10 games in!

So 10 games in and the Detroit Red Wings have 7 wins even though they are far from playing their best hockey. Some of the players are clicking already, like Marian Hossa, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom. Hossa has fit in nicely with 5 goals and 9 assists. He leads the team in scoring, creating great chemistry with his linemates. Johan Franzen started well also, but a knee strain has put him out of action for a few weeks. There will always be injuries, so its nice to see players like Dan Cleary and Valterri Filppula stepping up when needed.

The defense has been slow to come around. Nicklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart haven't started great, and I never feel safe when Andreas Lilia and Brett Lebda are on the ice. I still think that the 5th best defenseman on this team is playing in Grand Rapids, Jonathan Ericsson. We'll see if he gets his chance later in the season.

Goaltending has been up and down. Ty Conklin has proved he was a good signing, but Chris Osgood is still feeling his way through the early part of the season. What's great to see is that even though the team isn't putting it all together, they are clearly better than the majority of the league most nights. The Wings are the class of the NHL and us fans in Detroit are lucky to have them.

Another Loss

Let's get this out of the way, the Lions lost on Sunday to the Texans 28-21. It's like ripping off a band aid, do it quick and it won't hurt as bad. What was the defensive game plan against the Texans? They couldn't stop Steve Slaton and Ahman Green on the ground. Those two backs were getting good chunks of yards. Matt Schaub was equally impressive through the air. He found the open spots in the Lions zone, and ran the bootleg play to perfection. It looked like the linebackers and defensive line were out of place, losing containment on every play. A few positives were the play of Dewayne White and Daniel Bullucks. These two have played better than Ernie Sims, supposedly the Lions best defensive player, for a few weeks now. The Lions also played some of their youngsters on defense. Alama-Francis, Avril, and Fluellen all made some plays during the game.

On offense the Lions couldn't block well enough to give their young quarterback any time. Orlovsky had his happy feet for a second straight game. When the announcers are even pleading with the Lions to get the ball to Calvin Johnson, you know the Lions game plan is ridiculous. Calvin needs to be thrown to at least 10 times a game. He got 4 looks I think, not enough. Kevin Smith did a good job the few plays he was allowed to run the ball, but when you're behind 21-0 you won't be running too much.

Players were allowed to be evaluated in this game, so hopefully whoever takes over this team was paying attention, because there is a lot of fat that needs to be cut on this team. The Lions need young, hungry players, who in the right schemes will be able to compete in this league, and that sure isn't happening right now.

flag football game 5

Today we were down 1 assistant coach, and 2 of our 1st graders. That gave us 3 1st graders and 6 kindergartners for the game. With us having to cancel our last 2 practices due to rain, I didn't know what to expect. We played the Giants this week and they have a couple of real burners on their squad. They ended up scoring 3 touchdowns. We were shut out of the end zone even though we moved the ball consistently all day. The Steelers even completed 2 passes today, our first 2 completions of the season. We gained a lot of YAC on those 2 plays, yards after catch.

Jack played his best game of the season. He ran the ball once, gaining 20 yards on the play. On defense, he played cornerback all game and had 2 flag pulls, once again a career best. He did great! Jack did get injured a little because of the Giants aggressive blocking, but he stayed in and hung in there.

One game left on the schedule, so I'll give our final update next week.

Game 4 of flag football

When I showed up for our 4th game of flag football, I knew something was up as soon as I saw our youngsters. These kids were bursting with energy, and I don't mean in a controlled way. They must have had a ton of sugar for breakfast, because it took everything I had to handle a couple of them.

We were playing the same team we faced in week 1, the Titans. In that game we struggled on offense due to lack of cohesion, and the fact that their team had older kids on it, or should I say more of them. Well in this game we made it closer losing 2 touchdowns to 1, but the kids had fun. We just had a tuff time blocking on our line. Their defensive line penetrated ours way too many times. We tried to make a few adjustments, but it did not help in the end. The boys who have understood the game from the start did real well, especially on defense. 3 of them, who I won't mention, had outstanding games, one boy even picked off a pass and took it to the house. Pretty impressive for a 1st grader.

I gave Jack the opportunity to play center, and he did a real good job. Outside of the end of the game when he started calling out the count, instead of the quarterback, he did everything right. He got to carry the ball once also. On that play, we were close to our own end zone, and when he got the ball, the defense was already on him. He proceeded to run backwards out of the end zone. While I was blowing the whistle to stop the play, he turned it around, and ran 50 yards for a touchdown, in his mind. He was happy, and while I told him to run forward right away, instead of going backwards, I told him nice run. He was excited!

Good Luck!

In recent years there hasn't been much to cheer about at Lions games, but Roy Williams at least brought some excitement to the field. His antics were always on display, if it was a close game, or if like most of the time they were down by a couple of touchdowns. Williams was a productive player on a bad team. Yesterday, Williams was traded to the Cowboys, for a 1st round, 3rd round, and 6th round pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Seeing that Roy was a free agent at the end of this year, and it was a good possibility that he was leaving anyways, the Lions, and more specific Martin Mayhew made the right move, and traded him to the Cowboys. Is this a sign, along with Jon Kitna going on I.R. for the year, that the Lions have given up on this year? Yes, if you are only looking at wins. But as I have previously stated, this team's lone objective after 5 straight losses to start the season, is to evaluate the current roster. So good luck Roy. You got what you wanted, a chance to make the playoffs, and Lions fans got what they have wanted for 7 years, a sound decision by the front office. I'll miss that 1st down gesture though, standing up in my seats, along with Roy, hand pointing out, shouting 1st down!!!

On the move????

Could Jon Kitna be traded today by the 4 p.m. deadline? Maybe? Trades usually don't happen in the NFL. In other sports the trade deadlines are exciting times, players on the move, teams getting better. Not in the NFL though. I think the deadline for one is too early in the season, even the Lions think they still can pull off a good season. The NFL should move the deadline forward 2 weeks. Make it halfway through the season. Players traded could still come in and learn schemes before the playoffs, and this would lead to more activity and excitement.

Back to Kitna, the Lions are obviously not heading to the playoffs, and need to start evaluating all of the players on the roster. That includes Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton. Orlovsky looked nervous on Sunday filling in for Kitna, but he needs more game experience, before he can be correctly assessed. I'd like to see Stanton get some snaps in a game, but we have to remember this past week was his first real practice with his teammates. I don't want to just throw him in there without the proper knowledge of the offense. But don't get me wrong, he should play at the end of the season.

Kitna has some value. He could come in and backup a young starter, giving his leadership and experience to a new team. What could the Lions get for Kitna? A 4th or 5th rounder probably. The Lions have players who could be traded. Brian Kelly, Roy Williams, Shaun McDonald, and Corey Redding would be players of interest. We'll have to wait til this afternoon to see if any move are made.

Steelers game 3 results

The great thing about our 3rd flag football game is that you could see the improvement in our kids. The more we practice and let them get the repetitions, the better they are. The kids were enthused for the whole game. On offense we moved the ball a little better than the previous week. I believe we only scored once, but had a couple of drives where we gained some decent yards. Our blocking was better, and the decision to play just 2 quarterbacks, and have them rotate at center when they're not the quarterback, seemed to work. I'd like to get more kids behind the center, however I don't think all of the kids can handle it. The great thing is those kids who can't handle it, are getting the ball on a couple of carries. I definitely don't wish the games were any longer, but it would be nice for the kids to get a couple more carries per game, not just one or two each.

On defense we gave up 3 scores, but stopped them on a few drives. The team blew up a few plays in the opponents backfield, which excited them. It's great to see the team celebrating their accomplishments.

Jack had another good game. He ran once, and was stopped, but he's getting the idea about blocking. On defense he mixed it up, and chased the kids, getting their flags. I'm real proud with how he is doing.

The kids are still a challenge to consistently put them in the right position, and do the right thing, but I continue to have fun coaching them, and enjoy seeing their improvements.

Disaster!!!!

What a train wreck today was. They lost another one, this time to the Bears 34-7. I'm the Lions fan who always talks about the glass being half full, but enough is enough. This team has regressed every game! Sure they fired Matt Millen, and I'm happy about that, but that doesn't matter on the field. I knew that it wouldn't, but I thought the team would at least play with more energy, and emotion, after the bye week. Rod Marinelli can take the blame all he wants, it sounds like he wants to be fired, but the rest of the coaching staff, and the players have to be held accountable.

Joe Barry and Jim Colletto are pathetic as coordinators. Neither coach has a grasp on what their side of the ball is doing. If they did, and they didn't correct it, they should be fired. Marinelli is going to cover for their short comings, but he has enough of his own, to take theirs. On offense there is so much miscommunication, and mental errors, they can't move the ball consistently. And on defense they make average quarterbacks look like pro bowlers, and running backs look like hall of famers.

Here's what happens every game, I'll paint you a picture. The teams will rip your heart out for 55 minutes, only to show you glimpses in 5 minutes of what kind of players they could be. Take for instance my poster boys for this post, Roy Williams, and Calvin Johnson. At times they make catches that lead you to believe that it's gonna be a mismatch all day long, but then the drops come, or the bad pass patterns. This is all too common. I'm sick and tired of being led to believe that we have an NFL team in Michigan. Get rid of the owner, fire the coaches, and cut the players. A clean slate is what the fans need!

New blood

Outside of adding Kwame Brown and Will Bynum, the Detroit Pistons roster remained intact. My initial thoughts on this were that the Pistons were scared to make a move, and that this team would not get back to the NBA Finals. The East has improved, Elton Brand makes the 76ers better, Jermaine O'Neal makes the Raptors better, Michael Beasley and a healthy Dwayne Wade make the Heat better, and any conference with LeBron James and the defending NBA champs the Boston Celtics will be difficult to run through. However after Joe Dumars explained that no trades were out there, and he was sticking with his roster, it was evident that those starters who have led the Pistons to the playoffs, and won a championship will not be the deciding factor in this season's outcome.

The success will be determined by 3 young, and upcoming players Amir Johnson, Rodney Stuckey, and Jason Maxiell. All three will be given more minutes, and in return be asked for more productivity. These are the additions to this team. Yes, its the same players by name from last year, but their continual improvement will allow the Pistons more flexibility, and reduce those starters minutes who have carried us all these years. I'm excited to see this new blood, Amir causing havoc in the paint, Stuckey taking the ball to the hole, and Maxiell bringing his energy off the bench. Hopefully these guys will lead the Pistons back to the Finals.