Let us look back and see how well the lions hunted for their prey and see if in the upcoming year they will be about to kill their opponents on the field or if they are going to be the ones to get slaughtered.

Let us look back and see how well the lions hunted for their prey and see if in the upcoming year they will be about to kill their opponents on the field or if they are going to be the ones to get slaughtered.

In 2000, the Lions get off to a good beginning.  They won five of their first seven games. Then they experienced one lose after another and head coach Bobby Ross resigns. Coach Gary Moeller takes over as head coach.  Moeller helped the Lions win their first three games, and they looked like they were going to make the play-off with an 8-4 record. Unfortunately, the Lions would lose three of their final four games and they did not make the play-offs (boohoo).  At the end of the season, Moeller got the boot when new club president Matt Millen took over and hired Marty Mornhinweg to coach the Lions.

In 2001, the final season in the Pontiac Silverdome was terrible. The Lions went through three Quarterbacks, and became the laughing stock. On December 16 rookie QB Mike McMahon finally ended the Lions season long frustrations by leading the way in a win over the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions would go on to finish with 14 losses (Talk about bad!). However, they were able to end the season on a positive note by winning just their second game of the season against the Dallas Cowboy to close out the Silverdome.

In 2002, after playing one of the worst seasons in history the Lions hoped to be able to begin a new year from scrape as they opened a new stadium in downtown Detroit, with a rookie QB Joey Harrington.  Unfortunately, they lost their first two games on the road Harrington would make his first appearance as the Lions played the Green Bay Packers in the first game at Ford Field. Harrington would have a solid game as the Lions lost 37-31. Though showing typical rookie unstableness Harrington would help the Lions to three wins their next five games. Then things got bad as fans in Detroit called for the jobs of GM Matt Millen and Coach Marty Morhinweg. The disapproval of Mornhinweg grew even louder when he chose to kickoff in overtime in a November 24 road game against the Chicago Bears. The Bears would score on their first possession as the Lions and Morhinweg became the laughing stock once again! The Lions would go on to lose their final eight games and finish in last place with a 3-13 record. Mornhinweg was soon fired (go figure) as the Lions hired former San Francisco 49ers Coach Steve Mariucci, who has a good reputation of turning young QBs into winners.

In 2003, Steve Mariucci lead the teams in class with a terrific 42-24 win over the Arizona Cardinals at Ford Field, as Joey Harrington had four Touchdowns passes. The thrill did not last long as the Lions lost their next six games, as super rookie WR Charlie Rogers is lost for the season to a collarbone injury. The Lions would go on to finish the season in last place again with a 5-11 record. The Lions would play solid football all season at Ford Field but the road would be their undoing as they lost all 8-road games for the 3rd season in a row establishing a new NFL record for a terrible 24 straight losses.

In 2004, the Lions begin the season by ending 3 years of embarrassment ending their record 24-game road-losing streak by beating the Chicago Bears 20-16. A week later in their home opener the Lions would improve to 2-0 with a win over the Houston Texans. After a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Lions would win another road game surprising the Atlanta Falcons 17-10. This would be the greatest point the Lions would achieve as they struggled the rest of the way winning just 3 more games as they posted a 6-10 record as fans began to question weather QB Joey Harrington was ever going to live up to the hype he got when the Lions drafted him. While fans booed Harrington, two rookies gave Lions fans hope RB Kevin Jones who led the team with 1,133 TD, and WR Roy Williams ho had a team high eight Touchdowns while collecting 817 yards in receptions.

Now in 2005, with three young fast receivers and a rising star at RB, fourth QB Joey Harrington is out of excuses. The Lions had brought in Jeff Garcia to add some extra pressure, but Garcia went down in the preseason. Now it is up to Joey, and he will fine shine leading the Lions to a Division Title.  Nevertheless, as we can see from the past plays the lions were not the ones hunting for prey.  They were the ones being slaughtered!