Here's a fun little blemish on the Lions' otherwise splendid start to the season -- not only does tackle George Foster share the NFL lead for false starts (with nine), he's second in the league in sacks allowed with 9 3/4. First, naturally, is Lions left tackle Jeff Backus, who has 10 1/2. All told, the Lions offensive line in general has allowed 40 sacks, which is ... you guessed it, most in the NFL.That's bad enough on its own -- Jon Kitna has been beaten so many times he's not a polytheist. But it's especially bad this Sunday when the Lions play the Giants, who lead the league in dropping the quarterback with 31 sacks (all 31 of them, you might recall, were allowed by Winston Justice).
To throw off the scent, the Lions will need to run the ball -- and better than they did against the Cardinals -- to negate the Giants' pass rush. The problem with that is that the Lions won't be getting a full contribution from ailing feature back/overall-good-player Kevin Jones, forcing them to rely more on T.J. Duckett, and that's rarely a good thing. Which leads me to this: if Tatum Bell's career dies in a forest, does anyone hear it?
