Wolf
100% Texan
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...g=ms-trippintuesday051209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
After quarterback Jon Kitna(notes) was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in early March, I figured the Lions locker room would settle down a bit, what with last years historically abominable 0-16 campaign still fresh on the minds of the survivors. It was Kitna, you remember, who provided some welcome fodder a year earlier when, for the second consecutive offseason, he made a statement of fact that it would be a disappointment for Detroit not to win 10 games.
He also insisted the Lions were going to be a better football team than the one that finished 7-9 in 2007.
Sure enough, the 08 Lions were better, if by better Kitna meant unfathomably worse. It turned out Kitnas season-ending back injury paved the way for the metaphorical moment that encapsulated Detroits season: quarterback Dan Orlovskys(notes) retreat and scramble through the back of the end zone in an October defeat to the Vikings.
Thanks to second-year halfback Kevin Smith(notes), the comedy continues even after the departures of Kitna and Orlovsky, now a Houston Texans backup. Last year Smith, a third-round draft choice from Central Florida, burst onto the scene with some serious bravado. He proclaimed that hed score 20 touchdowns (he ended up with eight) and that the Lions would win a playoff game.
Blessedly, he now has a personal blog, on which he recently assured readers the Lions will definitely make the playoffs this season.
If Smith had stopped there, Id have shrugged it off as homage to his departed teammate, an NFL version of a rapper sampling one of his influential forebears. However, Smith took his delusions to an entirely new level, claiming, Believe it or not, we werent far off last year. Almost every game we could have won, we were one play or one player short. Except for Tennessee on Thanksgiving they manhandled us, but nobody else did.
Its possible that the Green Bay Packers (48-25), San Francisco 49ers (31-13) and Chicago Bears (34-7), who drubbed the Lions in consecutive games during the first quarter of the season, might take issue with that statement. Im guessing the Jacksonville Jaguars (38-14) and New Orleans Saints (42-7) also processed their subsequent clashes with the Lions in a slightly different cognitive manner.
Look, I understand why Smith is excited about the future. As I wrote in February, Im convinced new coach Jim Schwartz is a shrewd dude whos eventually going to rock Motown. Detroit has made some nice offseason personnel acquisitions, including linebackers Julian Peterson(notes) and Larry Foote(notes), defensive tackle Grady Jackson(notes) and cornerbacks Phillip Buchanon(notes), Anthony Henry(notes) and Eric King(notes).
And surely, Smith is excited about No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford(notes) right? Uh, maybe not.