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Once again, the Lions Congregation meets to discuss all things Detroit Lions. This week Reverend Spielman of The Church of Schwartz asks the best and brightest of the Lions' blogosphere to tackle special teams, the defensive backfield and give our predictions for Sunday against Seattle.
To read what the rest of the Lions bloggers have to say, click on over to The Church of Schwartz.
1. How do you fix our special teams units? (after, of course, firing Stan Kwan)
Good drafting in the lower rounds. Find a few undrafted college free agent diamonds in the rough. Using the waiver wire judiciously. Hiring a new special teams coach...who knows what the Hell he's doing. More than a little luck.
In other words, there is no quick fix, save for putting more of your starters on special teams, and that's not going to happen. A long term fix can be found, but it'll take good scouting. Which was nowhere to be found during the Millen years, and a big reason why special teams are in such disarray today.
Special teams are normally manned by backups and specialists whom are found staring for small schools, starting as role players at big schools, and sometimes under rocks and off the street. Meaning they are found late in the draft, signed off of waivers and as undrafted free agents. The sort of players you depend upon your scouting department to identify.
An example of such a player would be the Lions' 7th round pick out of Cal, special teams demon Zack Follett. He may not have the skills to be much more than a backup as a linebacker, but has a nose for the football, and is absolutely fearless. From all accounts, Follett may also be just a little crazy.
He's perfect for special teams.
Find a handful of players like Follett, and your coverage teams are set. But finding more Zack Folletts will take time, in drafting well over the next couple of years.
That, and making sure nothing happens to Dorian Gray...uh...I mean...the ageless Jason Hanson.
2. What's your ideal personnel grouping for our secondary? (starters, nickel/dime back, any rotation?)
A grouping with four solid, legitimate NFL defensive backs. Not too much to ask for, is it?
At the moment, there's only 1 who meets the criteria, Louis Delmas, and he's making all kind rookie mistakes due to over aggressiveness. Delmas is going to be very good...in another year or 2.
At this point, Jim Schwartz and Gunther Cunningham are grasping at straws. The defensive backfield has had so much turnover due to performance issues and injuries, you can't even call it "patchwork". It's nothing but leftover rags.
You can't have a rotation when there's no talent to rotate. Schwartz can only go by what he sees from his backs in practice, and if you go by what we've seen in games, he doesn't see much.
So what's the ideal personnel grouping? The Lions' defensive backs grouped together on the bench as the offense controls the ball, keeping the defense off the field.
3. What's your prediction for Lions - Seahawks?
The Lions have won all of 3 road games since the start of the '06 season, and 2 of those were during their fluke 6-2 start to the '07 season. The Lions haven't won on the road in over 2 years, beating Chicago at Soldier Field on 10/28/07.
I see no reason for the struggles on the road to end. Even against a not very good 2-5 Seahawks team. Matt Hasselbeck isn't the quarterback he once was, but he's still plenty good enough to pick apart Detroit's bend, break and bend over defense.
The difference in the game? The Seahawks are merely a bad team. Unfortunately, the Lions are really, really bad. Merely bad beats really, really bad every time.
Seattle Seahawks 27 - Detroit Lions 17.
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