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I think SneakerPro meant why a fan can only call a team mediocre if the team he cheers for has won a Super Bowl/had tons of post-season success, etc.
A question I have after looking at some of your guys' predictions in here....
What spurns any of you to have the Lions finishing 2nd in the NFC North? No one will admit it, and maybe it's subconscious, but that 40-9 beating of the Patriots has to be a reason, right? But I bet none of you actually watched that game? Because if you had, you would've seen an extremely unimpressive Matthew Stafford, and an offense that was put in the red zone from the get-go multiple times because of Brady's and a few receivers mistakes (which you can definitely credit the Lions D partially for).
Stafford in 2011: 41 TDs, 16 INTs.
Stafford in 2012: 20 TDs, 17 INTs.
And if you've watched his performance at all in the preseason, you would see his mechanics haven't been fixed at all, and he's overthrowing receivers.
And, what did they get markedly better at that would make a 4-12 team turn into a Wild Card team? Don't give me the, "Well team's go from the bottom of the barrel to the playoffs every year!" Yeah, and if you look at those rosters and off-season acquisitions/departures of teams that have done that, you would find a trail that lead to their success. The Lions aren't THAT much better, at all.
If anything, the Bears, who finished 10-6 and only missed the playoffs because they were on the wrong side of a tiebreaker, are going to be the ones finishing second.
The Lions weren't blown out in really any game. They never got housed like typical 4-12 teams do.
They improved the biggest weaknesses on the team in the secondary and running back.
Bringing up Stafford TDs to interceptions isn't the argument to make considering the Lions led the league in receivers being tackled inside the 3 yard line. Leshoure's bum *** got 8 TDs because of this.
The Bears missed the playoffs with a historical level of production from their defense in which 4 of to the top 5 players are 30+.
Do you really think the Bears will be able to maintain that level of production from their defense.