Congratulations, Detroit Lions

It's time to retire the 'Winless Detroit Lions' tag. Congratulations to them. They won their first game since the 2007 season today. And they tried to blow it, they really did at the end, allowing the Redskins the opportunity to come back. But they held on and won the game.

So congratulations, and here is the last use of that tag.

You can place bets on which team will be next to earn it, though (*cough* *cough* Bucs *cough*).

Teams I wasn't expecting to go 0-2

Tennessee Titans
Carolina Panthers

Oh, and I'm not at all surprised that Detroit is 0-2, but I am saddened. They had the lead today into the third quarter. That is a bummer.

Coaching changes since the start of the 2008 season

Denver Broncos
Cleveland Browns
New York Jets
Detroit Lions
San Fransisco 49ers
Oakland Raiders
St. Louis Rams

One more and we will be at 25% of the league. Considering that Holmgren is apparently leaving and Dungy (although he's the Brett Favre of retiring coaches), this number is getting kind of crazy. Jauron is apparently safe, although the press notice made it pretty clear that he needs to shape up.

Craaaaaaaaaazy.

Lion Carnage

Here is how it all went horribly, horribly wrong.

“We weren’t as sharp as we’d like to be. We couldn’t make the plays we needed to put the game away, but it’s something we expected,” coach Tony Dungy said. “You obviously can’t mishandle two punts and give them short fields. Those are situations that usually get you beat.”

Yes, they should get you beat. But you are the 2008 Indianapolis Colts. You have barely beat several bad teams in a row now. How you do it, I don't know. But you may have observed that I have given up on hunting you down for a wild card spot, you lucky bastards.

Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit. This is all I have to say.

Teams that are currently 9-5

New England Patriots
Baltimore Ravens (I cheered for the Steelers and yes, I feel a bit dirty now)
Miami Dolphins (so close, 49ers, and yet so far)
New York Jets (you are KILLING ME, Buffalo, for turning over the ball with a little over a minute to go, leading to the game-winning TD. Come on!)

...so theoretically, it is now not only a tie in the division, but also a tie for the last wild card spot.

Here's what I need to happen over the last two weeks:

Week 16

New England Patriots (10-5) beat Arizona Cardinals
Seattle Seahawks beat Jets (9-6) -- this is not likely. Or is it?
Miami Dolphins (10-5) beat Kansas City Chiefs
Dallas Cowboys beat Baltimore Ravens (9-6)

Week 17
New England Patriots (11-5) beat Buffalo Bills
New York Jets (10-6) beat Miami Dolphins (10-6)
Baltimore Ravens (10-6) beat Jacksonville Jaguars. Or not. I don't really care at this point.

Easy, right?

Incidentally, at one point today (at the start of the 4th quarter, in fact) Detroit was tied against Indy 21-21. Then, naturally, they lost.

Daunte Culpepper injured

Daunte Culpepper went in for an MRI of his shoulder today. He will likely not go to Indianapolis to play/get destroyed by the Colts. Apparently QB #1, who has been injured with a wrist injury, may be ready to go.

So glad that the Pats went with Cassel!

More on the wild card situation

Indianapolis's next three games are against Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Combined, these teams have 5 wins and 1 tie. This schedule clearly favors the Colts to get a wild card spot even though they played really badly in the first part of the season and barely squeaked by Houston and San Diego the past two weeks. I think that there should be a moral 'No you don't get to have a wild card' clause in this situation. Of these three teams, I suppose it is conceivable that Cleveland might step up; they have had some strange wins (they beat the Giants?) this season. However, their QB went on injury reserve this week, so great. I would laugh for days, *days*, if Indy lost to Detroit. *Days*

The Pats need to just win win win win win. Some of those we should be able to do (Buffalo, Seattle, and Oakland). I feel better about us being able to beat Arizona after Philly beat Arizona this week. After all, the Cards are in a relatively weak division and have had some lousy games this season. Unfortunately for us, teams tend to bring it when they play NE, but hey. That's just the reputation we've earned.

Tomorrow we need to win. I am hoping that we've started on some kind of crazy late-season run that will culminate in a good playoff season. Fingers crossed.

If you're curious, yes I am having fun using the 'Winless Detroit Lions?' label.

It's a lousy job, but someone has to do it

I feel sorry for the announcers for the Titans vs. Lions. First, they have to work on Thanksgiving, which kind of sucks. But then they also need to pretend like this might be some kind of interesting football game.

On the opening drive, the Lions fumbled almost immediately. It's 14:02 in the 1st and Titans ball (second snap of the game). Long day for Detroit I suspect.

Yep, touchdown on the same drive, 13:30 in the first quarter.

Matt Cassel's offensive production

With two 400+ yard games in a row, Matt Cassel has now joined the following quarterbacks in achieving that feat: Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, Phil Simms and Billy Volek. Not bad.

Remember when people were demanding that the Patriots get an unsigned QB in to replace Cassel? Like Culpepper? His QB rating was 37.7 yesterday (Cassel's was 114) and he got pulled in the third quarter. In Bill We Trust.

More theories

So after watching Detroit today blow a 17-point lead in the first *quarter* (they lost 38-20 to Tampa Bay), my new theory is that the Lions actually do not want to win a game this season.

One Thanksgiving match-up is Tennessee vs. Detroit. Set your TiVos....

Sunday afternoon observations

Detroit's remaining games are: Carolina, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Minnesota, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and Green Bay. I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of these teams are currently .500 or higher. Which means that I think it is very possible they could be the first team to go without a win since the 1977 Buccaneers. They put in Culpepper today, so maybe he will improve. But that is a tough, icky schedule.

New England played a good game against Buffalo, although even I will admit that the calls went our way perhaps more often than not. The Jets had a decisive victory against St. Louis. Highlights showed some pretty ugly plays from the Rams.

I hereby declare that the situation in the AFC East has officially become exciting. Buffalo certainly seems to be waning, while the Jets have (as much as I hate to admit it) been quite effective as of late. Thursday night is the Pats vs. the Jets, so that should shed some light on the current divisional balance of power. I'm not sure if Miami can be as consistent as they need to be this season. They are having good games, but if indeed the Pats and Jets have become a force, that will be trickier for them.

Dave Thomas, as a follow-up, is appealing the fine. Randy Moss was also fined last week to the tune of $20 000 for criticizing the refereeing in last week's game. What exactly does the league do with this money? I'll leave that research for another day.