The Night Watch: Lions

**evil disco man** · -09-15-2012

This is a bit late, but I've re-watched the Lions game (on Game Rewind) after soaking it in live, bed-ridden with a cold. I watched the first half and fell asleep for about a quarter of the second half.

I've read enough observations among Rams fans that do or don't agree with what I saw, so here are mine:

-Watkins (who I wanted to start) asking Wells for his assignment; blows it anyway. Called for holding.

-Jenkins is legit. He would've had that interception without a helper - Stafford was relying on his big TE over little guy Jenkins. I only wish Jenkins juked against the grain, because it seemed that he had an open field with a Ram convoy for a pick 6.

-Finnegan will not be misused because of $; Fletcher solid. Glad to see Finnegan causing trouble with his nickel role, and Fletcher rebounded big time from his injury - he seems like a Fisher guy.

-Pass blocking is terrible - if you want Sam to survive, you'd better invest some help for him. When he has time, he can make a scrub like Brandon Gibson look good. Unfortunately, he rarely has time.

-As an extension of that, the receivers can't get open. Hence the extremely conservative passing offense we will see all season. Dink and dunks, with a long throw just for the sake of it.

-What stood out most was the scheming on defense. They were facing as high-caliber an offense as you'll see today in the NFL. This is a smart defensive team. The difference was ability (Dahl). I swear, Craig Dahl was (and is always) in on every long completion. He's a great tackler, but doesn't belong in an NFL secondary that hopes to cover an ant.

-The pass rush... Chris Long hurried Stafford plenty of times. Forcing him to throw early paid off. On the last defensive play, he was ready to crush Stafford - unfortunately his defensive cohorts (Dunbar) didn't back him up. Quinn will give up a delay or a screen to his side all season, but his speed is deadly. Not every QB can be as quick as Stafford was.

-The defense was winded in the end. You prevent that by playing better ball on offense earlier in the game. I don't fault them for the last drive AT ALL. Everyone saw it coming.