FWIW to some of you...


Expect to see running game tonight
August 18, 2007

BY NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Mike Martz is known as a pass-happy play-caller. But he might do things differently in tonight's exhibition at Cleveland than he would do in a regular-season game.

He might do things a lot differently.

"Maybe go run, run, run, pass," the Lions' offensive coordinator said. "Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, pass. Might do something like that."

The Lions went into their exhibition opener against Cincinnati last week looking to run, run, run, at least with their first-teamers. They had added two offensive linemen and two running backs in the off-season after finishing last in the NFL in rushing last year.

Tatum Bell ran for 11 yards on the Lions' first offensive play. But that was the highlight.

"We would like to continue to get better in the running game," Martz said. "We need to kind of jell a little bit up front with the back and get on the same page with what we're doing.

"The timing of the running game and the back seeing it, that just takes a lot of work, and we've been doing a lot of that out here in the mornings, running the ball a great deal. Hopefully it'll transfer into the exhibition game."

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