Wojo: Real Lions emerge in hideous loss to Seahawks
Seattle — Stop me if you’ve heard it before. Ridiculous gaffes and goofs, bizarre penalty calls and play calls. When the Lions make the playoffs, at least they’re consistent how quickly they exit.
This wasn’t going to be easy under any circumstances, but the Lions made it much, much tougher with an embarrassing self-destruction. They couldn’t stop making mistakes and they couldn’t stop Thomas Rawls, as the Seahawks rumbled to a 26-6 victory Saturday night in an NFC wild-card playoff game.
The Lions hung around, as they generally did this season. And then they crumbled, as they repeatedly did against superior teams. They committed four personal-foul penalties — two inexcusable ones on Anquan Boldin — and receivers dropped at least four passes.
The Lions weren’t ready for this, and they wasted another prime-time chance to alter long-held perceptions. They lost their final four games against the best teams on their schedule by an average margin of 15 points, and fell from 9-4 to 9-8. In the process, they officially revealed who they were, something we pretty much already knew.
This was an average team that relied on Matthew Stafford’s comeback knack, minimizing mistakes and playing with discipline and composure. And in the rowdy CenturyLink Field atmosphere, they did the exact opposite, maximized their flaws and showed how much growing up they still have to do.
“Some things are inexplicable,” Jim Caldwell said. “Our guys usually have been pretty sharp catching the ball, and we had some drops we customarily don’t have. We lost our poise a couple of times, a couple of the older guys. It was uncharacteristic of us.”
No excuse
Boldin and Haloti Ngata are seasoned players, and each picked up personal fouls. Eric Ebron, Golden Tate and Marvin Jones all dropped passes, killing drives. Against the Seahawks, now 10-0 in home playoff games since 2005, that’s how disasters happen. To top it off, the Lions’ nine-game playoff losing streak is an NFL record.
This was the difference, in graphic display, between a team that knows how to handle these situations, and a team still trying to grasp it. After Matt Prater’s 53-yard field goal late in the third quarter, the Lions trailed only 10-6, and another magical rally actually seemed possible.
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But then, the stumbles. Some players griped about questionable calls, which is a bad look after getting kicked around by the opposition. The officiating angle — no matter how valid it seems in the heat of the moment — can’t always be the excuse. Caldwell and Stafford declined to join the complaining, and good for them.
“I think that’s just being on the road in the NFL,” Stafford said. “Tough environment against a really good football team, a hostile crowd. It’s why home teams are favored a lot. But it’s a bad strategy if we’re trying to hope and wait and cross our fingers for an official to help us out. We gotta go out there and make plays.”
On one key play in the fourth quarter, with the Lions trailing 13-6, TJ Jones raced down the left sideline and appeared to be jostled by Seattle’s DeShawn Shead on an overthrown ball. The ref pulled out his flag, held it for a second, then tucked it back and ruled the pass uncatchable.
“There were some calls that left us shaking our head,” Boldin, 36, said. “I’m sure you guys know exactly what I’m talking about. Any time you come into a place like this, you know you have to play more than just the team.”
The popular Detroit-versus-Everybody mantra, rooted in perceived injustices, can get twisted into excuse-making. And the Lions really have no excuse for this sloppy performance. While the loss didn’t come as any great surprise, the nature of it made it more disappointing to them, and more revealing to us.
GM Bob Quinn knew he had a lot of work upgrading the talent on the roster, and sneaking in for a brief playoff appearance doesn’t change that. All those comebacks — eight of their nine victories — were exhilarating, just as the four-game finish was illuminating.
Getting the drops
Stafford had fantastic fourth-quarter numbers, contrasted by ugly marks against top teams, 0-6 versus playoff teams this season. But neither this game nor this season can be pinned on him. Of course, the Lions have no choice but to count more on him, and keep hoping he can be the guy that finally changes the franchise’s reputation.
“I don’t feel any burden,” Stafford said. “I’m a piece of the puzzle, a big one at the quarterback position. When the quarterback plays well it gives your team a chance to win, and we were able to do that a bunch of times this year. We did an unbelievable job of fighting through adversity, and I’ve got a ton of respect for everybody in that locker room. Obviously, didn’t get it done today.”
It was odd because the Lions didn’t turn the ball over by conventional means (interception or fumble) against the Seahawks. But on the first two drives of the game, they essentially turned it over when first Tate, then Ebron, dropped third-down passes, forcing punts.
It wasn’t even Seattle’s multi-talented Russell Wilson who beat them. It was Rawls, the Flint guy who played at Michigan and Central Michigan, and battled injuries in his second season here. He had 349 rushing yards all season, but running behind a battered offensive line, he shredded the Lions with a franchise playoff-record 161 yards.
The Seahawks played like a team making its 11th playoff appearance in 14 years, clutch when they had to be. Receiver Paul Richardson was incredible with a pair of one-handed catches, including a controversial one in the end zone when he used his other hand to grab the facemask of defender Tavon Wilson. The Lions grumbled about that play and a few others, but it wasn’t the overriding tact.
They knew they had their chances. With the game scoreless, they faced a fourth-and-1 at Seattle’s 38, rightly went for it, and blew it. Stafford said his first two passing options were covered and there was no room to run, so he was forced to dump it to backup tight end Matthew Mulligan, who lost 2 yards.
The Seahawks converted two fourth downs on the ensuing drive, capped by Richardson’s spectacular 2-yard touchdown catch. Those two sequences established the chasm between these teams, not just in experience, but in function. The Lions still couldn’t run the ball (Zach Zenner had 34 yards) and the Seahawks ran it right down their gullets.
“Obviously we got a lot of work to do,” Caldwell said. “But I do think this team overcame a lot, battled through the season and got us to this point. We just couldn’t play well enough at the end. We learned some lessons that hopefully can help us in the future.”
One lesson is an old one — don’t blow a chance at hosting a playoff game, because it’s always treacherous on the road. Another is an obvious one — don’t lose your composure when the stakes go up. And finally, the lasting one — it takes a complete team to complete a truly special season.
bob.wojnowski@detroitnews.com
Twitter.com: @bobwojnowski
