Harrington Leads The Lions To Another Loss

Thankfully Joey Harrington doesn't have to play for the hapless Detroit Lions anymore, being involved in a trade that sent him to the Miami Dolphins. As the young high-profile draft pick, Joey was singled out by the fans and media as the total saviour of a franchise looking to break themselves out of a lengthy stretch of mediocrity, lasting four years from 2002 until 2005. As the Lions continue to flounder as one of the worst franchises in the National Football League, it's become painfully obvious to even the most vocal anti-Joey fans (not so sure about Lions cornerback Dre Bly or ex-Lions coach Steve Mariucci) that the problem with the Lions wasn't the total fault of Joey.

Okay, the Dolphins were only playing the Lions, but it was still enough for them to chalk up their fourth straight victory and put them right back into playoff contention. We shall see as the Dolphins schedule toughens down the stretch how Joey fares, but the big picture is that he's played very well on a team that knows how to block and catch passes (the Dolphins still need a bit of work on the running game part though). The defense stepped up as well, clamping down on Lions receiver Roy Williams who was their primary offensive weapon in the first half as the Lions stepped out to a 10-0 lead. As the Lions fell apart, Joey and the Dolphins went to work on nice ball control drives.

Bly, who had said last year that Harrington was the problem for the Lions, was curiously unavailable for comment after the game, and I didn't hear Mariucci, working the Tampa Bay at Dallas game, comment at all on what the Dolphins did. It was nice to see Joey get the Gatorade shower (when was the last time a non-coach got that?) as well as the blackberry cobbler and All Iron award from CBS as the player of the game.

Some lovely pics of a game that I thoroughly enjoyed (this coming from a person who has very little time to watch the NFL on tv).



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