Lions shock the Rams

Where has this Detroit Lions' team been all year?

They started out the year beating the Arizona Cardinals and ended up the year on Sunday beating the St. Louis Rams, 30-20.

In the middle, the Lions beat a bad Oakland Raider team and a very average Chicago Bear team.

Of course, Detroit played really well on Thanksgiving (as usual), and defeated a Green Bay Packer team who thought they could mail in a victory.

Some people might say that the Rams took the Lions too lightly and were not prepared like they should have been.

I don't disagree with that assessment, but when you are playing for home-field advantage in the playoffs, not being prepared is no excuse.

Rams' coach Mike Martz took the blame for not having his team prepared, as he should of.

So, I go back to my opening question -- why haven't the Lions played all season long with the same intensity they showed this week against the Rams?

The Coach

First of all, I look at the coach.

As Martz said, it was his responsibility as the coach of the Rams to get his team prepared and ready to play no matter who they are playing. I have not heard those same words out of Mariucci's mouth at all.

Mooch would always bring up many excuses, such as the fact that they have many injuries or that he is evaluating the talent he has.

Well, most of those same players were still injured on Sunday, so how does he explain this victory?

He should have evaluated the talent he had in training camp, not during the year.

Again, Mariucci is the one guy who is Teflon man. He gets all the credit when the Lions come out and play hard like they did on Sunday, and no criticism when they lose.

Mariucci showed some emotion on the sideline on Sunday, too. Why hasn't he shown this same emotion during the rest of the year?

The President

Then there's Matt Millen.

Owner William Clay Ford, Sr. said that Millen's job is safe. Ford never even considered firing him. Ford likes Millen and says Millen has done a good job.

I don't know what job Millen is doing for Ford, Sr., but I hope the good job Millen is doing involves washing Ford's cars and not being the President of the Detroit Lions.

In the three years he's been president of the team, Millen has shown his inexperience, and has his 10-38 record is proof of that.

In addition, he gave up a true Lion, Johnnie Morton, for a Brett Favre castoff, Bill "alligator arms" Schroeder.

Then, a few weeks ago, he goes on to insult Morton in Kansas City, calling him a term that implied Morton was a "homosexual."

Nice job, Mr. President.

Getting another castoff from the Rams, Az-Zahir Hakim was not the big signing Millen thought it would be either.

I will give him credit for signing Dre' Bly, but that is about all he has done to help this team.

I just hope that he signs a guy like Champ Bailey in the off season to shore up the secondary, then I will believe he is doing a good job.

The Players

QB Joey Harrington played very well on Sunday. He finished 26-36 for 238 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception.

He was throwing with much more accuracy than usual and his receivers were actually catching the football. He also was throwing the ball further downfield, instead of those short, five yarders.

The running backs rushed for 112 yards, which is quite a rarity also. Artose Pinner looks like he may be a keeper at running back if he stays healthy.

However, let's give credit where credit is due.

The Lion defense played extremely well. They intercepted passes, forced fumbles and played with reckless abandon.

Robert Porcher didn't play and, hopefully, will retire, since his presence was not needed or missed at all.

Kurt Schottenheimer, whom I have criticized in the past, had a great game plan, which included blitzes and a defensive run scheme that held Marshall Faulk to 35 yards on 12 rushes.

Again though, why haven't the Lions had this same game plan in the past?

During the year, the Lions gave opposing quarterbacks all kinds of time to throw the ball and had trouble covering wide receivers. Why didn't they blitz more over the last 15 weeks?

There are a few reasons that the Lions won this game and had trouble winning the rest of the year.

First of all, Bly and Hakim played inspired football against their old team to show the mistake the Rams made by not signing them.

Bly has played well all year, but did step it up even more against the Rams.

Hakim, on the other hand, has been average over the year, dropping many passes. On Sunday, he caught everything he was supposed to and even ran well on an end around.

The Rams, on the other hand, watched the Detroit Lion tapes over the year. They saw a team that was unprepared, uninspired and unskilled.

St. Louis players thought they had an easy victory as did 95 percent of the other NFL fans, so they took the Lions lightly and did not come to play.

Finally, the Lion coaches had a totally different game plan.

Mooch let Harrington throw downfield more, while Schottenheimer let the dogs out to put pressure on the quarterback.

The coaches made adjustments at halftime when they were behind 20-10.

The players stayed motivated and enjoyed playing football again because of the aggressive game plan.

The negatives at winning this game could outweigh the positives, however.

Now Millen looks like he is doing a good job because of the quality victory over a very good team in St. Louis.

Mariucci will get credit for being a good coach because he inspired the team to play hard the last game of the season, even though he couldn't motivate them for most of the other games.

Harrington now looks like the quarterback for the Lions next year hands down, even though he played so bad most of the other games.

Plus, the Lions will get a lower draft pick with this win and they need all the help they can get.

The positives that may come out of this victory are not that many.

Hopefully, free agents will look at this game and now consider coming to Detroit because there is potential there.

Maybe Harrington got the confidence he needs to take the Lions to the next level.

All of the players might start to believe that they can play with any team in the league and, therefore, work extra hard in the off season to be the best they can be.

Let's face it, the Lions were playing at home and had no reason to not give it their all and see where the chips fall.

The Rams needed this game, but could not help but take the Lions lightly.

The Lions had nothing to lose. After all, what is the difference between 4-12 and 5-11 except a worse draft choice.

The real questions will be answered in the offseason.

Millen needs to add some very key components to this team. Harrington has to be evaluated and see if he really is the answer at QB.

The draft is very important to building the Lions up in the years to come.

With the salary cap and injuries, any team can go to the Super Bowl. It is all about making the right moves with free agents and game day coaching.

Charles Rogers was a big loss this year, but he is an unproven commodity in this league. Obviously, he can't even go one year without being injured, which is not good. Even though he is fast, he needs to prove he can take hits for 16 weeks in the NFL.

Harrington must push himself before next season to be more accurate and improve his touch passes and longer throws.

Mariucci has to be a better motivator next year and be more aggressive in the game calling.

For long time Lions fans, this victory was kind of bittersweet. It was nice to actually watch the Lions compete against one of the best teams in the league. However, it was frustrating to know that if the Lion players would have played with that kind of intensity all year, they might have made the playoffs.

Why weren't the coaches more aggressive over the year?

Those blitzes and big hits were fun to watch and scoring 30 points in a game was fantastic for the Lions.

All in all, Lion fans got to enjoy watching a team, which was so lifeless most of the year, play like they wanted to win and be coached like they wanted to win.

We can only hope it will translate into more wins next year.