1934
The first year of professional football in Detroit in six years and the first year of the Lions as such was a bounce-back season, ending in 2nd place again at 10-3. The Chicago Bears were a perfect 13-0, the first unblemished record the league had ever seen. Green Bay had gone 12-0-1 in 1929, the closest any team had come. And then the Bears went out and lost in a rematch of the previous year's championship game, 30-13 to the New York Giants, who were 8-5 and had scored only 40 more points than they allowed. The Bears scoring margin on the year? 200 points. A massive upset. The Lions were clear second-best in that department, an impressive 238 points against 59 allowed, narrowly beating out the St. Louis Gunners for the best scoring defense in the NFL.
The key to this resurgence, naturally, was the return of
Dutch Clark. Leading passer with 383 yards, rusher with 763, 8 TDs, and a 6.2-yd average, and a handful of receptions as well. Presnell was back as secondary passer 7 rushing TDs, Gutkowsky as the most common runner from the FB position. 2nd-year back
Ernie Caddell and first-year FB
Frank Christensen got about 100 carries each as well in a rushing attack that was more diverse than ever. 4th-year player
Buster Mitchell had his first and only All-Pro selection, more for his blocking than his tackling, and Emerson repeated with that honor as well.
Harry Ebding's 264 receiving yards were enough to lead the league.
For all of that, a fabulous 10-0 star was derailed by a trio of 3-point losses to end the year. 3-0 to Green Bay, then 19-16 and 10-7 to the Bears. The Lions were close, and ponder for a moment that this franchise, which would eventually become the butt of so many well-deserved jokes, won their first ten games as Lions!?!
SAT Verdict
East
Code:
New York Giants 8-5, .615 75-45-10, .625
Boston Redskins 6-6, .500 44-70-6, .386
Brooklyn Dodgers 4-7, .364 42-66-2, .389
Philadelphia Eagles 4-7, .364 40-69-1, .367
Pittsburgh Pirates 2-10, .167 40-77-3, .342
West
Code:
Chicago Bears 13-0, 1.000 104-20-7, .839
Detroit Lions 10-3, .769 107-21-3, .836
Green Bay Packers 7-6, .538 63-57-10, .525
Chicago Cardinals 5-6, .455 53-50-7, .515
St. Louis Gunners 1-2, .333
Cincinatti Reds 0-8, .000 8-101-1, .073
The New York Giants are confirmed as the best of a weak East Division, and who even knows the order of the others although Boston was probably fortunate to win half their games in the real season. As for Detroit, that late losing streak was either unlucky or a choke job. Depends on your bent I guess. SAT thinks they should have been right there with the Chicago Bears, not as high-scoring but better on defense and no question those were the best two teams. We'll cut the Lions some slack here with their first year in a new city, but it's still a tough pill to swallow.
If you're wondering about St. Louis, they don't show up in the replays because they were an independent team that filled in for Cincinatti after the Reds were suspended for non-payment of league dues. SAT just uses Cincinatti for the whole season, and they would not return for the following year so it's quite an ignominious end to that franchise.