Fireside Chat #3

Fireside Chat #3

Okay, last week I mentioned that I’d be quickening the pace on my, uh, biannual “Fireside Chat” podcast series.  Well, here’s the first one for you—it’s only ten minutes long, is rife with mistakes, and follows a horrific false start.  But on the positive side, there’s a lot of open-ended philosophizing about the hypocritical nature of fans and fandom.

Uh.  I’m sorry, I’m a terrible salesman.  Anyway, give it a listen.  My goal will be to up the quality of both the production and the content every week.  Please, please, please give me feedback of any sort in the comments.  When toe meets leather for Week 1, I want to have this stuff down cold.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,training camp,ndamukong suh,podcast,ustream

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defense wins . . . training camp?

“Defense wins championships”.  It was nice bit of sports wisdom, which became a saying.  Then it became a truism, and then trite, and then a cliché.    It’s been said so often, it’s not even a cliché anymore; it’s seared into the mind of every sports fan.  Listen to NFL analysis long enough, and you’ll start to hear it in your dreams.  Follow football blogs and forums long enough, and you’ll read it so often you’ll see it with your eyes closed.  I wouldn’t be surprised if “defense wins championships” is encoded somewhere in our DNA.

We certainly found out what happens when you have no defense: the 2008 Lions were one of the worst defenses ever to take the field, and, well, 0-16.  I’ve often said that last season, the Lions fielded a 6- or 7-win offense, and a –10 win defense.  It makes sense; the Lions had the most physically dominant wide receiver in football, and a workhorse rookie running back.  With some credible coaching and a similar defense, the Lions well might have had six or seven wins.  Over the offseason, though, the Lions have drastically improved that offense.  They’ve drafted a franchise quarterback, added veteran #2 and #3 wideouts, drafted the most impressive 2-way tight end prospect in years, and added a veteran third-down back to take pressure off the second-year running back.  They’ve added, almost literally, a ton of veteran size and depth along the offensive line.  This 6- or 7-win offense should be more like a 9- or 10-win offense now.  So how come the defense looks better?

That’s right; the early word from training camp is that the defense looks better than the offense.  Early Monday morning, FOXSports.com’s Alex Marvez tweeted that the defense “dominated the offense in pass drills”.  Tom Kowalski confirmed this with an article that went a little bit more in-depth.  On Tuesday, the story was no different—again, Killer provided us with a first-hand account of the defense having the upper hand in red zone 7-on-7 work.  In the same breath, though, Kowalski cautions us not to read to much into this; the defense is attacking and blitzing as they plan to do during the season, and the offense is still being put together.  It takes a lot fewer reps to for a defense to successfully blitz a linebacker than it does for an offense to seamlessly pick him up.

However, I do think there’s significance to this.  The offense is going to be the strength of the team this year—there’s too much more talent and youth for it not to be true.  That offense is going to go up against some very stout, aggressive defenses right away: Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Chicago.  Don’t forget New Orleans, with new DC Gregg Williams, and the Packers under new DC Dom Capers.  This offense needs to get used to feeling the heat from all spots on the field.  They’ll see overloads, jailbreaks, zone blitzes, safety blitzes, 3-4s, and 4-3s.  The earlier, and oftener, the offense is tested with these aggressive looks, the more quickly they’ll adapt and grow.

Most folks’ objection to the Lions starting Matthew Stafford from day one stems from concerns about the offensive line.  Why?  If the line can’t protect Stafford, he’ll spend more time running for his life than running the offense.  Nobody wants to see Matt Stafford become the next David Carr; a can’t-miss prospect who can’t drink water, because it just drains out of all the cleat holes in his torso.  But part of avoiding the blitz is on the quarterback—there’s only so much an offensive line can do! 

Matt Stafford has to learn to protect himself with quick reads, quick decisions, and a willingness to throw the ball away if the play’s not there.  We saw Ben Roethlisberger do that in Pittsburgh last season;  the Steelers’ offensive line was regarded as below average at best--yet Big Ben stayed upright and made plays all year.  How?  He made great reads, made great decisions, and had great pocket awareness.  The only way the game will slow down for Matt Stafford like that is if he gets a lot of reps under pressure from day one.

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Morning view

I've decided to continue with the Three Cups Deep-style quick hits throughout training camp; there's so much info coming out now that I've gotta hustle to skim off the cream of the crop and dollop it in your morning joe.  Monday’s practice sessions didn’t see a lot of new storylines break; rather, we saw a lot of the same storylines develop:

• DT Landon Cohen continued to impress.  According to Tom Kowalski over at Mlive.com, Cohen followed up his jaw-dropping 50-rep performance in the bench press this weekend by making play after play on Monday.  Some folks are already calling him “Cohen the Barbarian”, which I find hilarious—those doing so are likely unaware of the literary allusion they make.  Cohen celebrated his 23rd birthday yesterday, and as he says this is indicative of his “grown-man strength kicking in”.  I should emphasize that there are plenty of rookies drafted in April whose 23rd birthday was a lot further back in time than yesterday.  Cohen, if he can continue to develop like this, could be the surprise gem that saves the Lions’ defense—in a year or two.  Unfortunately, there’s no mention of who these reps came against—and if it was linemen like Damion Cook and Dylan Gandy, we can’t start toasting Cohen’s breakout just yet.  Don’t forget, recent Lions past is full of traning camp rags-to-riches stories that never panned out.  Greg Blue, “Blue” Adams, David Kircus, Scotty Anderson . . .
  
  
• The Detroit News’ John Niyo writes that DT Sammie Hill is getting a lot of special attention from defensive line coach Bob Karmelowicz.  There’s a few great quotes from Schwartz in that story about how scouting Hill reminded him of scouting Leon Lett—and frankly, thoughts about the next Big Cat in Honolulu Blue get me all hot and bothered.  Here’s another difference between Schwartz and Marinelli: instead of the defensive line coach stopping defensive line drills to work with a guy like Hill—the head coach would stop team drills to work with a guy like Hill! Okay, that might be a sight exaggeration, but still—Schwartz is excited to see Hill in practice and watch the game film afterwards; NOT spending big chunks of practice working on fine points of technique with individual players.  Schwartz is coaching the coaches, and letting the coaches coach the players—exactly as it should be.
  
  
• Killer also wrote a nice little piece on that exact point: Schwartz spending time with both the offense and the defense—and how his coaching to “situations” and mentally tying what they’re doing on the practice field to what they do in games so wildly varies from Marinelli’s.
  
  
• Before the first all-roster minicamp, I wrote about ‘key performance indicators”, things that fans should watch for to see if real progress is being made.  One of those was the matchup of the receivers versus the corners; since we know for a fact that Megatron is an elite wideout, how the Lions’ corners fare against him will be a great measuring stick for how they’re doing in general.  So far, the results are looking good; according to the Free Press’s Nick Cotsonika, #1 CB Phillip Buchanon has been holding his own.  Killer reports that former EMU standout Chris Roberson got some reps with the ones when Eric King and Keith Smith both took the morning off with minor injuries—and did extremely well.

As always, stay tuned both here and at my Twitter feed for the latest!

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three cups deep

I find myself waffling between waxing rhapsodic about the hedonistic pleasures of brewing coffee, and writing about the whole weekend’s worth of Detroit Lions training camp action.  I know what you folks have come here for, though, so I’ll get right to the good stuff:

• Though many insist on 100% arabica beans in their espresso, I’ve found that a well-selected robusta bean can add a lot of bite and body to an otherwise . . . oh.  What?   . . . *sigh* . . . fine.
  
  
• It’s no secret that the Lions’ new defensive scheme is going to rely heavily on the play of the tackles to stop the run.  With veteran run-stuffer Grady Jackson likely to miss the first few games of the season—and likely to be on a limited-snap leash after that--the Lions will desperately need at least a couple of the guys behind him on the depth chart to make a big impact.  Saturday’s conditioning tests saw two young defensive tackles make statements, indeed: Sammie Hill failed the conditioning test given to all players prior to the first practice.  We’re assured this doesn’t mean much; Hill passed the test later in the afternoon.  Hill himself blamed it on trying too hard to ‘wow’ with his long shuttle time, and running out of gas before he could finish.  However, this conditioning test was like homework—all of these players passed these tests at the conclusion of minicamp.  Seeing Hill on the sidelines for the first Saturday session because he failed the conditioning test was not a great sign.  Landon Cohen, however, blew everyone away by benching 225 pounds an incredible 50 times.  For perspective, B.J. Raji did 33 reps at the combine;  Sammie Hill did 27.  Cohen’s a very interesting case study.  When I reviewed the Lions’ 2008 defensive tackles in my Old Mother Hubbard series, this is what I said about him:

  “Cohen was a seventh-round draft pick last year from Ohio.  Not the Buckeyes, the Bobcats.  He was a destroyer up the middle, despite his relatively light 6'-4", 278 lb. physique.  Interestingly, Cohen was a 4-year letterman in track at his high school in Spartanburg, SC.  Track!  At Ohio, Cohen played the nose tackle position despite being a little undersized for that, even by MAC standards.  And yet, he was 2nd-team all-conference his senior year, with 59 tackles (27 solo), 12.5 TFL and 1.5 sacks, starting all twelve games.  Despite being a little taller, and notably thinner, than fellow rookie Andre Fluellen, Cohen is listed on the Lions depth chart as a nose tackle.  He saw time against several teams, setting his career high in tackles against the Colts (4).  I didn't get to see much of him, but from what I can find in scouting reports, he has excellent technique and leverage, helping him make up for his lack of beef.  He seems to excel in initial burst and shedding blocks with quick moves, but doesn' t have the range or athleticism to run around making plays on the edge or in space.  According to the info I can find, he's at his best as a one-gap upfield rusher.  Bottom line: Cohen is a true 4-3 one-gap nose tackle who was born a little too small.  If he could add a lot of bulk he could stay at NT--otherwise, he's another 4-3 UT/3-4 DE project.”

  It looks as though Cohen’s doing everything he can to add the bulk and strength he’ll need to stay at DT; this should be a very interesting position battle, indeed.
  
  
• There was a lot of talk about the QB position coming into the weekend.  Though impressions of how each quarterback “looked” seemed to be heavily informed by the observer’s favored starter for the year, there was consensus on one issue: Matt Stafford is the real deal.  Scout.com’s Nate Caminata, the Detroit News’s Bob Wojnowski, and—astonishingly—the Grand Rapids Press’s Brian VanOchten all agreed: Stafford carried himself with a veteran’s poise and confidence--even motioning for a PI call after one threaded-needle pass fell incomplete!  He appeared completely comfortable with the playbook and the speed of the game, and has eye-popping physical tools.  All three agreed that while Duante Culpepper looked sharp, he might already be the 1b to Matt Stafford’s 1a.  Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press, however, appealed to caution, imploring the Lions to keep Matt Stafford on the pine, regardless of performance.  I enjoy Rosenberg’s work, but I couldn’t disagree more.  If Stafford’s relaxed, comfortable, confident, and executing better than anyone else, what possible reason could there be to hold him back?  Rod Marinelli held Drew Stanton back in 2008—reportedly, until they got off the schneid.  Stanton’s still waiting for his chance.
  
  
• Speaking of DS, his performance on Saturday left a lot to be desired.  Rumor has it that he threw several ducks, looking far behind Stafford and Culpepper in execution, leading forumgoers to call for his head—or at least his roster spot.  However, I’ve been cautioning against having this knee-jerk reaction.  Stanton simply isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to blow you away in practice.  He’s not a shorts-and-T-shirt passer, he’s a gamer who makes it happen when it counts.  On Sunday, they ran through extremely harsh two-minute drills, and what do you know?  Tom Kowalski went out of his way to praise Stanton’s crisp execution.  Good on you, Drew.  Keep fighting--you deserve it.
  
  
• Finally, Martin Mayhew had a nice little session with reporters, going over all the recent roster changes.  Mayhew said that he’s “happy” with the linebackers and running backs; there’s a good mix of talented, impact veterans, and talented, developing youngsters at both spots.  Beyond that, Mayhew said he was pleased with the amount of raw physical talent at quarterback. However, he refused to go any further than that, declining to say he was done working on any other unit.  Clearly, while he didn’t say a single negative thing about anyone on the roster, he sees holes at every other position group—which is good news, because I see them, too!  Mayhew said the Lions’ brass has “areas of concern”, and efforts to address them are ongoing.

Lots of good stuff from this weekend—and more is coming, because the Lions should be wrapping up the morning session as I write this!

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the bonfire of the fans—and me

As the self-appointed “flamekeeper”, I take it upon myself to tend the blue bonfire that us frozen, weary Lions fans huddle around.    Ever since that frostbitten, breath-freezing  morning back in December--when there was no hope, no chance, and nothing left to cheer for—I’ve been striking silver flints to make blue sparks, guarding the little tendrils of flame from the wind with my hands, packing snow against snow to keep blowing drifts from smothering the fire, and worked tirelessly to keep that blaze alive.

A few kindred souls saw the silver smoke rising, far off on the bleak horizon.  Teeth chattering, they trudged through the snow.  One by one, Lions fans gathered here from all over the world, holding up their hands to the fire, and thawing out a little bit.  The few hardy folks who’ve come back again and again over the interminable, Siberian offseason have been joined by more and more new faces.  Today, on the morning when the Lions’ 2009 football season begins in earnest, I’m pleased to say the lonely little fire now roars; the grim gathering of a few embattled, frostbitten fans is now more like a party.

Amidst a small crowd of Lions fans gathered to talk honestly and intelligently about the team they support, you see me, sporting my furry winter hat.  I’m stoking the flames of fandom.  I’m chopping, splitting, and hauling the wood and kindling.  I’m pulling draughts from casks of hot spiced cider (and splashing in shots of warm spiced rum), and passing the steins around.  I’m shaking hands and slapping backs, glad to see the men and women and boys and girls who’ve come again to share their friendship, and their fandom.

Today, it begins.  The long months of cursing and conjecture, of complaint and celebration, of draft grades and free agent ‘shopping lists’ and trades both blockbuster and lackluster . . . now, metal meets metal.  Plastic meets plastic.  Beef meets beef.  As deeply (and accurately!) as this game can be quantified with a database, slide rule, or graphing calculator, it’s all talk until two tons’ worth of muscle and sinew collide like an angry bull and a slow matador.  For all the many words that have been written—and will be written, here--breaking down the players and coaches and alignments and position battles to come over the next few weeks, all that really matters is what happens on green grass and white lines in Allen Park.  For the first time since I created this space, we as fans will discuss not what has happened in the past, nor what might happen in the future, but what is happening now—your rebuilt, reborn, re-branded Detroit Lions taking the field and playing football.

Take a second, wherever you are, and raise your stein of cider to that.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,training camp

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