The Lions incredibly found another way to lose a football game Sunday, falling to the Indianapolis Colts 35-33 from Ford Field. Detroit dominated Indy in the box score crushing the Colts in time of possession (37 minutes to 22 minutes) yet settling for field goals in the red zone which will ultimately lose you football games. Too many times the Lions offense prematurely puts the brakes on and settled for three points allowing the Colts to hang around and score five touchdowns to win.
Things started out with both teams throwing the football all over with Detroit taking the early lead and controlling things most of the game. But like I’ve said many times before the Lions fail to do the little things that in the end make up for a lot. Never mind Megatron’s career game as it doesn’t matter in a loss. For as dominate as Calvin Johnson was you wonder if he has anything to offer in the defensive secondary?
But what are the little things taken from today’s game?
- Two offside penalties that continued Colts drives.
- More dropped passes, can Stafford get some help? Even with Calvin’s big day he still left yards on the field. Pettigrew continues to disappoint and Mike Thomas was given a chance today and failed to leave an impression.
- Detroit’s secondary is awful and the practice squad carousal is getting old. Maybe, just maybe address this need in the draft?
- Settling for field goals as drives die. You have to kick three field goals to overcome one touchdown. And just how did the Colts win? They scored touchdowns.
And perhaps to make matters worse Andrew Luck was less than impressive today. He had 30 passes go incomplete yet had 24 passes caught for 391 yards. Detroit missed tackles and allowed Indy’s wide outs to go unchecked in open field. But even with Luck not being sharp the Colts’ game plan never wavered from throwing on the Lions’ secondary.
And once again Lions head coach Jim Schwartz was out coached in the game by a back up head coach with the Colts in Bruce Arians nonetheless. Arains who is filling in for Chuck Pagano as he battles cancer had his team play with heart and plenty of energy while seemingly half of the Detroit roster went missing.
If there is anything to take away for this game Ndamukong Suh looked like a man among boys. He had his best game as a Lion with the Colts offensive line having no answer. Suh ended his day with a sack, plenty of quarterback pressure and pass deflections. Calvin Johnson had a career day with 13 catches, but it was the would be 14th reception on a 3rd down that could of left Detroit in better position to win.
Detroit now has eight loses and will continue to play for next year. With five free agents on defense and Suh set to make 11 million you have to ask yourself how the Lions move forward? This is year four of a rebuild and the Lions look to be moving backwards yet again.