Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Well a lot has happened since my last post!

We got crushed in the preseason finale against Buffalo, truly putrid. Our final roster looks like this:

QB Orlovsky
QB Stanton (the owner and GM wanted me to start him...nope!)
QB Henson
HB Smith (won the starting job after impressing vs. Buff at RB1)
HB Johnson
HB Mewelde Moore (will explain later)
FB Felton
FB Bell (UDFA)
TE Gaines (sucks but no other options)
TE Manumaleuna (signed as a FA, he got hurt his first practice)
TE Fitzsimmons
WR Williams
WR Johnson
WR McDonald
WR Furrey (TRADE BLOCK)
WR Skaggs
WR Moore (not Herman!)
LT Backus
LT Scott
LG Claxton
C Raiola
C Williams (UDFA)
RG Finley (UDFA 78/81)
RG Peterman
RG Ramirez
RT Cherilus
RT Olivea

LE White
LE DeVries
RE Avril
RE Alama-Francis
DT Washington
DT Redding
DT Fluellen
DT Cody
LOLB Okeafor
LOLB Bing
MLB Dizon
MLB Lenon (TRADE BLOCK)
MLB Jordan (UDFA)
ROLB Sims
ROLB Nece
CB Bodden
CB Kelly
CB Phillips
CB Glover (UDFA)
CB Robinson
FS Smith
FS Ford (UDFA)
SS Alexander
SS Bullocks
K Prater
P Harris

Roster notes:
Ended up trading Deuce McAllister, along with a 6th and 7th round pick, to Arizona for Okeafor. I wanted a more traditional SLB to help stop the run and he was a nice fit for sure. He's 32 but adds some nice veteran savy and SIZE to the LB position.

Signed Mewelde Moore to fill RB3. Likely will see some time returning kicks.

Cut injured Dan Campbell after signing a better TE2 (run blocker) in Manumaleuna.

Traded RG Mulitalo to Carolina for a 3rd round pick in 2010. We now have 2 2nd round picks in 2009 and 3 3rd round picks in 2010.

Jevon Kearse was cut and I will be doing my damndest to sign him to add some sort of pass rush. Also, after my Week 1 game against ATL (more on that later) I should have enough to upgrade my pass rush special coaching skill (been saving up for that one).

WLB Nece beat out Boiman after we traded for Okeafor. I liked Rocky Boiman but Nece is a much better coverage LB and I like that in a WLB. No big deal though as he is backing up Sims.

I was going to trade for a pass rushing DE, most likely invovling P Nick Harris being dealt, but with Kearse available in FA I'll likely settle for that! Not bad!

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Week 1 @ Atlanta

Lions 34
Falcons 31
OVERTIME

What a crazy game! If you saw the Bears/Falcons game yesterday this game was very similar!

At the half, Atlanta led 17-7 after we gave up a TD late in the half. We only had about 100 yards of offensive in the first half and it sucked. They had the ball for 20 mins. Ugh.

2nd half we got the ball and, after starting to primarily call mastered plays, we marched down the field and scored on Roy Williams 2nd TD catch of the game. 17-14 Atlanta.

Atlanta goes 3 and out and we're riding the momentum.
We get the ball back and march down the field again scoring on a Calvin Johnson TD. 21-17 Lions!

In typical Lions fashion, mind you we're in the 4th quarter) the Falcons march down the field and score no problem against my sorry secondary. 24-21 Falcons.

We come down the field and one play past the 2 minute warning, score on a Kevin Smith TD run of 6 yards (was hoping to run more of the clock). 28-24 Lions. Hmmm, sort of sounds like another half ending with too much time left for Atlanta to score! Yep!

Atlanta comes down, and on 3rd and goal from the 11 score with 14 seconds left in the game. Ugh again. 31-28 Falcons.

We get a decent return to the 30 yard line and get to tack on a 15 yard facemask penalty! Not bad! We call a trusty pass pattern to the sidelines and get a nice gain all the way down to about their 30 yard line (25 yard gain or so I think). We take our last timeout and kick the game tying FG! Overtime!

We win the toss and elect to to receive. We march the ball down the field, converting on a couple of 3rd down conversions, and kick a very short FG on 2nd down for the win. Lions win 34-31!!!!!!

Orlovsky 365 yards 3 TD's 1 INT (22/33 for 69%) 123.9 rating

Smith 24 carries 74 yards and a TD (3.0 per carry)

C. Johnson 7 catches 133 yards and a TD

Williams 7 catches 124 yards and 2 TDs

Gaines 3 catches for 44 yards (1 25 yarder and 1 14 yarder for HUUUUUUGE 3rd down conversions)

NO SACKS!

Defensive notes:

MLB Dizon: 13 tackles (3 for loss) and a forced fumble (recovered by ATL)

DE White and DT Redding both had a sack.

CB Leigh Bodden had 6 passes thrown his way and only allowed 2 of them to be completed. Roddy White had less than 40 yards receiving.

One thing I noted, I traded for Okeafor just before kickoff (12:30ish) and I now see that he was credited for stats from my game as well as the game he "played in" with Arizona. Strange! Oh well, no biggie I guess. Not like LB's rack up big noticeable statistics anyway.


Next up, the GB Packers, a game the fans have requested me to find a way to win!

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Well we beat the Packers 13-10 and the fans were very pleased!

They stuffed my run game, Smith had 43 yards on 20 carries, but Orlovsky did enough to get us our 2nd straight win. He threw for 226 yards and a TD with 0 INT.

Michael Gaines, a 64 overall, continues to impress with his productivity. He's dropped some balls but has made some big catches as well. He had 4 for 54 against GB.

Roy Williams had 2 grabs for 71 yards one of which was a 56 yarder down to inside the 5.

We were sacked 3 times. Meh.

MLB Jordan Dizon was a beast again with 11 tackles (2 for loss).

Jevon Kearse and Alama-Francis had sacks (Kearse had 4 TFL)

Glad to pick up our 2nd win already. Time for a visit to SF which scares me because my pass defense sucks and they pass 91% of the time.

I already played the SF game so this shouldn't be long to put up a report...

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

San Fran killed us. 36-16. We couldn't stop their pass attack, it was horrible to watch ugh. Best of all, it was Joey Harrington leading the SF charge. I love Joey though so I was glad to see him get some revenge on the franchise that drove his career into the ground!

Orlovsky played well again, 277 yards 2 TD's and an INT BUT was sacked 7 times ugh.

Kevin Smith 18 carries for 68 yards (3.7)

Roy Williams 6 catches for 107 yards and a TD

Calvin Johnson 3 catches for 90 yards and a TD (long of 78)

We finally got our 1st INTs of the year (including preseason) as Jordan Dizon and Gerald Alexander picked off Harrington (Alexander's in the endzone...not that it mattered).

Dizon is in the running or DROY as well as DPOY! He's playing really well. Orlovsky is in the mix for best QB and OPOY.

Leigh Bodden has been great at CB with 3 more deflected passes. I can clearly see an on-field difference in his abilities versus the rest of the scrubs playing.

Luckily, with the bye week on the horizon, we should be at 100% health as Ted Washington and Brian Kelly should be back against the Bears.


Harrington threw for 421 yards and 1 score against us to go with his 2 INTs (78.5 rating). We sacked him once (Dewayne White)

Frank Gore had 2 TDs, 14 carries for 49 yards.

SF had 4 WR/TE's with 85+ yards.

Forgot to mention that we held GB, in week 2, to 260 yards of offense. Can't say the same for SF as they had 458.

I'm still trying to find penalty sliders I like but I think I'm getting closer.

GO LIONS!

[Purplepower]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Mike, try the Penalty sliders...between 50 - 55 (PS3) I get good results with these.

Also, enjoy following your Lions...things look good, but could you put your W/L record in there somewhere. Enjoy watching you turnaround the team....and this is coming from a Viks fan. Again, good job.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Yeah, I have most of the sliders around 54 or so with a few at 100 (stupid ones that are never called like intentional grounding).

We are 2-1 and just kicked off against the Bears. We focused hard on stopping the pass and improving our OL play.

Lions 2-1

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Midway through the 2nd quarter, Lions lead 10-3 after a 62 yard TD pass to TE Michael Gaines.

First play for the Bears, they fumble and we recover and return it to the 1 yard line. For the second straight goaline series we cannot punch it in. I go for it on 4th down and we are stopped however it appears as though Rudi (subbed in) crossed the goaline. I challenge the call and the replay CLEARLY shows that the ball crosses the plane before his eblow hits.

They UPHOLD the call?!??!? What the hell! Bears ball at their own 1 yard line now. Lions lead 10-3 still. Bears goaline D has been tough!

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Bears holding call in the endzone!

SAFETY! Lions lead 12-3.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Lions improve to 3-1, thus fulfilling a request by my owner which I did not intend to ever achieve, beating the Bears 22-20.

Dan Orlovsky
100.1 rating
13/21 (61%)
254 yards
1 TD
1 INT
2 sack

Kevin Smith
20 carries
100 yards (5 ypc, long 18 yards)
2 fumbles (1 lost)

Roy Williams
Thrown to 9 times
3 catches
76 yards
25.3 ypr

Calvin Johnson
Thrown to 4 times
2 catches
61 yards
30.5 ypr

Michael Gaines
Thrown to once
1 catch
62 yards
1 TD

Ernie Sims
14 tackles (4 TFL)
1 sack
2 hurries
2 missed tackles
2 bit hits

Chike Okeafor
8 tackles (2 TFL)
1 FF
4/7 (catches against)

Kearse had a sack along with Dewayne White for a total of 3.

Leigh Bodden had 2 deflected passes and was 2/4 in catches against.

We had 9 hurries against Orton (good gameplan!)

K Matt Prater continues his consistency making both FG attempts.

WR Shaun McDonald returned a kickoff in the 4th quarter but it was called back on a holding call. We picked up one more first down and that was the ballgame anyway as we ran out the clock for the win.

Bears made a nice comeback after being down by 2 scores on two separate occasions, but the Lions pull out the win! This was a great game!

Offense
Bears 311
Lions 342

Rushing
Bears 57
Lions 98

Passing yards
Bears 254
Lions 244

First downs
Bears 15
Lions 12

Turnovers
Bears 1
Lions 2

3rd down
Bears 3/11 (27%)
Lions 4/9 (44%)

We were 0/1 on 4th down (from the 1 yard line in the 1st half...mentioned in an above post)

Penalties
Bears 10-85
Lions 7-90

T.O.P.
Bears 27:57
Lions 32:01

3-1 record! Next up a trip to Minnesota to take on the Vikings.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Oh, and for the record I no longer use QB sneak (house rule for me) as it is an automatic 1st down 100% of the time.

[ChuckMonts]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Oh, and for the record I no longer use QB sneak (house rule for me) as it is an automatic 1st down 100% of the time.

I was always afraid to run it with a team who has a decent QB because in this game (unlike madden) getting your QB hit is not a good idea

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Well since starting 3-1, we've dropped our last 2 (Minnesota and Houston) to level out at 3-3. Our pass defense is putrid. It's so frustrating. We still have just the 2 INT's and every third down is a circus.

I'm glad I didn't give Orlovsky the extension he was asking for. Although there aren't many FA options, and I'm not a fan of rookie QB's, Dan-O hasn't been very impressive the past two weeks. Granteed, he's the QB of the Lions.

My approval is still very high so at least we have that going for us. I've resigned a few players most notable LG Claxton and WR Roy Williams (GM wanted him resigned...I said sure why not).

Any questions from anyone? Wife is watching Grey's anatomy or else I would have posted stats.

[loccdogg26]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

I really haven't played this that much but I'll try using the Lions as well.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Just beat the Redskins 24-17 in a really good game. We played much better pass D but gave up over 100 yards to Portis. We focused on improving Orlovsky during the week and although he only had about 175 yards passing, he threw 3 TD's.

4-3 and prepping for the Bears.

I'll post midseason stats after the Bears game.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: Sick of it all...Lions Dynasty Thread

Just got word that Ernie Sims tore his ACL and is out for the season.