Season Review Week 1-7: Detroit Lions – Part II
We continue our three part series reviewing the Detroit Lions performance in the first seven games of the season.
So lets get right to it.
Week 3: At Tennessee Titans
Detroit Lions arrived in Nashville to face the winless Titans and what followed was an epic encounter with some big scoring plays from both teams.
Poor officiating from the replacement officials also played a part as the Lions and Titans kept on trying to outscore each other with none of the two teams ready to give up.
Tennessee took a 20-9 lead in the first half but were pegged back by Detroit in a fourth quarter featuring numerous swings and near misses.
Detroit regained the advantage early on in the fourth as Nate Burleson combined with quarterback Matthew Stafford to put the Lions up 27-20.
However, Tennessee countered brilliantly with Darius Reynaud restoring parity with a 105-yard kickoff return while the Titans quarterback Jake Locker sent a massive 71-yard pass to Nate Washington to regain the Titans advantage.
A 72-yard fumble return by Alterraun Verner put Tennessee firmly in the driving seat with a score of 41-27 and 1:16 left on the clock.
Detroit though were not done yet and on a day when both team’s defences struggled to stop the offence, the Lions countered with backup quarterback Shaun Hill sending a three-yard pass to Calvin Johnson who scored his first touchdown for the season to bring
the Lions just a scoring play away from tying the game.
Hill had to make a big play in the dying seconds and he did just that finding Titus Young in the end zone with a 46-yard pass to tie the game and send it to overtime.
However, the Lions lost the game in overtime when Tennessee scored a field goal to win the game 44-41 and send Detroit to its second straight loss.
Week 4: Against Minnesota Vikings
The Lions welcomed the 3-1 Minnesota Vikings to Ford Field for a crucial game as they aimed to avoid another defeat.
However, defensively things did not turn out well for the Lions once again.
Mistakes in covering kicks by Detroit’s defensive unit gave the Minnesota Vikings two huge touchdown scores allowing them to win the low scoring game 20-13.
The Lions offence was off its stride as well with Stafford failing to provide any scoring passes while his lone touchdown on the rush in the fourth quarter was not enough to see the poor performing Lions through.
Minnesota’s wide receiver, Percy Harvin got the ball rolling with a wonderful 105-yard run to the end zone for a kickoff return just seconds after the game began.
Both teams struggled to make scoring plays but Detroit’s poor defending allowed Minnesota to build up a huge lead.
By the third quarter the Vikings were up 20-6 after Marcus Sherels once again took advantage of poor coverage to score a 77-yard punt return.
Detroit’s move to make a comeback came to nothing and Stafford’s touchdown came too little too late to make any impact on the game’s result.
It was a big defeat for the Lions who dropped to the bottom of the NFC North Division after their third straight loss.
The Lions had a bye-week coming up at just the right time as they needed the time-off to get their heads straight.
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