Every so often I come across examples of corporate governance where two facts stick out like a sore thumb:

1. The wrong guys were fired
2. nobody has been fooled by the firing - everybody can see that the wrong guys were fired

Well, Steve Mariucci has been fired, replaced (on an interim basis) by Dick Jauron. From a timing perspective, this is incomprehensible. Interim coaches very rarely land the job on a permanent basis. From that viewpoint, all that the Lions have done is replaced one dead-man-walking with another dead-man-walking. It is inconceivable that Jauron is going to magically improve the performance of the team in the remaining 5 games.
Matt Millen's coaching appointees are now a combined 20-55. One would think that with a coaching and drafting record represented by those results, the Lions would be showing Millen the door along with Mariucci. Accountability should begin at the top. Firing the coach is yet another example of a corporate cop-out. It seems that Lions president William Clay Ford has been persuaded to keep giving Millen chances, but cannot extend the same largesse to Mariucci. Firing Mariucci will be expensive, since he had over 2 years left on his contract (at around $5m per year) which the Lions will have to pay up.
It seems that the players are also not fooled by this development. Here, in an ESPN article, both Dre' Bly and Jeff Garcia point the finger upwards in the organization (towards Millen) and downwards (towards the beleaguered figure of QB Joey Harrington). This may, of course, not sit well with Millen, but my guess is that neither player wants to play for the Lions next year, so they felt that they had nothing to lose by speaking out.
With this move, the Lions may well have taken over the prize of NFL Idiot Franchise from the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals still have a mediocre team, but at least they no longer have a dysfunctional management and coaching approach.