To The Echos Of The Whistle: The Post-Bye Lions

The Lions were possibly the most interesting team on bye in Week 9 but, as the local am sports talk guys would say, it was for all the wrong reasons. Starting 1-7, with Detroit’s sole win being an overtime field goal at home against the Bears, coach Jim Caldwell was perfectly positioned to have his return flight cancelled by Martha Ford after getting smoked by the Chiefs 45-10 at Wembley.  Through some interesting positioning, however, Cadwell remained the last man standing after Ford literally walked through the Lions administrative offices firing staff after the team’s return from England.

#Lions source on the firings today: “Total wipeout.” Apparently, bosses are going through the building deciding who stays and goes.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 5, 2015

When the smoke had cleared, Ford had axed the men in the following positions: President, General Manager, Offense Coordinator, and (2) Offensive Line Coaches. The silver lining: the promotion of Jim Bob Cooter from Quarterbacks Coach to OC.

The Lions returned from the bye to defeat Green Bay and Oakland in low scoring slugfests which, admittedly, we all attributed to the dead cat bounce of a team that many said were still worse than the 2008 Imperfect Season Lions. And, while you can argue that Detroit is still a bad team, this is The Year of the Bad Team and with their 45-14 decimation of the Eagles on Thanksgiving, are 1.5 games out of the Wild Card with a manageable schedule remaining (GB, @STL, @NO, SF, @CHI) and may be playing a meaningful Week 17 game to fulfill their [DFO] Preseason Prediction of 8-8 with a Wild Card birth.

And, if not, their recent efforts have at least fucked their front office in next year’s draft, where they would have no doubt loaded up on busts anyways.