This was a blowout waiting to happen.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were no match for the Detroit Lions on Sunday. It was time for Detroit to make a statement with a blowout game at home.
Yet, somehow, the Lions lose and I get the inevitable text, “Now we can say same old Lions.”
The game would have been unbelievable if this were any team other than the Lions. Any long-time Lions fan knows the disappointment, heartbreak, and frustration of seeing their team lose in implausibly new and unpredictable ways.
With less than a minute left and only down by three, Matthew Stafford puts the ball right in the hands of Calvin Johnson—the best player on the field and possibly in all of football. Since it’s impossible to compare a wide receiver with a quarterback or running back or any other position, really, we’ll just say what is widely agreed upon: the man called Megatron is the best wide receiver in football.
What happens?
Megatron grabs the ball, starts to turn up-field, gets hit, the ball pops out and a rookie cornerback who can’t even find the ‘a’ in his own name finds the ball in his hands.
Sorry, that was mean, Johnthan Banks. Spell your name however you want. You put yourself in the right spot to make that game winning play.
Still, no one would expect the loss to come from the football popping out of the hands of Megatron.
But that was the fifth turnover of the game for Detroit! Five turnovers?! With five turnovers (and none forced in return), a football team should be long out of any game in the NFL!
Yet the Lions still looked like they would win at the end of the game.
The Buccaneers did not go to Detroit and win this game. Unimaginable turnovers gave this game to Tampa Bay.
Matthew Stafford is going to get handed the blame for this one. Much of it lies on his shoulders as Stafford threw four interceptions. But that stat does lie a little bit.
The final interception, the throw to Megatron described above, was actually a very good pass that should have set up a game winning play or even could have been the game winning play in and of itself with Calvin Johnson’s freakish ability.
Stafford’s second interception of the game was not the best throw. But the intended receiver, Brandon Pettigrew, ducked under the ball allowing a pick six to happen!
What professional football player ducks from a pass?
I don’t want to rip on Pettigrew; he’s played pretty well for the Lions this year and ameliorated the interception with an excellent touchdown catch later in the game. Of course, to fully negate a pick six, it takes two scores.
Still, two of the interceptions deserved to be interceptions, even if the one required an excellent read, play on the ball, and tip drill to pull off.
Even the four interceptions weren’t enough to make the Lions lose this game. Another turnover came when Kris Durham caught a pass from Stafford and somehow managed to throw the ball in bounds while he was falling out of bounds. Of course, the Buccaneers recovered on this bizarre play.
As has felt the case through the many years past, it was as though fate was against the Detroit Lions.
But Sunday could have been much worse.
As fate would have it, the Bears also suffered a loss Sunday and the Packers failed to beat the Vikings (although they did avoid a loss with a comeback tie), keeping the Lions at first place in the NFC North.
I’m not buying fate is against the Lions and I’m still not buying “same old Lions” talk.
If ever there was a curse of Bobby Lane, the 50 years have passed. And there were many good things to point to in this game.
What the Buccaneers had been doing well recently to put them on a two-game winning streak (and almost a three-game winning streak) before entering Detroit was running the ball.
The Buccaneers only managed 22 net yards rushing against the Lions according to NFL.com. 22 yards! The whole game!
That’s exciting news coming up on a Green Bay game when the Packers are so dependent on the running of Eddie Lacy without Aaron Rodgers (not to mention what will likely be an important final game of the regular season against Adrian Peterson at Minnesota).
But the Lions rush defense has been consistently very good of late. What about Detroit’s weakness: the secondary?
The secondary doesn’t need to be stellar. Limiting offenses to just one or two big plays (by big plays I’m talking about things like Tampa Bay’s 85-yard touchdown pass on Sunday) should be enough for the Lions to win almost any game. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that Tampa Bay cracked that big play on Detroit. The secondary played well enough that the Lions’ high powered offense, which put the ball in the end zone three times Sunday despite the five turnovers, should have been able to easily outscore the Buccaneers.
At the end of the game, the Lions’ defense was twice in tough spots where the Buccaneers got the ball at the Detroit 11 and the Detroit 37, respectively. Both times, the defense kept the Buccaneers from getting in the end zone or even earning a single first down.
The defense played well enough to win.
Special Teams got a punt blocked this game. Punts and field goals blocked has been a recurring issue this season that Detroit must address. The offense has to get back to protecting the ball, which they did a good job of at the beginning of the season.
Detroit is still poised to win the division. But it will take poise. With Nate Burleson and Ziggy Ansah back, the Lions are as healthy as any team in the NFL could hope to be. Now it’s time to beat Green Bay on Thanksgiving and be the team that shocks anyone expecting the “same old Lions” to show up from here on out.
