hoped for in 2012
The Detroit Lions have reported to camp and it is time to begin improving on last season’s 4-12 record. The Lions were a playoff team two years ago but last season was a big step back. Fifth year Head Coach Jim Schwartz is very optimistic about the upcoming season. “We are as excited and as confident as we have ever been.” Said Schwartz. “We had an outstanding spring that I think has set us up to have an outstanding training camp. Like the psyche of the team, the attitude as the team as we left will continue through training camp. We are very confident in the pieces we have put in place as well as the pieces we have returning, and we are looking forward to an outstanding year. But first, an outstanding training camp.”
As confident as he may be there is still pressure as Schwartz enters year five to make the playoffs and show signs of improvement. Some say Schwartz is on the hot seat this season but that doesn’t seem to bother him. “I think you look at last year and we were certainly disappointed in last year. I think that’s probably the biggest contributor to that train of thought. As coaches we are used to that scrutiny, we are used to high expectations. That doesn’t change the way we do things. I think we all learned a lot of lessons last year, for sure. And the only way that those are going to be beneficial for us, is to carry those lessons across to the next season and this year. Some of those, just like anything in life, a lot of lessons you can only learn through experience. And that was a tough experience going for us”
unbalanced Lions offense
The Lions need to make the playoffs to make it a truly successful season and the Head Coach understands that. That’s the goal every year. There are 32 teams that share the same goal. It’s the championship. I think you have to temper that without getting over your skis and getting too far ahead of yourself. You can’t concentrate on post-season right now. You can only concentrate on conditioning tests and today. We need to do a good job at doing those things, and if you’re concentrating on those things you don’t think about all the other expectations. I’ll say this; we have high expectations as a team. Our players, coaches, organization and the city all have high expectations for this team and we look forward to that challenge and the grind and work that will go into that.”
The Lions have added Running Back Reggie Bush and Wide receiver Chaz Schilens to an already potent offense. Calvin Johnson a.k.a. Megatron rewrote the NFL record books last season, breaking the single-season receiving yards record previously held by Jerry Rice. Quarterback Matthew Stafford had to attempt more than 700 passes last season on his way to helping Johnson break the record however. That’s a lot of throws. With the edition of Bush the Lions will look to be more balanced this year on offense.
