In what looked more like a regular season game at times than a preseason game the Detroit Lions beat the New England Patriots 34-10 Saturday night from Ford Field.
Much like the rest of his team, Lions QB Matthew Stafford outplayed his competition connecting on 12 passes out of 14 for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Even his incompletions were good attempts. Nate Burleson couldn’t control a catch before going out-of-bounds in the end-zone while Calvin Johnson had one go off his hands after some stiff coverage from the Patriots.
Brady on the other hand wasn’t nearly as sharp going 12/22 for 145 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
As far as some of the position battles go, running back Aaron Brown definitely made and impression in the second half. Rushing wise he managed 9 carries for 30 yards while in the air he had 4 receptions for 48 yards and 1 touchdown. Jerome Harrison had a decent game himself notching 3 receptions for 51 yards.
In terms of the kicking game, Jason Hanson whose actually competing for his job was 2 for 2 on field goals including a 46 yarder in the first half. Dave Rayner the man whose trying to take that job from Hanson was 0 for 1 on field goals. Now there’s not telling whether Jason Hanson is going to win the race but I still can’t see Hanson leaving the team after being forced out by another place kicker.
Even though Saturday night was only a preseason game this was still a nice win for Detroit against a very good team in the Patriots. Detroit was frustrating New England on both sides of the ball forcing the Patriots to take 10 penalties for 74 yards.
Something else to take out this game that was quite positive was Matthew Stafford getting hit.
On multiple occasions Stafford was hit pretty hard and jumped right back up from it and either went back to the huddle or off the field while the punting unit came on. Perhaps this is a good indication that his shoulder problems in past seasons are something that fans and Stafford himself can be put in the rear view mirror.
Now this win isn’t something that Lions fans can get too excited about but it’s something that Lions fans can get somewhat excited about considering the amount of positives that can be taken out of the game.
Source: NFL.com