Unbearable

What a crushing loss for the Lions yesterday. To lose on an interception returned for a touchdown? Just awful. How the hell could Joey Harrington make that throw? He's terrible! You never throw across your body, back to the middle of the field! This is his third year as a pro; he should know better than that!

Wait. What? That wasn't Joey? But Joey's the one that sucks. Jeff Garcia threw that interception? But I thought he was supposed to be the savior. Huh. How 'bout that?

(Image by Daniel Mears/ The Detroit News)

Out of Bounds and Beyond Boxscores both have excellent takes on the Jeff Garcia Experience and the exercise in utter incompetence that is our Detroit Lions. You should also check out Orotundity, and not just because Evan mentions me in today's entry. (Also, read his first two paragraphs in the voice of legendary NFL Films narrator, John Facenda. Trust me, it's fun.)

Me, I'm about one week from looking for another football team to root for. How are the Cleveland Browns doing? Oops. Never mind.

Here's what bugs me the most, and Evan touched on this a bit in his blog: Steve Mariucci is the only coach in the history of the NFL who hasn't been able to score points with the West Coast Offense. Years ago, my friend Chris bought me Bill Walsh's book, Building a Champion, as a gift, and I read that thing cover-to-cover because I wanted to know that offense worked. The system has worked through the past two decades. I can think of four teams off the top of my head - San Francisco, Green Bay, Denver, and Tampa Bay - that have won the Super Bowl with that philosophy. And Philadelphia has come damn close.

Is the system a bit antiquated now? Maybe. Rob Rubick brought up an interesting point on the FOX Sports Net post-game show yesterday: With the speed of linebackers in today's NFL, you can't just run a bunch of slant, flat, hitch, and quick-out patterns and expect to move the ball down the field. Defenses are too fast now for anything to happen in such small space. But the other coaches employing the West Coast Offense have adjusted with more downfield patterns and formations that spread defenses out to create more space on the field to work with.

Mariucci has taken a system proven to be successful, put it in a stranglehold, and moved backwards with it. You can see the Lions regress on offense with each successive play. It's scarier than any horror movie you could've seen this Halloween weekend. This team has actually gotten worse in the three years he's been head coach.

There's only thing I want for Christmas, and that's a new Lions football coach.