Lions' Kitna: So much wrong, so little right

Lions quarterback Jon Kitna sounded like the leader of an 0-4 team that has been outscored by 81 points.

"I've been better," Kitna kind of moaned as he opened Wednesday's conference call with Minnesota reporters.

He was a whole lot better on Nov. 4, 2007. That's when the Lions thrashed Denver 44-7 to raise their record to 6-2.

Since then, not so good. The Lions have gone 1-11, fired team president Matt Millen and plopped head coach Rod Marinelli on the league's hottest of hot seats.

It hasn't been pretty, or even remotely competitive this season. The Lions have been outscored 38-0 in the first quarter, 80-20 in the first half, and their 81-point overall differential through four games is the worst in the history of a downtrodden franchise that has one playoff victory since 1957.

As the Lions prepare for Sunday's game against the Vikings at the Metrodome, we basically asked, "What in the world is going on in Detroit?"

"I wish I could put a finger on that for you," Kitna said. "But I think there's too many factors to even really start to talk about one thing. There's been a lot of things that have caused us problems, and continue to cause us problems."

As a starting point, Kitna offered turnovers as the biggest problem. The Lions rank last in the league in turnover differential (minus-6). They've turned the ball over eight times and are tied for last in takeaways with two. The Lions also are the only team in the league that hasn't intercepted a pass.

Kitna ranks 26th in passing with a 72.2 rating. He left Sunday's game because of back spasms with the Lions trailing the Bears 24-0 in the second half. Dan Orlovsky replaced him, but Marinelli said Wednesday that Kitna will start against the Vikings if he's healthy. Kitna didn't practice Wednesday and is day to day.

The Vikings are preparing for both quarterbacks. They're also being careful not to say anything that will come close to motivating the Lions.

Quarterback Gus Frerotte guaranteed a "tough game" before mentioning that a member of the team's public relations staff told him that the Lions were 0-12 when they beat the Vikings during the 13th game of the 2001 season. Coach Brad Childress also tiptoed while talking about the Lions.

"I personally worry about a team like this just from a standpoint of playing loose, playing free, playing easy," Childress said. "They have everything to gain, nothing to lose."

The Lions rank among the bottom three teams in the league in nine statistical categories. They're last in total defense, yards allowed per play, pass defense, interceptions and points allowed per game.

"As I look at it," said Marinelli, "We just got to start doing something well."

That would be a start.