Will They Ever Learn?

The bears and Detroit played a game today that was very important for both teams’ playoff chances.  Midway through the 3rd quarter, the Lions led 13-0 and the bear offense had gone nowhere.  What do the Lions do?  After saying they would not kick to Hester, they punted to him and he almost broke it, returning it 40 yards to the Lion 26, resulting in a bear TD that made the score 13-7.  What will it take until coaches REFUSE to kick to him?  The bear offense had done nothing, and as I’ve previously said, you cannot allow the bear special teams and defense to beat you.  You must make their offense beat you.  So, they punt to Hester and put the bears back in the game.  I will also repeat that I stated prior to the first game of Hester’s rookie year, that anyone who punts or kicks to him is a fool.  Even if you give good field position to the bears as a result of this, they can’t do anything with it.  The only bear win this year (Kansas City) was a result of kicking to Hester.

In addition, I have stated a number of times that on 3rd-and-1, you have to put a blocker on Lance Briggs, as he shoots the gap and continues to stuff the run on these plays.  Detroit obviously never watched a gamefilm, because on a crucial third-and-one with less than 3:00 left that would have wrapped up the game, they let Briggs through to tackle the runner for a loss.  How many times does this have to happen until teams put a blocker on him in this situation?