talking about
someone "stepping up." But on Thursday, the only shoe-lifting they did was to
avoid stepping in the mess they had made.
It is time to step up all right. And take some blame.
First, it goes to the players -- since they are out there, making (or not
making) the plays.
And then it goes, in my mind, to Fontes.
Sorry, Wayne. But when a team has this kind of talent -- a Barry Sanders, a
Rodney Peete, All-Pro linemen like Jerry Ball and Lomas Brown,
play-till-you-die linebackers like Chris Spielman -- well, hell, that's enough
to win a ball game here or there, especially a crucial one. And it is the
coach's job to make sure the players are properly motivated -- and prepared --
for those games.
On a must-win night like Thursday, there is no excuse for the good parts
of the team (i.e. the defense) to go in the tank. Fontes must admit there is
something wrong with the machine, and that he, after all, runs the machine.
Wayne is fond of being a players' coach, a put-your-arm-around-you guy, but
anyone who knows football can tell you, you can't be their friend all the time
and expect to win.
"There's no problem with our motivation," Fontes said. "I'm an excellent
motivator. Just ask my team."
I would. But they all had their heads down.
Why watch?
"How do you explain this year after last year?" I asked wide receiver Willie
Green.
"Maybe that's the problem," he moaned. "Maybe we're still living in last
year. We have to get past that bleep."
I agree. Erik Kramer came into the game late and threw a touchdown pass and
that may inspire barroom arguments over who should be the starter, Kramer or
Peete? Teams usually hate this, but if I were the Lions I'd be grateful.
It gives fans something to talk about.
Otherwise, there's not much left, not if winning is what turns you on. The
Lions are now 1-5. As I had plenty of spare time after the first quarter -- I
could have finished a Russian novel -- I checked the records to see how long
it had been since the Lions started a season so miserably. I found it was
only three years ago, 1989, the first year of the Fontes' coaching reign.
Before that, you have to go back to . . . 1988.
And before that, you have to go all the way back to . . . 1987.
In other words, this smells awfully familiar.
And that's the worst part. How quickly we have returned to being
embarrassed by this football team, to watching with one eye shut, to pointing
at the TV and saying, "Ah, same old crap." It's as if last season never
happened.
You know what?
At this point, I'm not sure it did.
DLIONS; GAME; COLUMN;Lions