By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
January 12, 2015
This Wednesday will mark the one-year anniversary of the Detroit Lions naming Jim Caldwell as their head coach.
And as you might recall, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the hiring. My disdain for “Comatose Cigar Store Indian” replacing Jim Schwartz was so profound that the Lions actually changed the Ford Field security protocols in order to keep me out of the Caldwell announcement presser and later called Allen Park’s finest on me.
A year later, you are probably expecting me to come on here and issue some apology after the Caldwell Lions qualified for the postseason with an 11-5 record. Hell, the twat who once wrote that Grant Hill did the Pistons a FAVOR by leaving posted an article on 97.1’s website today stating Caldwell left little doubt in 2014 that he was the right man for the gig.
And Freep Lions beat writer Dave Birkett even suggested that Caldwell should get serious NFL Head Coach of the Year consideration. Of course, we need to take any Birkett opinion on the Lions with a grain of salt as he could be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
[I was recently told by a former member of the Detroit sports media that the tin-eared Lions management — read: Bill Keenist, among others — treats Birkett so poorly that it is amazing he can do his job at all, let alone thrive at it. A wonderful bunch of people, let me tell ya.]
Well, if you are expecting some mea culpa from me 12 months later, you are probably also one of the idiot fans of this team waiting for their next road playoff victory or Matt Stafford’s first road win over a team with an over .500 record.
It ain’t happening. If anything, everything I predicted would occur under a Jim Caldwell regime basically played itself out.
Obviously, if you are a simple-minded dolt who only wants to look at the 11-5 record and the playoff berth, you probably think that Caldwell’s first year was a resounding success. But remember, Caldwell took over a team that SHOULD have made the postseason the previous year if not for a late-season collapse.
It’s not like Caldwell took over the reins of a 4-12 squad and improved them by seven games. The former Ravens offensive coordinator was given a mandate to win NOW and Martin Mayhew made a series of moves that put the team all-in for 2014, including not picking up Nick Fairley’s 2015 contract option and using it as a motivation tool.
Now, before we get to Caldwell’s monumental failure in his first season as the Lions coach, let me give him credit for hiring Teryl Austin as his defensive coordinator.
One of my biggest issues with the previous regime was their absolute refusal to blitz, opting to rely completely on the front four to apply pressure to the opposition’s quarterback.
Under Schwartz and Gunther Cunningham the Lions were perennially near the bottom of the NFL in total number of blitzes called. It was insanely frustrating to watch opposing offenses pick apart the Lions’ defense while Schwartz attempted to apply as little pressure as possible.
The culture shock of going from Schwartz’s philosophy to Austin’s aggressiveness significantly improved the Lions’ defense; Austin might parlay that success into a head coaching job.
There is still a part of me that thinks Austin’s impact might be a little overstated, though. I mean, ANYONE who would have come in and increased the number of blitzes in order to assist Ndamukong Suh, Ziggy Ansah, Fairley and DeAndre Levy in pressuring the quarterback might have looked like a genius.
It did take Austin FORTY EIGHT years to get a defensive coordinator job and it will be interesting to see moving forward if he was just in the right place at the right time or some brilliant tactical mind who had been overlooked for DC gigs in the past.
But if I am going to blast Caldwell for sending this team’s offense back to the dark ages, I have to credit him for the Austin hire and the improved defense.
But here is the rub. Caldwell was brought to Detroit to improve the Lions’ offense and FIX Matt Stafford; after one season, that project can only be viewed as a complete failure.
If the Lions’ offense would have even been as efficient as it was under Scott Linehan in 2013, the combination of THAT flawed offense and the 2014 defense would have been a Super Bowl contender.
And make no mistake about it, when Mayhew and Tom Lewand were looking for a Schwartz replacement, they were almost exclusively focusing on offensive-minded coaches; once Ken Whisenhunt spurned them they landed on Caldwell.
And not only did the Lions hire a supposed offensive “guru” who had worked with Peyton Manning, they brought in Drew Brees’ quarterback coach (Joe Lombardi) and Manning’s 2013 QB coach (Jim Bob “Crazy” Cooter) in an effort to rehabilitate Stafford.
But they didn’t stop there. Mayhew signed Golden Tate to a huge free-agent deal; re-signed former first-round pick, tight end Brandon Pettigrew; and THEN attempted to provide Stafford ANOTHER weapon in drafting Eric Enron (err, I mean, Ebron) with the TENTH overall pick in the draft!!!
With all of those assets and expenditures focused on the offense, you wouldn’t have thought that that unit would have been the team’s ACHILLES HEEL and the reason they once again failed to win a postseason game.
#OnePlayoffWinIn57Years.
So let’s take a look at two charts comparing the offenses of the Lions, the Ravens (Caldwell’s 2013 responsibility) and the Cowboys (under former OC Linehan in 2014) over the last two seasons …..
| 2013 | PTS | YPG |
| Lions | 13th (24.7) | 6th (392.1) |
| Ravens | 25th (20.0) | 29th (307.4) |
| Cowboys | 5th (27.4) | 16th (341.1) |
| 2014 | PPG | YPG |
| Lions | 22nd (20.1) | 19th (340.8) |
| Ravens | 8th (25.6) | 12th (364.9) |
| Cowboys | 5th (29.2) | 7th (383.6) |
Jesus Christ, that’s ugly and obviously not a coincidence.
So, to sum it up in one run-on sentence, the Lions’ offense scored four fewer points per game under Caldwell in ’14 while his replacement in Baltimore improved the Ravens PPG by almost SIX points per contest while the “problem” in Detroit improved the already-efficient Cowboys offense by almost two points!!!!!
What a fucking disaster. Just keep staring at those two charts and remember that Jim Caldwell was brought to Detroit to IMPROVE the team’s offense!!!! Do you think those abhorrent figures might have might have been influenced by Lombardi’s predictable play-calling; the nonsensical decision to underutilize Tate by removing him from plays for NO REASON; and the insistence on running the ball on first down for negligible gains?
I don’t know, call me bi-polar, but the 2014 crash in offense might also coincide with attempting to convert Calvin Johnson from a deep threat to a possession receiver.
The offensive play-calling was an embarrassment all season long and the reason this team actually underachieved. We all owe Scott Linehan a HUGE apology; this dude was working for stretches of time with Kris Durham as the Lions’ #2 receiver and not Golden FUCKING Tate!!!!
And if the raw numbers weren’t disgusting enough to try and swallow, the quotes coming out of Allen Park after the season were vomit-inducing. Obviously Mayhew and Caldwell think we are a bunch of morons. And considering we still emotionally invest in this organization, I can’t say they are wrong.
Here is what Mayhew had to say about Stafford in 2014:
“I thought it was an outstanding season for him. I think it was probably the second-best season that he’s had here with us. 2011, obviously, was exceptional. Forty-one touchdown passes and 5,000 yards passing.”
And how about Caldwell’s thoughts on Lombardi’s performance this season?
“We don’t talk about it because we don’t make any excuses, but let me just tell you something: As a playcaller, what he had to deal with in terms of juggling guys, using people, particularly what we had with changes in our offensive line, things of that nature, who to protect, who not to help, all these kinds of things, it’s a lot different than public perception, trust me. What he did in terms of being able to get us through some of those very rough spots was exceptional. The whole offensive staff.”
Hey, Jim, considering you have one of the greatest vertical threats in the HISTORY of the NFL in #81 at your fingertips, do you think you might throw the ball downfield more in 2015?
“I just think we need to be more effective. I think if we complete more passes and to a higher percentage, I think the number of times we throw it and things of that nature are fine. Schematically I think we’re fine. We’ve just got to keep getting better.”
Ya gotta be fucking kidding me.
And you can bitch and moan all you want about the picked-up flag in the Dallas game, but I don’t believe the Head Linesman who overturned the Pettigrew call was the one who sat Tate on the bench for that crucial 3rd-and-1 and refused to go for it on 4th-and-1 at the Cowboys’ 46.
Those two decisions are the ones Lions fans should be focusing on because there is a much greater chance that Caldwell’s extremely conservative approach and awful game management will negatively impact the organization in 2015 as opposed to a bad officiating decision.
Seriously, just listen to Caldwell’s explanation on why he didn’t choose to go for the 4th-and-1, punting instead after taking a delay of game penalty. This is from ProFootballTalk.com and an excellent takedown on the asinine decision not to go for it:
What a fucking simpleton. Well, duh, we were up, so I punted because, duh, if we were losing, I might have duh gone for it, duh ….
Effing dummy. And the last paragraph is the best because the REAL reason Sunny von Bülow didn’t go for it — after doing so ALL YEAR LONG in similar situations — is he didn’t want to get second-guessed. What an abject coward.
There is no question in my mind that this guy tightens up in PLAYOFF games, leading to punting when you normally wouldn’t and crap like this ….
What a great combination … a franchise that can’t win a postseason game and a coach who CHOKES during them!!!
And can we also debunk this mistaken impression that the 2014 Lions were more “disciplined” under Jim Caldwell?
In 2013 under the raving lunatic Schwartz, Detroit was called for 110 penalties for 925 yards. Under the smooth, dulcet tones of Caldwell in 2014, the Lions were flagged 126 times for 1033 yards!!!
Not to mention their starting center got suspended for the biggest regular season game of the year and Suh needed a reprieve on appeal to avoid missing the game in Dallas.
Here is the thing that most Lions fans and members of the media are missing — almost EVERY NFL team has a season of genuine kismet like the 2014 Detroit Lions enjoyed. Where a combination of luck and an advantageous schedule result in a record that really doesn’t represent the product on the field.
Every franchise in the NFL is the beneficiary of this sort of stuff EXCEPT the putrid organization owned by the Ford Family, which is why many around here can’t view what just occurred as the mirage that it was.
This was an anomaly. Based on Caldwell’s insistence on keeping Lombardi employed with this Jamie Samuelsen vanilla offense and his inability to think on his feet, heaven help Lions fans if Suh walks out of town prior to the murderous 2015 schedule commencing.
Jim Caldwell is not a good head football coach even though this team went 11-5 this year.
Barry Switzer won a damn Super Bowl, for [Trout’s] sake. Would you EVER have wanted him at the helm?
As a matter of fact, Caldwell is the third best football coach in the state of Michigan behind Mark Dantonio and Jim Harbaugh. And I only say that because I don’t know enough about P.J. Fleck and Dan Enos.
Stop being so intellectually lazy, people.