Thanksgiving Football

Thanksgiving is a fun time in my house hold. Spending time with family, eating good food. But my favorite part of the Holiday is watching Football. We always go to my grandmas for Thanksgiving and eat a turkey lunch at around noon. After we gorge with food we move, or my grandpa calls it rolls, to the living room to turn on the Lions game. Thanksgiving game is always different than every other week. Instead of watching the game with my dad and I, I get to watch it and cheer with my grandparents and uncles. The Lions game of course finds a lot of hype around it. People call it the Detroit Superbowl because its the biggest game of the year for Detroit due to the fact they cant get to the real Superbowl. After watching the Lions, who usually lose, we watch the Dallas game which is always right after. This game is always more of a background noise as we do more talking and desert eating than paying attention to the game. We usually head home around 6, while the Dallas game is in the 3rd quarter. Then we get home, watch Thursday night football, and prepare to not eat again for another few days to recover. Thanksgiving truly is a great holiday and is ranked as one of my favorites. Then when Sunday came around, since Lions didn't play, I had no game to watch and be too interested in. Also the games that were being played on local TV were petty games, good teams playing bad teams or even worse 2 bad teams. There was not many good games that excited me to see. The best game of the week might have to have been Denver Vs Pittsburgh. The game went back and forth and I honestly was just waiting for the time when Pittsburgh would pull away. The only problem was that never happened. The game stayed close, each team scoring back and forth. eventually Denver was up by 7 and Pittsburgh had the ball, 1st and Goal, ready to punch it in and send the game to OT. Big Ben came out and bade a bad throw that got picked off ending the game. An ending that really spoiled the quality of the game for me. Next Sunday leads a nice slate for the NFL though. Lions will have the hardest game of the year, playing the one loss Rams. The Rams have a star young QB in Goff and will look to continue their win streak.

Seasons Over

Lions have officially lost three strait games, which means chances at coming back and making the playoffs are very unlikely. Lions mood really changed after the trade of Golden Tate. The offense started to struggle much more and was missing his productiveness. So far Detroit is looking at getting a top 10 draft pick. They should use this pick and look into a major wide receiver. Only a few short weeks ago I thought that Detroit had one of the best Wide Out duos in the league. Now we are missing a key receiver with the quick YAC abilities that we lost after the trade of Tate. Guys like AJ Brown or  Kelvin Harmon. Adding another big target for Stafford could really improve the offense and take them to the next level. Key injuries have a lot hurt the Lions this year. Injuries to TJ Lang and Ziggy Ansah and Darius Slay had hurt the Defense and Offensive line majorly. TJ Lang had just been put on the IR therefore ending his season. It is very likely that this will mark the end of TJ Lang's career in Detroit. His last few years have been filled with injuries and struggles to stay active. Ansah had also struggled with injuries and hasn't been able to be productive since getting first hurt. As much as I hate seeing Detroit lose, I half want them to almost lose out at least giving them a good draft pick. If they can add a key player out of the draft, It could possibly move them to a playoff level. They also need to get some key additions this off season in free agency. Gaining maybe a cornerback or offense linemen who have been in the league for a wile and are experienced. Stafford has been sacked 16 times over the last two games, with 10 sacks against Minnesota. Lions need to desperately get out of the mediocre ways while Stafford is still young. Stafford is getting older and I cant help but think that Detroit is squandering a good QB and not surrounding him with the needed talent. Overall, Lions need to get out of the middle of the pack and create a team that can get out of the NFC North. The rest of the division is improving with young QB or star QB and Lions are staying put. Lions have I'd say 4 or 5 more years to get a good team around Stafford before it will go back to a full rebuild process.

Lost Cause?

It was a rough week for Detroit fans. Lions suffered a harsh loss to the Minnesota Vikings this past week, losing 24-9.  Lions offensive line, who had been doing a pretty decent job overall this season gave up 10 sacks. Anytime a team sacks your quarterback more times than you get points, your team is destined for the loss. The game was hard to watch. I watched through half time when the score was 17 to 6. After that I couldn't stay and watch the game got so ugly. Once in a while I pulled up the stream on my phone, only to see a big turnover or sack by Minnesota and shut my phone right back off. Overall, Lions are in a tough position. Facing a 3-5 record, and having to play the division leading Chicago Bears twice in their next 3 games. The last game against Chicago will take place at Ford Field In Detroit on Thanksgiving.

This week though, Lions Bears will take place in "Windy City" Chicago. Bears are currently having the best start to the season in years. They have one of the top defenses in the league while keeping a solid offense as well. Lions are to the point where every game is a must win if they want a chance to possibly sneak into the playoffs. Odds of a Detroit playoff appearance is very low unless they can win at least 7 of their last 8 games. The loss of Golden Tate was visible with Stafford having struggles with connecting to his receivers. Theo Riddick lined up a couple of times as a slot receiver, taking the role of Tate, but the targets weren't the same. If the Lions want to turn their season around, a key is the run game on both ends of the ball. On offense its been seen that once the run game begins, the pass game opens up and Lions can find a groove. On defense Lions have an amazing pass defense, but struggle on the run defense. Things have gotten better after acquiring "Snacks" Harrison, and the returning of Ziggy Ansah, but much improvement is still needed. Other news, Lions cut Ameer Abdulah, running back, who started for the team the last few years. After missing the first hand full of games, Kerryon Johnson had taken over as the clear number one guy in the backfield. Lions resign Zach Zenner to a contract as well as a wide receiver to try to help fill the void left by Tate's departure.