1978 Detroit Lions season

1978 Detroit Lions season
Owner	William Clay Ford Sr.
General manager	Russ Thomas
Head coach	Monte Clark
Home stadium	Pontiac Silverdome
Results
Record	7–9
Division place	3rd NFC Central
Playoffs	Did not qualify
All-Pros	1 DE Al Baker
Pro Bowlers	3 TE David Hill DT Doug English DE Al Baker
←  1977 Lions seasons 1979  →

The 1978 Detroit Lions season was the franchise's 49th season in the National Football League. Under new head coach and former NFL player Monte Clark, the Lions continue to struggle with mediocrity finishing in third place again with a less than stellar record of 7–9.

This season would also be the swan song for starting quarterback Greg Landry's stellar ten-year career in Detroit, as in the offseason Landry was shipped to the Baltimore Colts for a 1979 fourth round pick (#88—Ulysses Norris), a 1979 fifth round pick (#131—Walt Brown), and a 1980 third round pick (#62—Mike Friede), in a rebuilding process begun by head coach Monte Clark. ^{[1] [2]}

Offseason

NFL draft

Main article: 1978 NFL draft

1978 Detroit Lions draft
Round	Pick	Player	Position	College	Notes
1	11	Luther Bradley	CB	Notre Dame
2	40	Al Baker *	DE	Colorado State
4	94	Bill Fifer	OT	West Texas State
4	107	Homer Elias	G	Tennessee State	from Baltimore
4	109	Larry Tearry	C	Wake Forest	from Denver
5	121	Amos Fowler	G	Southern Mississippi
5	123	Dan Gray	DE	Rutgers	from San Diego
6	150	Dwight Hicks *	S	Michigan
6	153	Tony Ardizzone	C	Northwestern
6	165	Jesse Thompson	WR	California	from Denver
7	177	Bruce Gibson	RB	Pacific
8	206	Jim Breech	K	California
10	262	Fred Arrington	LB	Purdue
11	289	Richard Murray	DT	Oklahoma
12	318	Mark Patterson	DB	Washington State
Made roster    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

^[3]

Notes

• Detroit traded its third-round pick (67th) and seventh-round pick in 1979 to Cleveland in exchange for the rights to K Tom Skladany.
• Detroit traded DT Herb Orvis to Baltimore in exchange for the Colts' fourth-round pick (107th).
• Detroit traded P Herman Weaver to Denver in exchange for the Broncos' fourth- and sixth-round picks (109th and 165th).
• Detroit traded LB Jim Laslavic to San Diego in exchange for the Chargers' fifth- and sixth-round picks (123rd and 153rd).
• Detroit traded its ninth-round pick (233rd) to San Francisco in exchange for K Steve Mike-Mayer.

Personnel

Staff

1978 Detroit Lions staff

Front office President – William Clay Ford Sr. Executive Vice President and General Manager – Russ Thomas Director of Football Operations – Monte Clark Administrative Assistant – Doug Gerhart Head coaches Head Coach – Monte Clark Offensive coaches Quarterbacks and Receivers – Bob Schnelker Offensive Backfield – Jimmy Raye Offensive Line – Fred Hoaglin

Defensive coaches Defensive Line – Floyd Reese Linebackers – Marty Schottenheimer Defensive Backfield – Billy Atkins Special teams coaches Special Teams – Don Doll

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Roster

1978 Detroit Lions roster

Quarterbacks (QB) 16 Gary Danielson 11 Greg Landry 14 Joe Reed Running backs (RB) 24 Dexter Bussey 31 Ken Callicutt 38 Lawrence Gaines 32 Rick Kane 25 Horace King Wide receivers (WR) 89 Luther Blue 86 Willie McGee 87 Freddie Scott 39 Leonard Thompson Tight ends (TE) 83 William Gay 81 David Hill

Offensive linemen (OL) 76 Karl Baldischwiler T 60 Lynn Boden G 66 Karl Chandler C 61 Homer Elias G 65 Amos Fowler G 67 Donnie Green T 63 Donnie Hickman G 74 Brad Oates T 53 John Sokolosky C 54 Larry Tearry C Defensive linemen (DL) 60 Al Baker DE 72 Bill Cooke DE 78 Doug English DT 64 Dan Gray DT 75 Dave Pureifory DE 77 John Woodcock DT

Linebackers (LB) 58 Tony Daykin OLB 57 Dan Dickel MLB 55 Ed O'Neil MLB 50 Paul Naumoff OLB 52 Dave Washington OLB 59 Charlie Weaver OLB Defensive backs (DB) 40 Jimmy Allen FS 27 Luther Bradley CB 29 Mike Burns SS 28 James Hunter CB 26 Tony Leonard CB 33 Bruce Rhodes SS 21 Walt Williams CB Special teams (ST)  1 Benny Ricardo K 15 Tom Skladany P

Reserve 73 Russ Bolinger G (IR) 43 Andy Bolton RB (IR) -- Howard Fest T (IR) 71 Dave Gallagher DT (IR) -- J. D. Hill WR (IR) 23 Levi Johnson S (IR) -- Ken Long G (Ret.) 68 Mark Markovich G (IR) 82 Ken Sanders DE (IR) 79 Dave Simonson T (IR) 47 Nat Terry CB (IR) 84 Jesse Thompson WR (IR) -- Jim Yarbrough T (IR) Rookies in italics

Regular season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
1	September 3	Green Bay Packers	L 7–13	0–1	Pontiac Silverdome	51,187
2	September 9	at Tampa Bay Buccaneers	W 15–7	1–1	Tampa Stadium	64,445
3	September 17	Chicago Bears	L 0–19	1–2	Pontiac Silverdome	65,982
4	September 24	at Seattle Seahawks	L 16–28	1–3	Kingdome	60,040
5	October 1	at Green Bay Packers	L 14–35	1–4	Milwaukee County Stadium	54,601
6	October 8	Washington Redskins	L 19–21	1–5	Pontiac Silverdome	60,555
7	October 15	at Atlanta Falcons	L 0–14	1–6	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	51,172
8	October 22	San Diego Chargers	W 31–14	2–6	Pontiac Silverdome	54,031
9	October 29	at Chicago Bears	W 21–17	3–6	Soldier Field	53,378
10	November 5	at Minnesota Vikings	L 7–17	3–7	Metropolitan Stadium	46,008
11	November 12	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	W 34–23	4–7	Pontiac Silverdome	60,320
12	November 19	at Oakland Raiders	L 17–29	4–8	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum	44,517
13	November 23	Denver Broncos	W 17–14	5–8	Pontiac Silverdome	71,785
14	December 3	at St. Louis Cardinals	L 14–21	5–9	Busch Memorial Stadium	39,200
15	December 9	Minnesota Vikings	W 45–14	6–9	Pontiac Silverdome	78,685
16	December 17	San Francisco 49ers	W 33–14	7–9	Pontiac Silverdome	56,674
Note: Intra-division games are in bold text

Game summaries

Week 9: at Chicago Bears

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
•Lions	7	14	0	0	21
Bears	3	7	7	0	17

• Date: October 29
• Location: Soldier Field, Chicago
• Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST
• Game weather: 48 °F or 8.9 °C, wind 10 miles per hour (16 km/h; 8.7 kn)
• TV announcers (CBS): Tim Ryan, Johnny Morris and sideline reporter Bill Mazer

• Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com

Scoring summary

1		Lions	Horace King 1 yard run (Benny Ricardo kick)	Lions 7–0
1		Bears	Bob Thomas 28 yard field goal	Lions 7–3
2		Lions	Jesse Thompson 8 yard pass from Gary Danielson (Benny Ricardo kick)	Lions 14–3
2		Bears	Bob Avellini 9 yard run (Bob Thomas kick)	Lions 14–10
2		Lions	David Hill 2 yard pass from Gary Danielson (Benny Ricardo kick)	Lions 21–10
3		Bears	Roland Harper 2 yard run (Bob Thomas kick)	Lions 21–17

Standings

NFC Central
view talk edit	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Minnesota Vikings (3)	8	7	1	.531	5–2–1	7–4–1	294	306	L2
Green Bay Packers	8	7	1	.531	5–2–1	6–5–1	249	269	L2
Detroit Lions	7	9	0	.438	4–4	5–7	290	300	W2
Chicago Bears	7	9	0	.438	3–5	7–5	253	274	W2
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	5	11	0	.313	2–6	3–11	241	259	L4

References

1. Daytona Beach Journal, sports article April 30, 1979.
2. 1979 NFL Draft Pick Transactions, ProSportsTransactions.com, accessed March 31, 2012.
3. "1978 Detroit Lions Draftees". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
4. "Executive and coaching staff profiles". 1978 Detroit Lions Media Guide. pp. 3–11.

External links

• 1978 Detroit Lions at Pro-Football-Reference.com