Larry Brown Sports

The Detroit Lions were one of the most disappointing teams in football last season, going from a playoff appearance in 2011 to a miserable 4-12 record in 2012. After posting its first winning record in 11 years, the team was expected to continue improving and possibly even win a playoff game. Instead, the Lions went in the opposite direction.

Head coach Jim Schwartz took a lot of the blame for the four-win season, but it wasn’t just the fans who were upset with him. His own sons were also furious with their father.

“Nobody is happy. My kids are just starting to talk to me again,” Schwartz said earlier this week, via MLive.com’s Anwar S. Richardson. “My son (has) a lot of Lions posters and sweatshirts and hats. They weren’t happy with 4-12 either. Believe me, nobody was, and we all want to get that taste out of our mouth. The only way we are going to get that out is if we move on past it, and we identify what the unique capabilities of this team are, try to accentuate those, identify our weaknesses, try to minimize those, try hard every day in the offseason and training camp, and have a good game plan each week.”

We’ve heard the whole “my wife won’t even talk to me” bit before when coaches or teams struggle, but Schwartz reiterated that he was serious about his family being angry. He said his son Christian took the abysmal season particularly hard.

“That wasn’t a joke. He was mad,” Schwartz said. “If you see his room, he’s got Lions helmets and jerseys. It’s not because he’s my son. It’s because he’s a big Lions fan. If I worked down at the Rogue (automotive plant), he’d still have all that same stuff. He’s a fan … I imagine that you walk into the Rogue on Monday morning after a Lions loss, nobody is in a good mood. Nobody is in a good mood over in Allen Park either. Part of our job is moving on and getting ready for the next week.”

A lot of things went wrong for the Lions last season. They were certainly better than their 4-12 record indicated, but you have to make a lot of mistakes to lose 12 games in a season. Schwartz took the blame from one particular player for losing control of the team, but it certainly wasn’t all his fault. Regardless of who was or was not to blame, Lions fans were given flashbacks. When you look at their records through the 2000s, you realize that is a very bad thing.

Photo credit: Jim Brown/US Presswire

The Detroit Lions looked like the Lions of old this past season, and that is not a good thing. After turning things around with a 10-6 record and a playoff berth last season, Detroit won only four games in 2012. A lot of people are to blame for the disappointing campaign, but it starts with head coach Jim Schwartz.

According to one anonymous Lions players, a lack of discipline was one of the team’s biggest problems this season.

“I think players first and foremost are at fault,” the player reportedly told CBSSports.com’s Mike Freeman. “I also think Coach (Schwartz) lost control of the team a little. I hope he comes back. It would be stupid to fire him, but we were an undisciplined team. Most of that is on us.

“But everyone needs to be accountable. The coaches, the players, the front office. Guys need to stop acting like a–holes off the field. Need to stop getting stupid penalties. The truth is coaches need to punish guys more when they screw up.”

Titus Young is a perfect example. It took punching a teammate, headbutting an opponent and intentionally sabotaging his own offense for Schwartz to finally get fed up with the young receiver, and even now he may still return to the team. Several Lions players were arrested over the offseason, which prompted an anonymous Detroit player to call the team a “laughingstock.” Coincidentally, the player Freeman interviewed used the exact same word.

“We go from the playoffs to a laughingstock in a year,” the player said. “That’s on us first. But everyone has to take the heat, including the coaches.”

Was it the same player in both instances? The Lions have been a laughingstock since their arrest-filled offseason, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if two different players described them as such. In any event, Schwartz’s seat is going to be very warm to begin the season in 2013.

Photo credit: Jim Brown/US Presswire

The Detroit Lions lost to the Tennessee Titans in overtime on Sunday 44-41 after failing to convert a fourth down on a questionable decision.

The Lions had a 4th and 1 from the Tennessee seven and were down 44-41. They could have attempted a field goal to tie the game and keep the overtime going. Instead, they ran a play and lost a yard on what appeared to be a quarterback sneak.

Head coach Jim Schwartz was immediately questioned for the decision to have his team go for it — had they scored a touchdown on the drive, the game would have ended — but we learned after the game that they did not intend to go for it.

“Miscommunication. We were trying to draw them offsides. We had no intention of going for it there,” Schwartz said.

Well that could certainly explain the sloppy play.

Even though Schwartz is being questioned for the decision to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking — which we’ve learned he wasn’t intending to do — that was actually the right move. Tennessee’s offense had been moving the ball with ease in the second half, so it was pretty likely they would have won the game on the next possession. Had the Lions converted, they would have had a very good chance of winning the game (Football Outsiders broke down the percentages here).

To recap: Jim Schwartz is being criticized for a “bad decision” he actually didn’t make, but the criticism isn’t warranted because the Lions should have gone for it.

Photo credit: Jim Brown/US Presswire

Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz provided the most entertaining moment of the NFL weekend with their contentious postgame handshake. Harbaugh was enthusiastic after his team’s road win at Detroit. He gave Schwartz a forceful shake complemented by a hand on the back. Schwartz didn’t like the hand in the back, so he followed Harbaugh towards the locker room tunnel to confront him. Harbaugh can be seen telling Schwartz “Get out of my face.”

Harbaugh said after the game that he was excited about his team’s win. “I was really revved up and I shook his hand too hard,” Harbaugh explained. “It was a strong slap/grab handshake kind of like what I have been doing with [49ers linebacker Blake] Costanzo and other guys.”

“It was too hard of a handshake,” he admitted.

Harbaugh should have waited until after the handshake to let loose, and Schwartz should have shrugged off the hard shake. But let’s be real: do you think these guys are consciously thinking about how they should behave, or were they just reacting to the outcome of the game? If you think Harbaugh’s celebration was the result of a snub from Schwartz in March, you’re reading way too much into this. Some coaches get excited after wins and get carried away. Some coaches will respond if they feel disrespected.

And let’s be real: isn’t football a lot more fun when coaches get into arguments over postgame handshakes? As long as it’s not a coach cussing out an amateur player, I’m fine with it.

How can you not get wrapped up in what the Lions have accomplished this season?  Detroit hasn’t had a winning season since 2000 and hasn’t made the playoffs since 1999.  The last time the Lions won a playoff game was 1991.  Only three years removed from becoming the first team in NFL history to go 0-16, Jim Schwartz has his team sitting at 5-0 and looking like a lock for the postseason.

On Monday night, the Lions won their first Monday Night Football game of the 21st century.  No more brown paper bags and mid-season walkouts.  Detroit fans can now focus on forcing false start penalties and supporting their team.  In fact, they did such a good job of that against the Bears that Schwartz has decided to award them the game ball.

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Dez Bryant had a splendid game for the Cowboys on Sunday, catching two touchdown passes from Tony Romo in a 34-30 loss to the Lions. He finished with 3 catches for 37 yards, but he missed out on even better stats when a spectacular catch he made along the sidelines was reviewed and ruled incomplete. Bryant was fired up over the catch, but Jim Schwartz challenged the call and won. The friction between the men was apparent throughout the game, and it culminated with Schwartz calling Dez a naughty name.

On his weekly Lions Review show on WXYT, Schwartz got in a nice little dig at Dez.

“I don’t talk to a lot of players, but when you’re celebrating an incomplete pass, and you’re taunting a defense and taunting the sideline because you thought you made a great catch, and it was incomplete, we have to let you know you,” Schwartz said. “We had to let him know he didn’t make a catch since midway through the first quarter, and that was going to be incomplete.”

And according to the Detroit Free Press, Schwartz added on Tuesday that he’s “never seen somebody celebrate an incomplete pass so much, so we wanted to make sure that he knew that it was incomplete.”

Even if the catch didn’t count, it was a heck of a play. I can understand why Dez was fired up. But Schwartz pretty much killed Dez’s buzz by going “scoreboard” on him. There’s nothing wrong with Dez getting pumped about a nice play (even if it didn’t count), and there was nothing wrong with Schwartz trying to put him back in place. And of course the Lions reserved their celebrating until after the game.

While most people recognize the greatness of Calvin Johnson, the Lions receiver still has his detractors. In January, it was Al Davis saying Calvin is nothing special. In August, it was Cris Carter declaring that Calvin was not elite. And despite Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett saying last week that the Lions receiver could be the best player in the NFL, Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan refused to praise the man known as Megatron.

In the week leading up to the Cowboys-Lions game that saw Detroit come out on top, the brash Ryan said that although Johnson is excellent, he’s not as good as Cowboys receivers Miles Austin or Dez Bryant.

Few people will deny the talent and ability of Austin and Bryant, but to say Calvin is not at their level is a joke. Megatron proved it on Sunday.

The Lions phenom caught two touchdown passes from Matthew Stafford, including one where he was surrounded by three defenders, and another where he skied a few feet off the ground in isolation. His touchdown catches were part of Detroit’s 24-point comeback win, and they served as a nice statement in the face of Ryan who dared to say he was below Dallas’ receivers.

Following the win, Lions coach Jim Schwartz took a subtle jab at Ryan. “I’m glad the third best wide reciever on the Cowboys is on our team,” he said.

Very well put, sir. That’s all that needed to be said. Calvin now has set an NFL record with two touchdowns in four straight games giving him eight on the year. He is by most accounts the best wide receiver in football.