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One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

10/16/2008

Thursday thoughts

I guess I didn't expect the NFL to make any statements about the two blown calls in last week's Lions-Vikings game. Unless it's something as blatant as Ed Hochuli's mistake eariler this year, the league rarely speaks on these matters.

Still, I've watched replays of Leigh Bodden's pass-interference penalty and Calvin Johnson's fumble over and over and I don't get either one, for different reasons. There was incidental contact on the Bodden play, but Bodden had his head turned and was playing the ball for at least 15 yards. That should have been a no call. On Johnson's fumble, I never saw a beanbag come out to signal the ball was even loose. It seems like, because a whistle never blew, officials let the play go on then decided after the fact and errantly it was a fumble. Just my two cents.

On to some comments from coordinators Joe Barry and Jim Colletto:

• Barry said the defense's play last week (three forced fumbles, five sacks) should be "the standard of the way we're going to play the rest of the year." It's true the Lions played 10 times better defensively than they did in their first four games when they allowed an average of 36.7 points, but I tend to agree with safety Dwight Smith on this one. "I'm not happy with how we played," Smith said. "We gave up 400 yards of offense, I never seen where that was good. ... You get caught up being 0-4, 0-5, you look for any ray of light. But I don't live that way."

• Colletto said there will be changes on the offensive line. George Foster is starting at right tackle again over rookie Gosder Cherilus, Stephen Peterman could return at right guard and Damion Cook has practiced in front of Edwin Mulitalo this week, though Colletto did not say which left guard will start. "We're doing a lot of mixing and matching right now," he said. "Trying to find the right combination."

• I imagine we'll see Cherilus starting again before too long, but I don't get the move in general. Why bench your first-round pick in the middle of a season that should be focused on the future? One player who shall remain nameless told me he believes this is a case of coaches fighting to save their jobs.

• Dan Orlovsky is taking about 80 percent of the reps at quarterback in practice this week, with Drew Stanton getting the other 20, Colletto said. Looks like Orlovsky will have a bit of a leash under center. I still expect Stanton to get a shot this year, but it won't be next week when the Lions return home to face Washington, unless Orlovsky gets injured.

• One play Colletto said he'd like a do-over on is Jerome Felton's fullback dive on third-and-1 in the third quarter last week. Felton was stuffed for no gain on the play, his first NFL carry. I didn't find fault in the call itself so much as I did in the decision to motion Rudi Johnson out of the backfield before the snap. That play only works if Johnson's a threat to carry the ball, too. "Really it was just a straight old high-school dive play, to be honest with you," Colletto said. "We didn't block the back-side guys very well and somebody we didn't even expect to be involved in the play hit the fullback before he got to where he was going."

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