"You don't overreact to a couple of games. That's what the "old" Lions would do. Give up 45 points in each of the last two games and start blowing things up — fire the coordinator, fire the position coach, overhaul the system and the roster.

Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz are smarter than that. They have brought this defense too far to start over now. Their evaluation will be based on 17 games, not two. The good that was done in the first half of the season will be processed along with the ugliness of the final two games.

As they deconstruct the 2011 season they will absolutely red-flag the final nine games where the defense gave up an average 31.6 points after the bye week."