Golden Tate: Opponents know what Lions are going to do before snap
Through three games and three losses, the Detroit Lions offense has struggled to get going.
Detroit's spate of weapons at the skill positions has not been threatening to opponents. Most recently, the Denver Broncos held the Lions to just 12 points.
Broncos cornerback Bradley Roby made stopping the Lions sound easy, saying his team "pretty much knew" what Matthew Stafford's crew was going to do, according to Josh Katzenstein of The Detroit News.
In an interview with Matt Dery on Detroit Sports 105.1, Lions wide receiver Golden Tate didn't deny that his team's offense is a dead giveaway to opponents. In fact, he even said players on the other side of the ball were calling out Detroit's plays before the snap -- in each of the first three games.
I haven't heard that yet from that player. I didn't read anything about it but that's not the first time this year that another player has said that. I've had a couple occasions in literally each game, where they called out our play for one, then afterwards been like 'hey, we knew what you guys were doing.' I don't know how they know or what film they're watching that we're giving away...that's something we got to go back and watch our tendencies to figure out where we line up or how we line up or what formation or whatever it may be. We've got to figure it out because we're clearly giving away. All three weeks, a player's come up to me and said, 'We knew what you were going to do.' That's bad.
This comes one day after Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said he would not take the offensive play-calling duties away from coordinator Joe Lombardi, per NFL Network's Andrew Siciliano.
With tough matchups against the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals coming up, things won't get easier for a listless Lions offense any time soon.
