Rod Marinelli helped the Lions improve four games in the standings in his second season as the Lions finished at 7-9 but they were still tied for last in the NFC North with the Bears.  Still, the jury is out on him as a head coach as the Lions lost 7 of their last 8 games this past season.  Marinelli has now been the head coach of the Lions for two seasons and he has compiled a 10-22 record (.313 %).

Maybe the answer to the QB position for the Lions will be Drew Stanton who missed all of his rookie season due to injury.  That’s because Jon Kitna has proven that he’s nothing better than a decent backup QB because of all the turnovers that he commits.  Kitna played in all 16 games last season for the Lions and he completed 355 of 561 passes (63.3%) for 4,068 yards with 18 TD passes and 20 interceptions (80.9 QB Rating).  He also has carried the ball 25 times for 63 yards (2.5 ypc).  Kitna has now played in 124 games in his NFL career and he has completed 2,394 of 3,994 passes (59.9%) for 26,535 yards with 147 TD passes and 146 interceptions (76.8 QB Rating).  He also has carried the ball 273 times for 777 yards (2.8 ypc) with 10 TD runs.

J.T. O’Sullivan got his first taste of throwing the football in a NFL game this season.  He played in 5 games for the Lions this season and he completed 13 of 26 passes (50%) for 148 yards with 1 TD pass and 2 interceptions (48.2 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 4 times for a loss of 10 yards (-2.5 ypc).  O’Sullivan had never thrown a pass in a regular season game until this season but he did carry the ball 2 times for a loss of 2 yards.

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The Detroit Lions got plastered by the backups on the Packers as they limped home with a 7-9 record on the season after getting off to a surprising 6-2 start.  Jon Kitna had another bad game as he completed 22 of 48 passes for 246 yards with 1 TD pass and 2 interceptions.  T.J. Duckett led the Lions in rushing with 29 yards on 13 carries (2.2 ypc) and he also caught 2 passes for 32 yards.  Shaun McDonald (5 rec, 67 yards, TD), Calvin Johnson (4 rec, 54 yards) and Mike Furrey (6 rec, 47 yards) all had decent games.  The Lions finished with 47 yards rushing on 17 carries (2.8 ypc) and they also completed 22 of 48 passes for 246 yards.

Linebackers Paris Lenon and Ernie Sims led the way for the Lions defense with 7 tackles apiece.  The Packers finished up with 217 yards rushing on 38 carries (5.7 ypc) and they also completed 16 of 26 passes for 177 yards.