9102090409
DETROIT FREE PRESS
911021
Monday, October 21, 1991
METRO FINAL
1D
MITCH ALBOM
SEE ALSO METRO EDITION, Page 1D
Copyright (c) 1991, Detroit Free Press
GETTING SMOKED, LIONS LEAVE REPUTATION IN SAN FRANCISCO
SAN FRANCISCO -- There was an enormous fire burning across the bay
Sunday, which sent black smoke billowing over the stadium. I figure someone
took the Lions' "new" reputation and struck a match to it.
So much for that smug feeling of improvement. The Lions may have a winning
record, but they still have a long way to go before they beat the Big Boys. On
Sunday, against San Francisco, they were simply awful, when they weren't
being pathetic. How long did they control the ball? Forty seconds? How many
times did they stop the 49ers? None? Watching Detroit try to beat San
Francisco was like watching Axl Rose try to play classical music. I know the
Lions had the better record. But I'm not sure these teams play in the same
league.
"I didn't have one of my better days," said a dazed Jerry Ball after the
35-3 drubbing. "I got hit in the head. I think I have a concussion. It hurts
bad. But I'm not making excuses."
That about summed up the Lions' explanations of this stinker. Nobody had
a good day. Everything hurt. But no excuses. You know what? I'd feel better
if there were a few excuses. Tell me the whole team came down with whooping
cough. Tell me the players were all up late watching the World Series. But
don't give me this: a performance so flat, you could slip it under a
refrigerator and feed it to the mice.
Which, come to think of it, must have been how the Lions felt out there.
This was not a game, it was a clinic. Basically, the Lions sat there like good
students and watched San Francisco's second-choice quarterback, Steve Young,
pick them apart like a Christmas turkey, and then the third-choice
quarterback, Steve Bono, trot out and do the same. They watched nine 49ers
catch passes on them and six 49ers run through them. They watched San
Francisco, which has not been a good running team, outrush Detroit, which has
been, by a margin of 10-1. That is not a typo.
About the only thing Detroit didn't see Sunday was the 49ers' punter.
And now to the bad news.
Not enough of Sanders
The bad news was Barry Sanders, the Lions' best weapon, who got plenty of
airtime on national TV; unfortunately, it was always a close-up of him sitting
on the bench, while John Madden said, "Gee, I thought we'd see more of this
guy."
Tell me about it, John. The Lions gave Sanders the ball exactly seven
times all afternoon. They tried throwing him one pass. That was it. For the
best runner in the game today?
"They were keying on Barry all day," explained coach Wayne Fontes.
Yeah? So? You don't think every team is going to do that? When you have
Barry Sanders on your team, USE HIM. If the defense keys on him, let him run
into the flat, then hit him with a short pass. Fontes said San Francisco was
"shadowing" Sanders with a man, but I watched play after play from upstairs
and, sorry, Sanders was open plenty of the time. Besides, even if someone is
shadowing the man, hell, I'd rather take my chances with Barry and one guy
than not use him at all.
"Shoot, I'll take Barry and three guys," said Lomas Brown, the offensive
tackle.
OK. Barry and three guys. The point is, you have to try. You can't say,
"Well, he's covered," and give up on him. Seven rushes and one attempted pass
is not a sufficient test for a game. All it does is play into the opponent's
hands. And don't be surprised if all the teams from here on in try to do
exactly what the 49ers did, because they will.
Fontes said: "We came 3,000 miles to play a very poor football game."
Uh, Wayne? It's only 2,000 miles from Detroit.
No wonder your guys were so tired.
Don't use 5-2 as crutch
Which brings us to the Detroit defense, which had gotten pretty high on its
horse the last few weeks. I think 505 yards surrendered might bring those
guys down to earth. That, or the fact that in allowing the 49ers five
touchdowns, they stopped them only once on third down in the first three
quarters. And that one time, the 49ers went for it on fourth down and wound
up with a touchdown.
"Maybe we got complacent, who knows?" sighed linebacker Chris Spielman.
I'll tell you what they did get: exhausted. They were out there, in the heat
and the smoke, for more than 45 minutes of the 60-minute game. Field position
didn't matter to the 49ers' offense. Four of their touchdown drives began on
their 11-, 12-, 20- and 32-yard lines. You could have started them in San
Mateo, they would have found the end zone.
And Steve Young (18-for-20, 237 yards, two touchdowns) may not be Joe
Montana, but he looked an awful lot like him Sunday.
"It was important for us to have a game like that," said 49ers coach
George Seifert, whose team has come under fire lately for slipping to a losing
record, "and we can't have anything less from here on out."
I like that. High expectations.
What I don't like is this: hearing the Lions shrug Sunday off by pointing
to the standings.
"We're still 5-2 and tied for first place," Rodney Peete said.
"We're 5-2 and tied for first place," Spielman said.
"We're still 5-2," Brown said.
Hey. Fellas. So what? Keep this up and you could be 5-11 when the season
is over. A winning record is not a pillow to lie on when you hurt; it's a
foundation to build on, higher and higher, you can never stop.
The fact is, Detroit's impressive record was built against five teams that,
if you gave each one a letter, would spell L- O-U-S-Y. This is also fact:
Against the only two quality teams the Lions have faced (San Francisco,
Washington), they have lost by a combined score of 80-3.
That hurts. Sorry. But until the Lions beat the Big Boys -- and they have
Dallas, Buffalo and two Chicago games on the schedule -- the jury will be out
their improvement. Sometimes it can seem as real as a crunching tackle.
And other times, like the Sunday skies, it can drift away like smoke.