The Lions went to Philadelphia as underdog’s this week and left with a 26-23 victory. The Lions faced a 3-2 (now 3-3) Eagles team struggling to find out what they are. Struggling to keep belief in their 100 million dollar QB Michael Vick, as he threw 2 INT’s and had a lost fumble. Vick now leads the league in fumbles to add to his league leading total in turnover’s.
The Eagles fell behind early as Detroit got 2 FG’s for a 6-0 lead in a very slow 1st quarter. Philly ended the 2nd quarter with a 2 yard TD pass to Leshawn McCoy to take a 7-6 half time lead. The Detroit Offense was a no show in the 1st half as Stafford had a 6 for 18 completion rate at one point missing wide open receivers while taking a glut of penalties (this team is still very undisciplined on and off the field with 15 total penalties in the game). Every chance the Lions looked like they were going to score big a false start ended any hopes of getting in the endzone as the team’s penalty total was the highest for a team so far this year.
The Lions’ defense on the other hand was a nightmare for Philadelphia.
Detroit’s sack total didn’t show it but Vick was hit hard several times in the 1st half making him hesitate on the throw and essentially run for his life. With this pressure it allowed a returning Louis Delmas and Chris Houston to get themselves an interception each as the defensive line probably had their best game of the season.
If the Lions’ defensive line creates this pressure consistently the rest of the season they have a chance to turn back into a potential playoff team.
As the second half opened up Eagles kicker Alex Henry started the scoring with 3 straight FG’s to get Philadelphia to a 16-6 lead. The Lions answered with a bootleg sweep by Stafford 3 minutes later to finish a successful drive, cutting Philly’s lead to three 16-13.
Unfortunately old habits for the Lions continue to haunt them in the secondary as Chris Houston blew his coverage on Jeremy Maclin. This resulted in a 70 yard touchdown reception from Vick to put the Eagles ahead 23-13.
But as we’ve seen before though you simply cannot count out the Lions, especially in late close games.
Stafford was able to march his team down the field less than two minutes later for a touchdown pass to Nate Burleson once again cutting the Philadelphia lead down to three 23-20.
From there the Detroit defense stepped up yet again to give the offense a chance to complete the comeback. Ndamukong Suh had a huge pass deflection to get the ball back to Stafford who had a chance to take the lead but settled for a filed goal sending the game to overtime tied at 23.
In overtime the Lions Defense again over powered a talented Eagles offense, pushing Philly backward and forcing them to punt the ball away. Stephan Logan fielding at mid field left Detroit in great position to set up Hanson up for a game winning 45 yard field goal.
