Ask John Niyo about the Lions

Mike O'Hara's record as beat writer? Ha!

No, I'm going to guess it has something to do with the Lions' current owner.

Yep, they'd have won if you'd given them a 24-0 lead. I'm convinced of that. This one wasn't on coaching. It was on a rookie QB making dumb decisions and/or bad throws, first and foremost. The only way you blow a 17-0 lead is with turnovers, and that's not on the coaches. That said, there were plenty of other mistakes besides Stafford's on Sunday, including the defensive coaches getting caught off guard for a stretch by the up-tempo (near-no huddle) Seattle offense.

Tentative might describe the kickoff return at the end of the first half, but to me that's more an admission there's no faith in the guy you've got back there returning kicks. Not a good sign.

Well, they did. And then they did. What'd you expect?

A novelty item, certainly. But not quite an antique.

Anthony Henry wasn't on the field Sunday, you'll notice. Phillip Buchanon has been benched a couple times this season. Marquand Manuel got benched in favor of Ko Simpson. Aaron Brown got yanked from KR duties. Sims lost playing time to DeAndre Levy. Darnell Bing got cut to make room for Zack Follett on special teams. Jon Jansen appears to be back as a backup tackle this week in practice after starting at LG last week. But despite what Bobby Ross might say, there's only so many bus tickets you can write in the middle of a season. Cutting a guy to make a point and replacing him with somebody off the street who doesn't know the scheme at all doesn't really serve a purpose in November. In June or July or August, yes. Now? Not really. You're just further torpedoing your chances on Sundays.

Actually, just posted on the blog the thing that bothered me the most about a team coming off a bye: the fake FG. The offense actually was doing what I expected it to do today coming off the bye without CJ. The running game was somewhat effective (didn't expect much more without No. 81 to keep defenses honest) and they were setting up the play-action the way they wanted to. But the receivers made some really costly drops (I counted six today) and Stafford was rusty (also expected) and that's the difference between winning and losing for a bad team playing against another bad team.

And they'll feel the wrath of Aaron Curry and Cory Redding. It's destined, right?

Yep, agreed. My preseason prediction was 4-12 with wins over Wash, StL, Cle and SF. But I'll be particularly interested to see what they've come up with in terms of new wrinkles on defense (personnel changes? more zone blizes?) When you've got two weeks to prepare, you'd better show a little something new, and I think they will, though the most important thing for this team still is to cut down on the mental errors. They don't have enough talent to overcome the mistakes.

When he says it's enough. And don't hold your breath on that one.

By the way, I was stunned to discover when I started crunching some #s at the Super Bowl last winter that since 1972, when Bidwill assumed full control of the Cardinals franchise from his dad his teams were 229-339-4 -- a half-game better than the Lions at 229-340-3. Ford might be the worst -- I should probably look that up -- but he's got company.

Yes, and it's actually funny to watch sometimes. On key plays -- third down, etc. -- you'll see other players not playing (inactive or on defense) coming over to find out what the play call is so they can know before the ball is snapped.

If he wanted to run for mayor of Nashville, now might be a good time, yes. Actually, I noted in the NFL forum column this week that both Schwartz and Rex Ryan are missed right now in Tennessee and Baltimore. They miss Haynesworth and B. Scott, too, though.

Bring on the Rams!