Detroit Lions Fans Need To Stop Buying Into Jim Caldwell

The Detroit Lions ended their season with a pitiful 7-9 record. That’s another losing season to add to their long resume of failure.

And though this team did win a few meaningless games down the stretch, it doesn’t mitigate their 1-7 start. What’s even more disheartening is how Lions fans are back on Caldwell’s ship. Why are fans reassessing their opinions of Jim Caldwell? Is everyone really fooled by this team’s 6-2 finish?

Against the teams that finished with winning records, Detroit went 1-7. It doesn’t get any more dreadful than that. Yeah, Caldwell can keep praising the team’s 6-2 finish, but the wins came against teams having lackluster seasons like the Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints and Oakland Raiders. None of them made the playoffs, and the Eagles fired head coach Chip Kelly. Everyone seems to be spellbound with Matthew Stafford‘s recent performance and this revived offense.

Surely, Detroit’s offense made improvements, but they still failed to live up to expectations. The Green Bay Packers completed a Hail Mary not only because of Caldwell’s terrible decision to defend the lateral, but also the offense’s silence after the first quarter, scoring just six points the rest of the way.

The Lions also failed to put up more than 14 points against the lowly St. Louis Rams. They also failed to score more than 18 points against Oakland, a team with the 22nd ranked defense.

Supporting Caldwell is supporting a losing mentality. And if fans are content with a 6-2 finish against mediocre teams after a damning 1-7 start, they deserve this incompetence. After a while, we can’t blame the abuser — we have to blame the abused for their tolerance. And Lions fans are content with this team’s failures abusing them.

Caldwell is a terrible in-game manager. He has countless time-management blunders, is ill-prepared for the opposition’s plays (like the aforementioned Hail Mary) and is stubborn with his ways.

If Joe Lombardi was that big of an issue, that’s still on Caldwell. A: he hired him, and B: he refused to make changes earlier when it mattered.

Come on, Lions fans. Demand better. Not only was Detroit 1-7, it was manhandled in many contests. Bad football like that can’t be acceptable. And if it is, Lions fans need to up their standards.