OGT: Week 3: Lions (0-2) @ 49ers (1-1) [Archive]

Tahoe

09-21-2008, 10:41 PM

Lions season officially over

BY DREW SHARP • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • September 21, 2008
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SAN FRANCISCO – Matt Millen was speechless when a reporter approached him at halftime.

He never sounded more intelligent.

What could he say?

The front office comedian who asked the terminally impatient to wait and see for themselves before rendering final judgment on his latest flawed vision looked as though he finally had seen enough. This was the coaching staff that finally shared his ideals of disciplined preparation, but Rod Marinelli looked as clueless as his boss Sunday as another season crashed into flames.

It’s over. It’s done.

If William Clay Ford Sr. isn’t compelled to taking a sweeping broom through every corner of his organization after this, then any defense that truly demands championship standards becomes impossible.

Marinelli looked overmatched against San Francisco, victimized by his former offensive coordinator.

But the moment that’ll likely define Marinelli’s failure might be the closing seconds of another embarrassing first half that exposed Marinelli’s lack of head coaching aptitude.

Marinelli was guilty of abominable game management at the end of the first half when he had three time outs available, but he let precious time melt away, leaving the Lions with no chance whatsoever of putting critical late points on the board.

The Lions were behind, 21-3.

Why doesn’t the [URL="http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/SPORTS01/80921044#"]NFL (http://javascript<b></b>:void('Recommend')) just give the Lions’ opponent 21 points before to the opening coin toss for the sake of saving time?

After forcing a third down and seven with 49 seconds remaining, Marinelli didn’t a burn a time out.

Was he already conceding that his defense was incapable of getting off the field? If so, what does that tell his players about his level of confidence in them?

But when the Lions forced a fourth down – with the clock running with 37 seconds remaining and the ball at the 50 – Marinelli incredulously still didn’t use a timeout to stop the clock. They lost 27 seconds before the Lions finally stopped the clock with 10 seconds remaining.

San Francisco punted and the half ended.

The Lions have argued that a lack of talent shouldn’t diminish the alleged organizational improvements. Ignore the disarray on the field and concentrate on the attention to detail in practice. But that only means that Marinelli is really nothing more than a positional coach who’s adequate in preparing his players for battle, but clearly devoid of the far-reaching head coaching skills necessary for properly executing that battle plan.

Such disorganization weighs heavily in the locker room, making it easier for playing tuning out the coaches.

Expect the phasing out to begin immediately, now that the Lions have two weeks to sulk and brood before their next game. Expect the calls for a quarterbacking change following another disappointing Jon Kitna effort that prematurely ended when he hobbled off the field in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter with an apparent knee injury.

They might as well play the young guys now.

This was a big game for Mike Martz.

Don’t let the “just another game on the schedule” nonsense fool you.

Martz badly wanted this game, but not for the reasons you might think. This wasn’t about getting even with the man who sent him packing. Martz believes that some of the Lions’ offensive players quit on his system last year. And that meant they quit on him.

There was a perfect symmetry to Sunday.

If Martz wasn’t the right offensive guy and J.T. O’Sullivan wasn’t good enough to serve as Kitna’s backup, then logic would suggest that it a Lions’ victory was certain if they maintain that Marinelli remains the right guy preaching the right message.

You could hear laughter from behind the closed door San Francisco offensive meeting Saturday night at the team hotel.

Perhaps it was simply light moment of loose levity.

Or maybe Martz was showing his charges the myriad of holes in a Lions’ defense that he knew quite well from practices the previous two seasons.

The Lions surrendered an average of 34 points in their last 10 games. That’s the main reason why they’re 1-9 in those 10 games. They’ve now trailed 66-3 following the first quarter in five of their last six games.

Giving up points at that accelerated pace places even more pressure on a quarterback (http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/SPORTS01/80921044#) that’s only effective when managing the game rather than making plays.
That’s an area where you cannot fault Kitna. He’s spent a career of equally giving to the offense and then taking it away. It’s understood when handing him the offensive reins that he needs at least a functional defense that can keep games close.

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