Expectations are high for this Lions team heading into the season after last year's 10-6 record and appearance in the playoffs after a 12-year drought. With essentially the same corps of players back and a few young pieces now ready to contribute, forecasts are high for 2012.Even with those high expectations, however, none seem to be higher than the expectations the Lions are actually placing on themselves.
Despite dropping Friday’s preseason opener to the Browns, 19-17, it appeared from the outside looking in that there were a number of good things that came out of the loss.
For instance, rookie cornerback Bill Bentley made a number of nice plays, including an interception late in the first quarter that set up the Lions' first touchdown of the game.
Many were quick to credit that effort, but Lions head coach Jim Schwartz wasn't ready to say that his rookie starting cornerback had a good game.
“No,” Schwartz said when asked if he was happy with how Bentley played. “It’s too inconsistent play for a cornerback. Give up a deep ball – that’s something that we shouldn’t allow to happen – and we were 50-percent on making interceptions."
Schwartz was referring to the Browns' 34-yard completion over Bentley's head and his dropped interception in the second quarter.
“I don’t think that’s a good day at all for what he can do," he continued. "I mean, he has a chance if he knocks the deep ball away and makes two interceptions in this game to have done something for himself. But 50-50 isn't going to get it done.”
The Lions' expectations are high.
Even if Schwartz wasn't pleased with those missed opportunities, he must have been happy with the way his first- and second-team defensive units played in the first half, especially the defensive lines, he was asked following the game.
The Lions had a 14-3 halftime lead and the defensive line had forced three sacks, one fumble, a couple more quarterback pressures and had kept the Browns out of the end zone.
But Schwartz dismissed the praise.
“We got a couple turnovers and that covered up some mistakes that we made," he said. "We gave up some runs when we shouldn’t give up runs and put ourselves in a couple bad positions that we – I want to say bailed ourselves out with turnovers.
“It just covered up some poor play. We were 50-50 pretty much the whole night on defense. We made a couple plays, but we also gave up way too many."
The Lions' expectations are high.
Despite that criticism, one clear success Friday night had to be the play of reserve defensive end Willie Young. He finished the night with two quarterback pressures, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
But Schwartz once again wasn't ready to applaud an effort.
"He made a couple of plays and he was out of place on a couple others," Schwartz dismissed. "Let's not put him in the Hall of Fame just yet."
The Lions' expectations are high.
There’s one simple fact that became clear after listening to Schwartz in the postgame press conference after Friday’s game. Expectations are high for this team, and they start from the top with the head coach.
"Let's be clear," Schwartz said. "Preseason games, we don't use these as a barometer and they don't count, but you want to play well. Whether you win or lose, you want to play well and I don't think we played well."
NOTE:
Safety Amari Spievey did not dress for the game because he was suffering headaches. Spievey suffered a concussion in the Lions' playoff loss to the Saints last year that kept him out of the some of the offseason program this year for Lions.
“He had been having some headaches a couple days ago and we sent him back to make sure that they weren’t (related to the concussion)," Schwartz said after the game.
“It doesn’t look like they are, but again, anytime we have anything like that we’re going to take a step back and put the breaks on. We had sort of decided a couple days ago that he wasn’t going to play. But he should be fine going forward.”
