Detroit Lions photo
Detroit Lions photo
Well, that playoff thing didn't last long.
Detroit News sports columnist Bob Wojnowsk says at least the Detroit Lions are consistent -- in a bad way:
Stop me if you’ve heard it before. Ridiculous gaffes and goofs, bizarre penalty calls and play calls. When the Lions make the playoffs, at least they’re consistent how quickly they exit.
This wasn’t going to be easy under any circumstances, but the Lions made it much, much tougher with an embarrassing self-destruction. They couldn’t stop making mistakes and they couldn’t stop Thomas Rawls, as the Seahawks rumbled to a 26-6 victory Saturday night in an NFC wild-card playoff game.
The Lions hung around, as they generally did this season. And then they crumbled, as they repeatedly did against superior teams. They committed four personal-four penalties — two inexcusable ones on Anquan Boldin — and receivers dropped at least four passes.
The Lions weren’t ready for this, and they wasted another prime-time chance to alter long-held perceptions. They lost their final four games against the best teams on their schedule by an average margin of 15 points, and fell from 9-4 to 9-8. In the process, they officially revealed who they were, something we pretty much already knew.
This was an average team that relied on Matthew Stafford’s comeback knack, minimizing mistakes and playing with discipline and composure.
