Lions struggling in the preseason...

By Michael Laurila

Aug 20, 2013 at 1:09 pm

Audio By Carbonatix

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What about it?

With just 20 days before the Lions season opener against the Minnesota Vikings, and the Tigers having a day off yesterday, this week’s blog will gander away from baseball and into the up-and-coming NFL season.

The Lions have completed two of their four pre-season games, and haven’t been all too impressive.

But as many of us know, pre-season football is kind of a joke — especially early pre-season games. The starters play for maybe a quarter, if that, and the results are pointless. Take this for example; the Lions currently have a 1-1 pre-season record and their offense has yet to score with quarterback Matt Stafford on the field.

None of it is indicative of what is to come. Sure, last week’s 24-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns is a little more concerning since the Browns’ starters — the guys who are actually a little indicative of what’s to come — went up 10-0 against the Lions in the first quarter. Sure, the Lions, who were taking bad penalties, going three and out regularly, and just flat out being out played looked eerily similar to last year’s team that finished 4-12.

Realistically though, they’ve accomplished what most teams want to accomplish at this point in the preseason: staying relatively healthy. None of their elite players have suffered serious injuries, so the preseason technically could end today and be considered a success.

I mean, look at 2008. The Lions took their great 4-0 pre-season record and all of the hype that came with it and proceeded to

oh yeah; become the first team in the NFL’s storied history to lose all 16 regular-season games.

Although they haven’t looked spectacular so far, we shouldn’t start burning head coach Jim

Schwartz at the stake because, for example, the third-team defense took about three stupid penalties too many. There’s still a lot of football left to play, and a lot can happen.

We should be happy that guys like Matt Stafford, Calvin Johnson, Ndamukong Suh, Chris Houston and other playmakers are still healthy. Not every team can say that about their starting rotation at this point in the preseason.