Dog, dog, dog eat dog; Dog, dog, dog eat dog

No my Lionettes, I am not advocating eating man’s best friend. Although I am a cat person I’m not a dog abuser. I figured the title for this entry in my blog would reference a song by the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent. I got the idea from seeing a clip of the Cleveland Brown fan base getting silly and causing all sorts of shenanigans and that song was playing in the background. There is your ten cent trivia for the day on how I come up with this particular wacky title for this entry.

Anyhoo I trust that all of my very loyal readers are doing well. By the way I do not write this thing for my own edification. I do it for all of you my Lionettes! Yes I am talking to those of you who could care less about the NFL and especially the Lions. That and I’m bucking for a guest columnist spot with the Detroit News. It can happen! But you see this where I am doing a service for the Lions organization, by spreading the glad tidings of joy that are coming our way with a winning team.

You might be saying “it’s only pre-season and we fall into this trap every season”. Well true and true. However, unlike the Matt Millen years of darkness; the team is headed in the right direction and building a strong foundation for the future. We have a legitimate Quarterback in Matt Stafford as well as an offensive arsenal that would but the USS Ronald Reagan’s to shame.

Well my Lionettes our most beloved NFL franchise team the Detroit Lions beat the Cleveland Browns by a score of 35-27. I was in attendance personally and I felt it was my cheerleading that helped bring us a win at home. Just joking! I am not that conceited! It was an enjoyable game and a lot of fun. Since this is my first year buying season tickets I hope I will be witness to our march to the Super Bowl. Hey dreams are free ya know!

There were a lot of good plays on offense and some not so good plays on defense. Although I wish I could dissect every facet of this game I will post a story from Tom Kowalski from MLive which has his recap of the game. It’s a bit lengthy but well worth the time to read.

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b5BfR

The major concern I have after watching the game is the playmaking of the linebackers and the secondary. There were too many missed tackles, penalties, a fumble from RB Kevin Smith that cost us 6 points. Offensively they are clicking quite well. Matt Stafford is spreading the ball around and was solid on the day with 13/17, 141 yards, no touchdowns but more importantly no interceptions. He seems to be very focused and cutting down on the mistakes.

I really believe that if we can sustain offensive drives and keep our defense off the field for as long as possible then hopefully we can get through this season with a sub-par linebacking corp and secondary. If we have CBs Wade and Houston back healthy, I think they are serviceable. Maybe not the greatest CB tandem but certainly not the worst! Who knows maybe the secondary won’t be as bad as we might think. Both of them have been injured and have not had a chance to gel together as a unit.

I do have a dreadful feeling that like the OLine from last year the Secondary is going to be this season’s problem child. The obvious key is staying healthy, if we do that we will be all right but if Wade or Houston goes down at any point in the season, it could be serious trouble.

There is the possibility of getting some decent depth guys fro our linebacker and secondary units by waiting to see who gets cut from other teams. That is a most definite. Tomorrow is the first round of cuts where teams have to cut their rosters to 75 players. This does not include those players on Injure Reserve. If you are interested here is the current batch of Lions who are on IR.

Reserve Lists

94 Copeland Bryan DE (IR)
72 Trevor Canfield G (IR)
60 Joe Cohen DT (IR)
95 Jared DeVries DE (IR)
46 Richard Dickson TE (IR)
57 Jordon Dizon OLB (IR)
47 Jake Nordin FB (Waived/Injured)
25 David Roach SS (Waived/Injured)
31 Jack Williams CB (Active/PUP)
33 Jahi Word-Daniels FS (IR)

Here is an updated Linebacker and Defensive Back list.

Linebackers

-- Rocky Boiman ILB
97 Korey Bosworth OLB
53 Caleb Campbell OLB
52 Vinny Ciurciu OLB
50 Isaiah Ekejiuba ILB
49 Zack Follett OLB
55 Landon Johnson OLB
54 DeAndre Levy ILB
58 Ashlee Palmer OLB
59 Julian Peterson OLB

Defensive Backs

40 Aaron Berry CB
32 Dre' Bly CB
39 C. C. Brown SS
26 Louis Delmas FS
33 Jonathan Hefney CB
23 Chris Houston CB
29 Eric King CB
43 Randy Phillips FS
36 Paul Pratt CB
38 T. J. Rushing CB
30 Ko Simpson SS
42 Amari Spievey FS
24 Jonathan Wade CB
35 John Wendling SS
41 Dante Wesley CB

So tomorrow we’ll be down to 75 players and then on September 4th we will have the cut to 53. Most people tend to forget that there is also the 8-man practice squad to consider but the danger in that is players can be plucked by other teams. The last pre-season game will be this Thursday September 2nd at 6:30 p.m. it will be blacked out in all probability like the Cleveland game. Especially when the starters will barely play the first quarter to prevent a major injury before they open up the regular season on the road against Chicago on September 12th.

Well my Lionettes it has been a very long day I am exhausted and I think I am going to go home now. Again I never get tired of saying this. Stay positive and encouraged. Things are improving. Still a long ways to go but it will happen someday. We have been far too patient for it not too. I’ll have another post out on Friday after the Bills game with a recap of that game as well as my prediction for the 53-man roster. Take care everyone and God bless you all. Until next time my Lionettes GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!