Ripping off the band aid

Man we were close. So close in this one. But in the light of day, we can be honest - this was a team with some glaring flaws. They held it together with chewing gum. We were not built for a championship run. That first half defense - looked pretty familiar didn't it. Every week we saw this in first halves - No resistance - Lions marched down the field 3 times in a row. Wide open receivers, missed tackles, bizarre schemes where Michael Hoecht is on an island covering a TE??!!! Why does our defense only show up in the second half? That's not championship football.

We never led in this game. Our defense was 0-3 in the red zone. When you play catchup all game you have no margin for error. As the game unfolded I knew we'd have to score 7 every time we had the ball. Field goals weren't enough. That's not how you win a title. It's how you make it into the playoffs in the second to last week and almost win one game.

In my heart I loved this team and wanted so badly for the win last night. But in my head I knew we probably didn't have enough. Imagine if we had gotten close enough for a long field goal - say Cambpell didn't take the holding. Anyone think Maher makes it? Anyone thinks our D keeps Detroit out of field goal range at the end.

This was always a rebuild year - the team probably surprised itself as much as the league. We all knew the issues - not enough pressure, not good enough secondary play - and it all came into focus last night.

Time to start filling holes and build a real contender. We have a lot more of the pieces than we did last year, so we've got a great head start. And so it begins...