Mooch, We Hardly Knew Ye

It's certainly not all his fault. But I'm ecstatic that Mooch is gone.

I don't think I could take another week of his "5 yard pass on third-and-eight" offense.

It wasn't working. This press conference was destined to happen from the get-go. Mooch was never going to lead us to a Super Bowl. His flaws were evident in San Francisco.

That being said, I was mildly happy when we hired him. I thought he would at least lead us to respectability and then be canned when he failed to take us to the next level.

I thought the Jeff Garcia comments were VERY telling on Mooch. He said he liked Mooch as a coach and that he thought he could get the job done here...but at the same time acknowledged he ran a soft camp and that such a camp was a bad thing for rookies (not to mention young players) and may have led to their undisciplined, lazy attitudes.

That's why I think it was a good idea to can Mooch now. We need to crack the whip on these young guys, especially the receivers, and get them to understand what being an NFL player is all about again. No more "freshening up," no more toking up, JUST SUCK IT UP, shut the hell up, stop dancing when you're down double digits, and earn your paycheck for a damn change.

Jauron isn't a disciplinarian exactly but he is a well-respected coach who will command the players' attention and not settle for insubordination.

Matt Millen is still a joke, obviously. He tried to dance around and crack jokes when asked to evaluate his own performance as GM, but the media obviously wasn't buying it.

I also find it funny that Millen has completely contradicted himself and his philosophy these past few years. He's a tough guy linebacker who talked about needing to bring in more "rats," i.e. tough guy, lunchbucket-style players in his mold. And what did he do? He drafted a bunch of fast linebackers that can't tackle or take on blocks reliably like Teddy Lehman, Boss Bailey, and James "Dirty from getting knocked on his ass all game" Davis.

He built around finesse players with a pourous offensive line. And he hired Jauron to coordinate the defense, one of the least aggressive guys around.

Look at the Bears: They might not have as much overall speed and talent as the Lions but they're built the RIGHT WAY, around the running game and in the trenches. And they have a coach who's aggressive on defense and doesn't mess around with the dink-and-dunk crap on offense. He runs the ball and goes for the occasional big play.

Millen said he thought the Lions had the talent to get the job done. We'll see...I still don't think they're a 4-7-caliber team, especially in this division. I think the switches, especially Greg Olsen to Offensive Coordinator, will benefit them in the short term.

But they still have to play Pittsburgh and the Bengals, so don't worry about our draft position slipping too much.

Fight on, blind Lions. You'll find that zebra carcass someday...

Tommy A's bunch beats Butler

I dont know...Michigan and 2-2 (now 2-3) Butler were tied 70-70 late in the game before the Wolverines pulled it out.

Dion Harris has plantar fasciatis a la Rasheed a couple of years ago, that could be a tough injury.

I'm not too crazy about Tommy Ball, especially on the offensive side of things. There still doesn't seem to be much flow or much of a philosophy besides passing the ball in circles and launching.

I just hope we sneak into the tourney this year, I've been longing to see Michigan in the tourney since Tractor and company busted into it back in 1998 and choked against UCLA...

Michigan will need to rack up at least 9-10 NC wins because their early Big Ten schedule is tough.

That is all....too bad Notre Dame held on against Stanford...

I think Oregon and OSU and even Auburn definitely deserve to be in over the Irish, whose best three wins are BYU, Navy, and oh yeah, Michigan...sigh.

But they'll be in. They get special treatment. Not that Michigan hasn't in the past but it's still not right.

The BCS Really Works!!

Or at least that's what they say after Texas gets done thrashing the rest of the Little 12 and USC falls behind UCLA before putting up 70 on them in the second half.

I fail to see how "the system works" simply because it is smart enough to pick two undefeated major conference teams when they're the only two left standing.

As for Michigan, this whole thing doesn't really apply to them and won't as long as Lloyd Carr is here, or at least fires his underacheiving assistants.

Prevent defense prevents you from winning. Period. You'd think Jim Hermann would have realized this after losing two games and nearly blowing three others with the exact same strategy.

Can someone please tell me why Michigan only brings out its blitz packages approximately one or two games PER SEASON?

Has Hermann noticed that EVERY SINGLE TIME he does it, it WORKS and WORKS WELL???

Look at the Michigan plays defense and compare it to SEC teams like LSU and Auburn or Ohio State.

The biggest problem isn't lack of speed, it's a complete and utter lack of BALLS by the defensive coaches. Almost every stop Michigan gets is the result of the other team NOT EXECUTING it's own offense.

And the tackling? Ohio State wraps up, Michigan doesn't. Story of the game and the rivalry these past few years.

End of discussion....but then again, that's all been said countless times before. Only LLoyd can do something about it.

But, as yes-man Jimmy Brandstatter said on M Replay, we had a "great season." Yep, terrific. Michigan has become Ohio State AND Notre Dame's (personal property)

Hail to the Victors indeed.

The Anti-Raptors!

That's right, your Detroit Pistons are now 7-0 after a come from behind win against the Boston Celtics, who I still hate by the way (just for the record).

I told my friend in class as we watched the Pistons go down at halftime just before we left to go home that we would rally and win it in the second half.

The Pistons flat sleepwalked right through the first half. How else do you explain Boston shooting 66%?

Strictly effort.

The Pistons may not go to work every night like they used to, at least not for the whole game. But against most teams, they won't have to.

The John L. Smith "WHERE'S YOUR COACH!!!?" Award of the...Night, I guess, goes to Doc Rivers (or should I just call him Dopey?).

The Celtics' resident mastermind put DAN DICKAU of all people on Chauncey Billups in the second half. Not surprisingly, Chauncey abused him and ended up with 24 and 10 assists. I know the Celtics don't have many options at the point, but putting Dan Dickau on Billups is pure idiocy.

Of course, it's Danny Ainge's fault for signing the likes of Dickau and Brian Scalabrine in the offseason for no apparent reason. But the Rivers-Ainge combo is right up there with the all-time worsts, such as....

hmm..

oh yeah, Millen and Mariucci. Should I go on and list more? Nah, I think you get the point loud and clear.

Back to the reason why I hate the Celtics. Ricky "Just rolled out of bed, smoked two blunts and now I'm gonna shoot at my own basket to get a triple-double" Davis is one of them, but Paul Pierce is the primary one.

The guy is the embodient of everything wrong with the NBA. Talks a bunch of noise, this time about Tayshaun Prince of all people, goes out and eventually helps his team to a nice lead, acts like the game's over, and then proceeds to end up losing and completely changes his attitude to one of quiet resignation by the end

He shows up for about half of the Celtics' 82 games, the other half of the time he spends jacking up shots and honing his anti-ref glare.

How about the play in the fourth with the game still in the balance, where Pierce slashed in and got swatted by Ben Wallace? The insant Ben's paw hit ball, he was glaring at the refs.

The Pistons broke out and got a dunk before he could even stop his bitching.

Priceless. It's a great time to be a Pistons fan.

Perhaps if Detroit can put together a 60-win regular season and keep this winning streak going for a little while, they will finally get the respect they deserve as a special team by the media.

Come to think of it, one of the reasons they've never been perceived as such is because the most wins they've had in the Joe D era is 54.

They could win 60, the question is, do they want to? They might have to with Indy breathing down their neck.

Or not, considering the way they turn it up in the playoffs.

Flipping the switch

I'm really liking what I'm seeing from the new-look Pistons.

If anything, they're certainly a lot more fun to watch.
The fast break just might revolutionize the way this team plays offense.
They're built for speed. Even the big guys can run, in most cases far faster than the other team's bigs.

And Rasheed is the best outlet passer in the game. He joked that he'd like to QB the Lions and at this point, he might actually be better than One Joseph Heisman, who knows.

I'd really like to see Flip implement the bench more like he said he would, however. So far it's been mostly Mo Evans, Dyess, and Arroyo.

I'd like to see Delfino and The Dark One get in some more soon.

I think we'll see them more as the season progresses and the starters get tired, but right now they're rolling so well that it doesn't make sense to break a good thing up.

The regular season is paramount this year. Indy is a terrific regular season team, and if they beat out Detroit, they get a top seed and we get the fourth.

It's a tough tightrope for Flip to walk, but we should start to see the bench more.

I'm just hoping Delfino and Darko don't go into pout mode like they have in the past. We'll find out a lot about them this year whether they play a lot or not.

Tonight, the Pistons will pay back the Suns for last year's fluke win.
Without Amare up front, they will be no match for the Wallaces.

101-90 Pistons.

Now what??

Where do the Lions go from here?

Would it be better to sneak in the backdoor of the playoffs or to just tank it and go for the draft pick?

This year's draft is stacked. Reggie Bush sure would look a lot better than Shawnny Bryson on those three-yard passes, wouldn't he?

D'Brickashaw Ferguson could be the franchise left tackle the Lions have lacked for so long.

Vince Young could be...just about anything EXCEPT left tackle and be damn good at it.

The bottom line is this: Steve Mariucci ain't going to lead the Lions to a Super Bowl.
Best case scenario is he'll lead them right back where they were before Millen took over, which is exactly what Millen swore he would avoid back then.

The only option is to either cut him off and put in whatever coach on the staff is most aggressive (or one of their wives perhaps, judging by the ways these guys call games) to start putting in a real offense that suits these players.

It would also have to be the guy who is the biggest disciplinarian, someone who can get the "Three Divas" going and not accept their laziness.

Dick Jauron doesn't fit either option well, but is does better than Mooch.

Otherwise, the best option, yet again, is to tank the season.

We just might be right back where we started.

Millen said after the game that the mess was his fault and Mooch wasn't to blame...yeah right.

This is almost all on Mooch, with an assist from the Lions' old nemesis, the injury bug.

The Bears should finish about 8-8 with their easy schedule. The Lions won't finish better, and they don't have the tiebreaker.

Enjoy the rest of the season, folks.