All Posts

It's report card time. Head Coach: Dan Campbell Grade: C+ Comments: Campbell is great at building culture within the organization, and he’s a great motivator as well.  I personally like him and I’m pretty sure I’d like playing for him, too.  However, culture only gets you so far.  Campbell isn’t a former offensive or defensive coordinator.  He’s not particularly skilled on either side of the ball.  He’s a “CEO” Head Coach, and he needs to focus on that.  He’s had misses on tw

Lions Report: That was a weird game and a strange end to a disappointing season. As expected, Dan Campbell played all of his starters. I’m not going to fault him for that approach. He’s a competitor and I get it. With Penei Swell, Alex Anzalone and Alim McNeil joining the party in the Lions injury list, I thought the Lions might be in for a beatdown. I thought incorrectly. (I wanted to write “wrong” but there’s some grammar Nazis out there.) What the heck was going on w

Please don't get hurt..... Lions Report (Pregame Edition):  It’s the last game of a disappointing season.  I’ll do season ending report cards in a few weeks.  For now, I want to focus on this game.  There isn’t much to focus on, other than who’s going to play. On one hand, I want Dan Campbell to sit players like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Penei Sewell and even Jared Goff.  I don’t want to risk those guys getting hurt in what is essentially a meaningless game.  Campbell

Yeah, I felt the same way, Jared. Lions Report: Well, that was it. That’s how the season ends. Not with bang but with a whimper. (Yes, Christy Farrell Callahan, that was a Hollow Men reference). What a shit show. The Lions defense showed up today. I wish I could say the same for the Lions offense. If there were any doubts as to whether the Lions are a playoff team, those doubts have been addressed. We lost to the Minnesota Vikings playing their third quarterback, Max Brosner,

Riverboat Dan Campbell Lions Report: As a Lions fan, how many times have we said, “I’ve never seen them lose that way before.”? Well, dust that one off because I’ve never seen the Lions lose that way before. What a frustrating, exhilarating and ultimately painful game. In the end, we lost at home. To the Steelers. In a game we almost had to win. What went wrong? Riverboat Dan Campbell - I’m tired of writing about this but it’s always there. Campbell went for it on 4th down fr

My annual football trip crew outside of SoFi: Me, Pete Huddy, Vic Nettie, Mike Wojcik, Darin Phillips and my brother Jim Carney. Lions Report (Cornucopia Edition): What’s a cornucopia edition? Hell, I don’t know. Call it a catch up/preview/stream of consciousness edition. Have I been lax in posting the last few weeks? Yep. I’ll try to make it up with a special double posting today. First, let’s look back at last week’s game against the Rams. I’ll start off with SoFi Stadium.

Our somewhat annual Thanksgiving tradition: Me, my wife Darcy, my daughter Jordan and my son John. Lions Report: Sigh. That was a disappointing loss on a few different levels. I’m deflated. We started off on a high with the news that Frank Ragnow is coming back. That was a welcome surprise. I knew the game against the Packers was not going to be easy, and it wasn’t. It was the way we lost that took the wind out of my sails. I’m not going to write a long report today. You all

Well, that was fun. Just me and a couple of buddies jamming out at Ford Field. My wife Darcy and I were on the floor for the halftime show with Jack White and Eminem. Pretty cool.

Lions Report (Special Pregame Edition): First, as I'm sure most everyone has heard already, Frank Ragnow is coming out of retirement. That's huge news. Absolutely HUUUUGE. The offensive line has had mixed results at best this year. Adding Ragnow back, even if he's not 100 percent of his old self, will be a big help. Second, Mrs. Lions Report (Darcy Troesch Carney) and I will be participating in the Jack White halftime show at tomorrow's game. We spent a couple of long hours a

Lions Report: I wrote before the game that the Lions just needed to win. That’s it. Well, they won. Just barely. This report is a bit of a challenge to write. Yes, we won the game, but other than Jahmyr Gibbs, there wasn’t a whole lot of positive aspects to the Lions on either side of the ball. I thought about using Copilot or WagsGPT to write the report, but I decided against it. Let’s start with the positive. Note I said positive and not positives. It was Jahmyr Gibbs. That

Lions Report: Well, we have our answers now, or at least most of them. That was a bummer of a game, and a bit unwatchable, from both teams. The clash of the 4 big teams in the NFC (Rams, Seahawks, Lions, Eagles) resulted in some pretty poor offensive displays. If you’re a defensive purist, you came out happy. So, what did we learn? Jahmyr Gibbs catching the ball out of the backfield is extremely fun to watch, and explosive. Jahmyr Gibbs running the ball between the tackles ag

Lions Report (Special Pregame Edition): Big game against the Eagles tonight. Big game. It’s been an up and down season for both teams so far, and the NFC still appears to be wide open. (The winner of the Seahawks/Rams game this afternoon might argue that point). We’re going to know a lot more at the end of tonight. I’ve got questions: Will Dan Campbell continue to be the spark they need at calling plays? - Or did he just beat up a sub-par Washington Commanders team? I do thin

Lions Report: Well, the Lions hammered the Washington Commanders today. It’s a game they should have won, needed to win, and did win. It was a snoozer, but that’s OK. Snoozers are all right if you win them. We didn’t learn a lot today, but we did learn a few things. Let’s list out a few of them: There’s been a change as to who is calling the plays for the Lions offense: Either Dan Campbell has taken over the play calling duties from John Morton, or he’s keeping Morton on a sh

My daughter Jordan and I at the game. Lions Report: Welcome back, denizens of the Lionsverse. I’ve obviously taken a few weeks off, with one of those weeks being the Lions bye week. I’d apologize but since I do this for free, I don’t feel too bad. I had hoped this first game back against the Viqueens (credit to Doug Lyon) would have been more positive. Unfortunately, it was not. What went wrong? Well, let’s start with what went right. Terrion Arnold was back this week. I fran

Lions Report (Special Wags Edition): As promised last week, we have a guest columnist to review yesterday's game, Mike Weglarz. Please see his submission below. Note I used the word "submission". There's something fishy going on here. The guy I knew in college barely knew how to use a comma. Now he's using colons, quotes and hyphens. ================ Lion-Sized Headache: A Frustrated Fan's Report on the 30-17 Loss to the Kansas City Chiefs Final Score: Chiefs 30, Lions 17 You

Lions Report: Weird game. It was never in doubt that the Lions would win it. However, for a stress-free win, it left a little bit of bad taste in my mouth. Yes, a win is a win. And anytime you win in the NFL, that’s a good thing. Especially against a team you should beat. But there’s a lot of improvements the Lions need to make. I’m not going to recap the game. Just offer some random commentary. Terrion Arnold - His transformation into Jeff Okudah 2.0 is nearly complete. It’s

Lions Report: Overall, the game against the Cleveland Browns was a ho-hummer. After another slow start on defense, the Lions clamped down and won a game they should have won. However, there was good and bad in the game. Let’s play Me (No) Likey. The Lions held Joe Flacco to 16 completions on 34 pass attempts, with no touchdowns, 2 interceptions and a rating of 39.3. Me likey. The Lions defense also allowed the opposition to score a touchdown on their opening drive. Again. Eve

Lions Report (Delayed Monday Night Edition): A late Monday night game plus an early day at work on Tuesday equals a late Lions Report. Better late than never. Q: Who saw that coming? A: No one. What a fun game to watch and a good chunk of it was surprising. If I told you one of the two starting quarterbacks would get sacked 7 times and the other none before the game, you would have thought the Lions are in trouble. Nope. If I told you before the game that one team would have

Lions Report: My tummy feels better. This game against the Bears was one they had to win, should have won and did win. It’s amazing how a work week starts out better after a Lions win. I said last week that John Morton was going to be under the microscope this week. How did his offense perform? Pretty damn good. Take your pick. Number of points scored? 52. Total offensive yards? Over 500. Number of turnovers? Zero. Jared Goff’s passer rating? 156 on 23 of 28 passing attempts,

Lions Report: Thud. That was worse than I thought it was going to be. That’s a bad way to start the season. Did I expect the Packers to win the game? Yes. Did I expect the offense to struggle with a new offensive coordinator and two young linemen? Yes. Was I concerned that the defense is still thin, even with everyone healthy? Yes. But c’mon. That was a bad loss. First, let’s cover the good (or not bad, in this case) parts. After getting zero pressure on Jordan Love in the fi