The Pressbox

Perhaps I was a bit optimistic, but I picked an 8-8 record for the Detroit Lions in my column Thursday:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080904/KRUGERSPTSCOL/109049966/-1/COLUMNISTS

I just have a feeling that the defense might be a little better than people expect and Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson are going to present some real problems for opposing defenses. Rod Marinelli likes to run, but it’s hard to do that on second-and-nine or third-and-eight. Williams and Johnson will get plenty of chances to shine.

The Detroit Lions open the exhibition season tonight and frankly I am baffled.

I have no idea what to expect.

Granted, exhibition games are meaningless and nearly unwatchable, but I am intrigued about the changes that will be made now that it appears that coach Rod Marinelli is firmly in control.

Will his running scheme work? Is the Tampa Two defense finally taking root?

The talent level does not appear to be great, but the Lions seem to have added some character to the roster. The question is whether that will make any difference.

I feel bad for Caleb Campbell.

The young man was all set to begin his first NFL training camp. He agreed to contract terms with the Detroit Lions earlier this week. He was supposed to start practice today.

But the Army pulled the rug out from under him.

After giving Campbell a special waver to entry the NFL Draft and pursue a career as a professional football player, the Army informed the Lions at the last moment that a change in Department of Defense policy required Campbell to report for regular duty.

The Lions had to break the bad news to him. Team officials said he took it like a good soldier. He signed up to serve his country. He is ready to fulfill his commitment.

Still, you have to feel bad for him.

There must have been a lot of complaining behind the scenes that led to this about face at the last moment.

I think the decision is short-sighted by the Department of Defense. Campbell, the Lions and the Army all suffer.

In all honesty, Campbell was a longshot to make the team. He was a seventh-round draft choice. Guys drafted that low rarely make the team. But he was denied his shot. He will never know whether he could have made it or not.

The Lions have wasted a draft choice. Of course they have done plenty of that in the past, but it would have been nice if they had known before the draft that something like this might happen.

And the Army missed a great opportunity. Campbell could have done a lot more good for the Army as an NFL player than he will in active service. The Army would have gotten loads of free publicity as the media followed Campbell’s bid to make the team. And, if he had made it, he would have been invaluable as an Army recruiter.

This is a case where everyone loses.

Does anyone have a clue how the Detroit Lions operate?

Running back is one of the team’s weakest positions, so Thursday they release their most talented player at that position. That’s Lion logic.

Yes, Kevin Jones has been injury prone during his career. But what would it have hurt to keep him on the roster to see if he can recover from his current problem?

The move probably has something to do with cap space, but there is other dead weight on the roster that they could have sliced off.

While watching one of the football games today, they talked about candidates for NFL Coach of the Year. Listed right up there with Tony Dungy and Bill Belichick was Rod Marinelli of the Detroit Lions.

When was the last time a Lions coach was included in that kind of company?

Marty Morniheg? Steve Mariucci? Wayne Fontes?

Not likely.

But Marinelli deserves it. He has done a wonderful job of getting rid of the troublemakers and changing the attitude of this team.

These guys play like they believe in their coach and each other.

There is a lot of season left, but it’s nice to be able to talk about the Lions as a playoff contender after their recent miserable history.

I am not ordering my Super Bowl tickets just yet, but the Detroit Lions had a pretty impressive performance against Tampa Bay today.

It’s not he level of play that I am talking about. The Lions were outplayed on many levels by the Buccaneers, but they showed tremendous resiliency, an ability to capitalize on mistakes by their opponent and a knack of coming up with big plays at the right times.

Good teams find a way to win when they don’t play particularly well. That hasn’t happened with the Lions much in recent years.

I really like the way Rod Marinelli is trying to reconstruct the attitude of the Detroit Lions. But sometimes his macho stuff goes a little too far.

It made no sense to have Jon Kitna in the game in the final minutes of Sunday’s blowout loss to Washington. Marinelli says he is driving home the point that his team is going to play hard on every down.

That’s fine, but there has to be a point where common sense takes over.

Kitna already takes plenty of hits. Subjecting him to even more when the game is out of reach is not good coaching. If Kitna gets hurt, the Lions can start planning now for another Top 10 draft choice (and, with Matt Millen in charge, it will probably be a wide receiver).

Why couldn’t the Lions play hard on every down in the fourth quarter of the Washington or Philadelphia games with the backup quarterback on the field?

Can the first game of an NFL season be a must-win situation?

Probably not, but the rules are sometimes different for the Detroit Lions.

Confident voices have been emerged from the Lion locker room during the preseason. Jon Kitna boldly predicted 10 wins or more. Many of the players supported their quarterback.

But that kind of talk quickly flies out the window if the Lions can’t open today with a win over the only team in the NFL that was worse than them last season.

What a blow it would be to the Lions if Josh McCown, who was traded to Oakland after not being able to beat out Kitna for the Detroit’s starting quarterback job last year, leads the Raiders to victory.

So, for the Lions, maybe Game 1 is must-win.

The Detroit Lions opened their exhibition season with a 27-26 win over the Cincinnati Bengals Thursday night and like most openers there was plenty of good and bad.

The offense moved the ball well, racking up 548 yards of total offense, but the defense looked helpless when Carson Palmer and Cincinnati’s first-team offense was on the field.

Starting quarterback Jon Kitna threw just five passes before giving way to backups T.J. OSullivan and Dan Orlosky. Each of them threw for more than 200 yards and had some nice moments, but both made critical mistakes.

Tatum Bell looks like he could be a good addition at running back with Kevin Jones battling back from an injury.

My overall first impression: Expect a lot of high scoring games for the Lions. The offense looks potent, but the defense is lacking especially in the secondary.

The Detroit Lions have been taking some heat for their draft. Local commentators don’t like their choices because many of them don’t fill immediate needs.

Much of the criticism stems from the choice of MSU quarterback Drew Stanton instead of a linebacker like David Harris of Michigan early in the second round.

I agree to an extent, but I think Stanton has a chance to be a good NFL quarterback.

What do you think?