Lions cure Chiefs Ills

Are you an NFL team that needs a win? Do you need to get on a roll for the playoffs? Have you just had a terrible loss and you need to right the ship?

If you answered yes to those questions, then come and play the Detroit Lions.

San Diego, a 2-10 team last week, found out that they could get a win pretty easily playing the Lions at home.

Kansas City found out this week that playing the Detroit Lions in your own stadium is a guaranteed win. After all Detroit has now tied a record no team ever wants -- 23 straight losses on the road -- by getting crushed by the Chiefs 45-17 on Sunday.

It was never even a game. It was more like a high school team playing the number one college team in the nation, or what the first string of any team could do to the third string.

The Kansas City Chiefs had no competition. The Lions played worse than the Chiefs practice squad. Another embarrassment for the Lions' organization, its players, and especially the loyal Detroit Lions fans.

Kurt Schottenheimer did not have his defense ready to play. Just trying to do the simple things, such as tackling, looked like brain surgery for Lions defenders.

The Detroit defense, and I use that term very loosely, made KC quarterback Trent Green look like Joe Montana -- only better.

Green had a perfect 158.3 quarterback rating in the game. I don't exactly know how they figure the rating, but going 20-25 for 341 yards and three touchdowns sounds pretty perfect to me.

The Chiefs scored on seven of their first eight possessions, with a missed Morten Anderson field goal the only thing stopping them from being perfect.

KC gained a total of 264 yards on 26 plays and had a third down only twice on their seven scoring drives.

Running back Priest Holmes rushed for three touchdowns and, fortunately, only ran 18 times or else he would have easily gone over 100 yards instead of the 94 he did have.

Tight end Tony Gonzalez looked like he was unguarded most of the day as he caught the football six times for 93 yards.

Receiver Derrick Blaylock had five receptions for 106 yards and looked as if he had Vaseline all over his uniform when he ran for 63 yards on a short pass in which he should have been tackled three different times.

At least Kansas City called off the dogs and didn't score in the fourth quarter.

The Lions offense wasn't much better.

Kansas City's defense is not one of the better defenses in the NFL, unless they play Detroit. Sure, the Lions did have over 300 total yards in the game and Shawn Bryson rushed for over 100 yards, but this was all done after the game was pretty much over.

Kansas City took such a big lead right away, 21-0, that the defense really had to just play soft and let the Lions take time off the clock while they tried to score.

Quarterback Joey Harrington continued to look bad. He was 20-36 for 197 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

I am also beginning to wonder if he has the leadership skills to win in the NFL.

Another problem -- I am not sure if Harrington has an NFL arm strong enough to play in the league. He has no touch, which can be seen when he throws the five-yarders. Sometimes they are thrown so hard, his receivers can't hold on to them. Then on the long balls or the down-and-outs, he just can't seem to get the ball downfield.

You would think after Kansas City scored 45 points in the first three quarters that the Lion offense could get a lot of garbage yards on the Chiefs defense, but they could not. The Lions could not even score in the fourth quarter.

One person who gets a free ticket around Detroit is head coach Steve Mariucci. I keep hearing media types feeling sorry for him, or saying that he does have a direction, but he needs time.

"Just give him a couple of years, he will be the man," they all seem to say.

Well, maybe he will, but the time to win is now or as soon as possible. I am not even sure if he has an NFL arm strong enough to play in the league.

Personally, I don't see much difference between this team and last year's Lions' team.

Sure, the Lions have won four games so far this season, while last year's team was 3-13. However, Detroit still has to play Carolina and St. Louis in the next two weeks, which looks like two more losses. That would make the Lions 4-12 this season, which is only one more victory than Marty Mornhinweg had last year when Harrington was only a rookie.

So why does Mooch get a free pass?

Maybe because he is from the state of Michigan and people like coaches from their state.

He certainly doesn't say anything to give us hope.

Mariucci says the team "hasn't had any luck on the road." What does luck have to do with it? If you are coaching and hoping for luck, then you are not preparing your team for a victory.

What you need to do is give us some cold hard facts as to how you are going to make this team into a winner.

For example, are you going to get rid of Bill Schroeder? Are you going to give Mike McMahon a chance and bench Joey? Are you ever going to call out your team for a bad performance? Are you going to build the offense with the draft or defense? What the heck are you going to do?

Seriously, this "west coast offense" sucks. Either the Lions don't have the players for it, or you have no idea how to coach it. Scrap the offense and do something that fits in with the players you have.

As for the defense, this Chiefs game shows that it needs to be rebuilt. Defense does win Super Bowls, but if you give up 521 yards on defense, you definitely are not going to any Super Bowls in the near future.

Mariucci looks so calm, cool, and collected in his post-game interviews. For once, it would be nice to see him pound the podium, show some emotion, put down the play of his team, and then make changes for the next week. But, he never does.

Come on Mooch, give us a reason to believe in you and trust that you can turn things around in the next few years.

Right now there doesn't seem to be any difference between the Marty Mornhinweg team of last year and the Steve Mariucci team of this year. The attitude change alone with the firing of Mornhinweg should have produced at least six wins.

Of course, the Lions still might get six wins, but I would not even bet a penny on that.

Mooch owes it to the fans and the players to give some specifics on what he wants.

Interestingly, Matt Millen has been very quiet this year. Is he in hiding or what? Certainly, he's embarrassed by the job he has done, and he should be. Two wins in 2001, three wins in 2002, and now four wins in 2003 is pretty slow progress. At that rate, the Lions will have a 10-6 record in 2009 and finally make the playoffs.

Another losing, unsuccessful year is ending for the Detroit Lions. A new coach has brought about, basically, the same record. Joey Harrington keeps on taking one step forward and two steps back. The defense looks good one week, terrible the next. And, still, no wins on the road.

In this day and age when there is parity in the NFL is in extreme parity, the Lions are still the doormats. Why?

Lions' fans deserve a winner in Detroit, and the Ford family owes it to them.

If they have to cut players, they should do it. If they need to spend money to go after top free agents and top college draft picks, they should do it.

In other words, the Fords need to adopt Nike's motto -- Just Do It -- and do it now.