Well, That Happened

The Lions only lost by two points to the Vikings, and they probably would have even won the game were it not for a pair of bogus calls late in the game that basically gifted the game to the Vikings. The defense played inspired football for the most part and managed to get almost constant pressure on Gus Frerotte while keeping Adrian Peterson pretty much in check. That said, in a way, this loss was even more depressing than the others. And the reason is because the Lions tried as hard as they could for the first time this year, played balls out football and still ended up losing. The offense has gone from hilariously inept to terrifyingly worthless. Before, the offense was marked by laziness and general bitchiness, highlighted by the hysterics of Roy Williams every week and the bitch fits thrown by Jon Kitna from the beginning of each game until the bitter end. Well, Kitna was gone this week. No, I mean seriously, the asshole was too much of a worthless dick to even make the one hour plane trip. Now that's some veteran presence there. The official line is that the team was worried that his back couldn't stand the flight, but I call bullshit. Even if that is true, it just means that Kitna is an old pussy who apparently can't even sit in a chair for an hour. So, either he's a gutless dick who has turned his back on his team, or he is a doddering old shit bag whose back is too bad to even get on a plane. Either way, fuck him, he is done. The only problem is that Dan Orlovsky might be the worst quarterback I've seen start in Detroit. And believe me, that is REALLY saying something. Danny boy's most memorable play on Sunday was when he dropped back to pass out of his own end zone and then inexplicably ran too far backwards, out of the end zone, giving the Vikings a safety. Of course, the Lions only lost by two points, so no harm done really. It was hard to see these guys actually give a shit for seemingly the first time all season only to lose anyway. I think this bodes extremely unwell for the remainder of the season. It took these assholes five games to even get up enough to play at a level befitting professional football players. Now that they have done so and failed it is hard to believe that they will be able to motivate themselves to care at all. Look, there simply is not a lot to take away from that muddled mess of a game. Were the Lions better? Yes. At least in some ways. Does it really matter? No. This season is a wretched waste. Everyone knows it, including the players and coaches. Sunday was just their attempt to save a little face and feel some pride. Well, they played hard, they did their part, now they can go back to just riding out this shit storm. Some will hope that at the end they still have a job, but the saddest part is I'm sure that many of them will hope that they do get released or traded or outright fired, because the longer they stay in Detroit, the longer they know that their careers will just spiral down the drain like so many others who have found themselves trapped in the cesspool of Lions football. Even though this year is a known disaster, the sad reality is that we know that next year will probably be just as bad because anyone with a pulse will not want to set foot in Ford Field wearing the Honolulu Blue and Silver. It will be an expansion team without the hope or enthusiasm that surrounds a new franchise. The Fords have owned this team for over 40 years and in that time the Lions have won one playoff game. One. ONE GODDAMMED GAME. And in all that time there has always been a sense that while things were bad they could potentially get better if one or two things happened the right way. That simply doesn't exist this year. We know that a million different things could break the right way and the Lions will still be bad. This is the lowest point in the Lions long, sorry ass history. This is not a low point like the 49ers are in a low point. This is not a low point like the Cowboys were in during the last days of the Tom Landry regime. Those were lows surrounded by highs. This is a low point in a landscape already below sea level. We are so low now that we might as well be digging towards the earth's core. There are some who will take hope away from Sunday's game. Those people are idiots. The only hope we have is that one day we can get back to hoping that if one or two things go right we might be okay. We are not hoping for a Super Bowl win or hell, even a playoff win. We are hoping for a return to mediocrity, for a time when we could at least fool ourselves into believing that we might have a shot at something more. Basically, we are hoping for a return of Wayne Fontes and Scott Mitchell. And really, that is such a damning enough statement that nothing more needs to be said.