Sunday afternoon the Lions suffered their first loss of the season 25-19 at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers from Ford Field.
San Francisco was able to score the victory off of a late touchdown in which 49ers QB Alex Smith was able to hit Delanie Walker for a 6 yard TD. After the PAT by David Akers the 49ers were up 22-19 with 1:51 left in the fourth quarter. 49 seconds later Akers was able to put the game out of reach for the Lions when he was able to kick a 37 yard field goal.
On the other side of things Lions QB Matthew Stafford was 28 for 50 with 293 yards, 2 TDs and zero interceptions.
Stafford was able to hit TE Brandon Pettigrew on a nice pass play in the first quarter for a TD that initially put the Lions up 10-0.
Unfortunately though the Lions couldn’t stop the ground game from the 49ers.
San Francisco running back Frank Gore had 15 carries for 141 yards and 1 touchdown. His longest run of the day was for 55 yards.
Lions receiver Calvin Johnson also saw his consecutive TD streak come to an end. Megatron ended up having 7 receptions for 113 yards.
However what happened when the clock read all zeros at the end of the 4th quarter overshadowed the rest of the game.
Just prior to the handshakes between the coaches, 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh was seen jumping around celebrating with his players. Harbaugh then proceeded to give Schwartz a hand shake and a hard slap to the back which Schwartz seemed to take exception to.
The Lions head coach was then seen chasing down Harbaugh as he tried to leave the field while referees and team officials tried to separate the two.
Players ended up rushing to their respective coaches defenses as the altercation spread to the entrance tunnel of Ford Field. From there though things settled and no other incident was reported.
“I don’t know,” Schwartz said. “(I) went to congratulate coach Harbaugh and got shoved out of the way. (I) didn’t expect an obscenity at that point, so it was a surprise to me at the end of the game.
During the post game press conference, Harbaugh seemed to take the blame for what happened…
“I was just really revved up and it’s totally on me,” Harbaugh explained. “I shook his hand too hard. I went in and it was a strong kind of slap, grab handshake – kind of like the same as I’ve bee doing with (linebacker Blake) Costanzo and a few of the other guys. So that was on me – little too hard of a handshake there.”
Harbaugh further said that he couldn’t hear what Schwartz was saying to him as they were leaving the field and claims he didn’t say anything back to Schwartz even though the video clearly shows him doing so. Harbaugh also seemed ready to drop the entire issue.
“Not agitated, very happy, very happy with the win. It’s a great thrill of winning, great feeling of victory.”
Lions WR Nate Burleson said he wasn’t surprised to see his coach fired up according to Mlive.com…
“From the upstairs down – it doesn’t matter if you have a suit on or you’re suiting up for game day – everybody in this organization is passionate about what we’ve put together and the logo on our helmets,” Burleson said.
Burleson also had no issue with Harbaugh celebrating with his players after the game.
“When you beat a good team you celebrate,” Burleson said. “I’m not going to knock them at all for celebrating. If I was 5-1 and I just beat a 5-0 team, I’d be excited too.”
I’m sure we’ll be seeing fines handed down by the NFL to both coaches in the coming days. It’s also going to make for a very interesting press conference Monday afternoon.
Aside from the post game incident, the Lions didn’t play a completely bad game. They continued to move the ball through the air and accumulated 21 first downs opposed to San Francisco’s 14. They also limited their penalties with 6 for 54 yards, well below the 49ers’ 15 for 120.
The Lions also didn’t commit a turnover while San Francisco had 2 (1 interception, 1 fumble)
Still the Lions can’t get their running game together garnering only 66 yards, something that will cost them more games going forward if they can’t get it turned around.
Ref: Mlive.com, Twitter, Facebook (image), ESPN
