The Lions are putrid, disgusting, pitiful, incredibly awful, etc. Just think of a negative adjective and you can easily apply it to Detroit. They are 0-14 and have incredible potential to go 0-16. They have started three different quarterbacks who haven't put a W on the board: Jon Kitna, Dan Orlovsky and Dante Culpepper. Two of them are veterans and close to household names, the other is the unknown who has consistently outperformed the others.Sure Orlovsky is forever going to be known as the dumb ass who ran straight out of the end zone for a safety, but the fact is he has played vastly superior to his teammates. In games in which Orlovsky has started (5 in total) the Lions have lost by a combined 25 points or an average of 5 a game. These starts came against the Colts, Texans, Vikings, Bears and Washington before they turned dogshit. Meanwhile in games started by Kitna or Culpepper (9 in total), the Lions have lost by an average of 19+. The only double digit defeat with Orlovsky under center came this week against the Colts. Meanwhile, the Lions 7 times under Culpepper and Kitna lost by 10+ points.
In the games started by Orlovsky he's played at a QB rating of 88.58, which certainly isn't spectacular but not futile. He's only thrown two interceptions, both coming in the game he tore up his thumb. Meanwhile he's thrown for 6 touchdowns and averaged 233 yards per contest. None of this is Pro-Bowl worthy but it just might be good enough to give him a realistic shot of winning the starting job in 2009.
Quick Note: He graduated in my senior class in high school, so you gotta hope the hometown kid gets a shot.
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