Detroit Lions

Cowboys Take the Win

2005-11-21T09:11:00.000-05:00

During the game yesterday, the Cowboys played excellent defense and only let the Lions score a single touchdown, and they ended up winning with 20-7. The Lions played strong as well, but the Cowboys are just too good to beat sometimes. Dallas had a touchdown in each of the first 3 quarters, and the Lions came away with one in the second quarter. The Lions played well, and they probably could have gotten a few more touchdowns to tie it up if they didn't have the amount of penalties that they did. They kept losing yards due to penalties and it held them away from the end zone. The Cowboys also played a large part in keeping them away and running the time down. They have a strategy that works for them; I'd put my money on the Cowboys making it to the Superbowl. They are currently 7-3 wins/losses. I've even heard they're considering taking in T.O. This could be a good investment, but could also hurt the team if he continues to act up. The Lions are now at 4 wins and 6 losses. Unfortunately, this knocks them down to third place in their division, after Chicago and Minnesota. They need to develop a strategy like the Cowboys that emphasizes their strong points. Hopefully they can get it together soon enough to turn the numbers around and start to win more than they are losing. Maybe they can at least make it to the finals. There are many games ahead so who knows what will happen. Next week they are scheduled to play the Atlanta Falcons. They will have the home-field advantage, so hopefully this will be a win for the Lions.

T.O. in Time Out?

2005-11-18T08:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know this blog is about the Detroit Lions, but due to recent events in the league, I feel the need to comment on the whole ordeal with Terrell Owens (click for article). As I'm sure you've probably heard, he may have been kicked of the Philadelphia Eagles for good because of recent outbursts against his teammates and management. They call this "conduct detrimental to the team", and the maximum number of games you can suspend someone on these grounds is 4 games; however, Eagles Coach Andy Reid is considering suspending him regardless of the fact that he'll have to pay him for the other games. I personally have never really been an Eagles fan (sorry), but I'm even less of a T.O. fan. I understand that he is an amazing wide receiver, and has done a lot for the Eagles, but I agree with their coach's decision to suspend him. Apparently, his attitude has been causing problems for quite some time now, and this all happened as a result of many instances built up. Specifically, in an interview with ESPN.com, Terrell made a comment about the team being 7-0 (wins-losses) if they had had Green Bay's quarterback, Brett Farve. This was an indirect insult to Eagles QB, Donovan McNabb, whom Owens had never really gotten along with all that well. In an attempt at an apology, Owens did not mention McNabb at all. The team did not accept the apology as sincere, and Owens had to try again. This time, he apologized to the team, the president and owner of the team, his fans, and a direct apology to McNabb. Still, the Eagles think this is a little too late. I agree; if he's been acting up and his attitude has been a problem for some time now, one sincere apology is probably not enough to make amends.
I'm wondering what is going to happen to Terrell next year because he really is a good player. I just don't think a lot of teams are going to want to deal with his bad attitude. I'm sure some team will snatch him up just to have his skills as an asset. He probably won't be getting another $49 Million contract, though. What do you think? Take the poll!

Hope Is Not Lost

2005-11-13T23:58:00.000-05:00

They won! Yay! They're still tied for second with 4 wins and 5 losses. I wonder if this means they still have a chance of going to the Superbowl. I think they would win if they did. They'd be the underdog that hasn't won in so many years so a lot of people would cheer for them (like the Red Sox at the World Series). I think it's possible. They played the Arizona Cardinals today, and won with a final score of 29-21. More than the whole team with a win, wide receiver Roy Williams had an excellent game, scoring all three of Detroit's touchdowns. He caught 7 passes for 117 yards. He was the first player for Detroit that I'd ever heard of. I knew that he was good but he hadn't seemed to be making much progress until today. He definitely stepped up his game, and with Joey Harrington quarterbacking again, the two made a good team to pull the win. Harrington returned this game after being benched for 3 weeks, and he performed amazingly. 22 out of 32 of his passes were completed, gaining the team 231 yards. Maybe this will teach Coach Steve Mariucci to replace him with Jeff Garcia. See what happened when he did that? They started to lose. I hope this doesn't damper Garcia's enthusiasm. Hopefully the team won't be putting the blame for the losses on him because he quarterbacked during them. He'd probably be pretty bummed out.
Aside from that, Running back Kevin Jones had a good game, running 81 yards. He even had a single run of 36 yards, the longest of the season so far.

Maybe we'll be seeing more wins to come, now that they have Harrington starting again. The team probably also has their hopes and spirits back up, and it might reflect in the way they play next week. They are scheduled to play the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas. So far, the Cowboys have 5 wins and 3 losses. A little intimidating, but we'll see...

Loss to Vikings, Now at 3-5

2005-11-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

I'm getting slightly discouraged following this team. I knew when I started that they weren't the best, but they keep coming so close that you have to build up hope, and then you get let down. This time, it was against the Minnesota Vikings. The final score was 27-14. They fell way behind early in the game, and started to make their way up to tying, but they just didn't make it. This puts them at 3 wins and 5 losses. They're still second in their division behind Chicago, who has no 5 wins and 3 losses. The Bears just played against New Orleans and won 20-17.

Instead of going into more details of a depressing loss, I thought I would enlighten you with some fun videos to watch. Here is one about a Detroit Lions Legacy, Bobby Layne (click his name). Bobby Layne was the Lion's quarterback in the 50's and contributed to much of their success throughout that time period. He was known for partying just hours before his games and not abiding by normal player behavior. Bobby's most famous moment occured during a 1953 game against the Cleveland Browns, when the Lions were down by 6 with four minutes left in the game, and Bobby directed the team perfectly to an 80 yard touchdown with the extra point from a kick that had them win 17-16.
Here is his profile on NFL.com: Layne.

Next I'll show you a video about another legend on the team, Barry Sanders (click name). He was the Lion's running back from 1989 to 1998. He was the first running back to rush more than 1,000 yards during each of his 10 seasons. He made a Lion's record at the time during his very first season by rushing 1,470 yards. He was also the first running back in history to record five 1,500-yard rushing seasons.

To see more videos, click here.

So Close!

2005-10-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

Though they put up an exciting show, it wasn't enough to come away with a win this week. The Lions were down by 10 and came back up to tie in the second half, bringing them and the Chicago Bears into overtime. Unfortunately, the Bears found their way into the end zone before Detroit did. The overtime was back and fourth for five minutes between the teams, when Chicago cornerback Charles Tillman finally intercepted the ball from the Lions and made a touchdown.
This is becoming a pattern for the Lions. Three out of the four losses they've experienced this season so far have come down to the last possession. I'd say that's a good thing; even though they're losing, they aren't doing it by much (which reinforces my theory on a point-system scoring). Regardless, this puts Detroit at number 2 in the NFC North division. They've had 3 wins and 4 losses. Chicago is now at number 1 with 4 wins and 3 losses. After Detroit is Minnesota with 2 wins, 5 losses; and lastly Green Bay with only 1 win and 6 losses. So far, the only team left unbeaten is Indianapolis. They've got a perfect score of 7-0. The Cults are in the AFC South division.

As you can guess, before writing this I was not too sure what the different divisions were, besides regions. From what I understand, there are 8 divisions: the AFC North, South, East and West; and the NFC North, South, East and West. The AFC and the NFC are different conferences, standing for American Football Conference and National Football Conference. Each then has its own playoffs at the end of the regular season to decide who will play in the Super Bowl. So all Detroit has to do is win its division games, then the conference games, and then the Super Bowl. No problem.

Road Victory

2005-10-23T23:37:00.000-04:00

The team had their first regular season road victory against the Cleveland Browns. The score ended at 13-10 with a solid effort from the defensive line. Jared DeVries and Dan Wilkinson each had two sacks on the quarterback. Kicker Jason Hanson had two field goals (although that's not technically offense), and Jeff Garcia scored a touchdown. Someone once told me that the kicker is called a "lonely kicker" because he doesn't play in any other part of the game besides kicking the ball. A little sad, but at least he doesn't get tackled.

The offense had a good game as well, minus a few injuries. There was talk of quarterback Jeff Garcia replacing Joey Harrington for the day before the game, but Coach Mariucci would not state beforehand. Well it turns out he did replace him, and Garcia played well. He found eight different receivers throughout the game to pass to, including Mike Williams, who's a rookie, AND he scored a touchdown. Williams had a really good game as well, making his career-high of five receptions. Unfortunately, for some it was not quite as good a game. Shaun Rogers (defensive tackle: tackles people) injured his knee, Dre Bly (cornerback: defense stationed outside linebackers) hurt his wrist, and Kevin Johnson (wide receiver: receives passes from quarterback) hurt his Achilles.

Random Achilles Information:
In case you didn't know (like me) what your Achilles is, I looked it up. It connects the calf muscles to the heel. It is the largest tendon in the human body and can withstand forces of 1,000 pounds or more! It's named after a Greek myth about a man named Achilles, who was only vulnerable at his heel. Ok then.

Locker Room Trouble

2005-10-17T07:49:00.000-04:00

The final score this week was 21-20. The score was never separated by more than one touchdown, but the Carolina Panthers took it away with 24 seconds left in the game. I don't really want to talk about it.

So instead we'll discuss locker room matters. Apparently there has been speculation regarding the chemistry among the teammates. Earl Holmes commented, "Guys are hungry to win and that’s good. If guys are frustrated they are frustrated about playing well and wanting to win. That’s a positive and we can feed off of that. I want a guy who wants to win and will do anything to win. That’s the kind of guy you want to go into the fox hole with." While this is true, I would also like to be among teammates that aren't frustrated with each other. If that is the issue, and not just frustration with the game, then they may have more trouble than they're letting on.
It has been rumored that wide receiver Roy Williams (left picture) and running back Kevin Jones (right picture) aren't getting along all that well. Here's what they have to say about that:

Roy Williams: "If you watch the film from last Sunday when he almost scored on the fumble, we were dancing together and if I didn’t like him then I wouldn’t be dancing with him. We had our own little thing going on down there and if I didn’t like him I wouldn’t be dancing with him."

Kevin Jones: "I love Roy Williams, he’s my teammate and that’s the end of it. I hope that answers everything and puts a stop to all the rumors."

This all started because of an incident that occurred during the Chicago Bears game on September 18th. Jones had yelled at Williams because there was miscommunication between Williams and quarterback Joey Harrington when a pass to him was intercepted while he was in the end zone. Williams said to SI.com (Sports Illustrated), "It's one thing to tell a guy to pick up his play, but I don't want somebody in my face telling me how to play my position. He runs the ball and I catch the ball. And we don't have to be tight because we don't hang out anyway." Jones didn't expect the incident to be brought up again. He didn't see it as that big of a deal, and he claims he even apologized to Roy. "I already apologized for handling it that way. I said 'My bad' at halftime. And I think I said it again because I felt it was still bothering him." Sounds pretty sincere to me. They should just hug and make up.

As for next week, the Lions are scheduled to play the Cleveland Browns.

First Place!!

2005-10-09T23:16:00.000-04:00

Bet you didn't guess that today's game would put Detroit on top, did you? Well really, me either. But yay! They won and they're number 1 in the NFC North division! That's so fun.
The final score was 35-17 against the Baltimore Ravens. Lions probably eat ravens. It only makes sense that they would win.

Running back Kevin Jones (picture) had his first multi-touchdown game of his career. So fun! I'm sure he's celebrating right now. So before I posted this I didn't exactly know what a running back was. BUT, I have it all figured out. On About.com there is a glossary of definitions for all sorts of things, and I looked it up. For running back it says: an offensive player who runs with the football. A little more self-explanatory than I thought. Now I know, Kevin Jones runs with the football. He ran 58 yards with it this game. He advanced his career today and that's great. More running with the football to come.

On the defensive side, the Lions came away with a three-and-out. You KNOW I had to pull out the glossary for that one. Unfortunately, it wasn't in there so I asked a friend. He said: that's when the offense gets the ball and has to punt after three plays (see disclaimer).
Moving on, linebacker Earl Holmes had four solo tackles and one forced-fumble. Now, I know that linebackers are the really big guys that stand behind the line, and I'm assuming that they're the ones that go for the attacks. I don't think they're expected to run very far, due to weight and everything. I could be wrong.

There were also a few injuries throughout the game. Eddie Drummond and Roy Williams both suffered leg injuries. Mike Williams and Scottie Vines also suffered injuries. Coach is hoping they get better by Wednesday so we can expect to see them playing in the next game. Next week is another home game against the Carolina Panthers. I think a lion could eat a panther if he tried...

Another Loss

2005-10-03T09:10:00.000-04:00

Detroit lost to Tampa Bay yesterday, another loss leaving the Bucs undefeated. They tried really hard though! They had good defense throughout the game, and they only lost by 4 points. The final score was 17-13. That's a good effort. They’re currently tied with Chicago for first in the NFC North division.

I think the NFL should be evaluated on a point-system, not on wins and losses. Think about it: if you lose by 2 points to a leading team, you may still be in the same position as a team that gets shut out by a horrible team. That's just not right... They should keep a running score of all of the points accumulated in each game and see who has the most at the end. This way you can see who performed how much better than who, and you can get a better idea of what teams are accomplishing more. I'm going to have a talk with whoever makes up football regulation rules.

Anyway, Detroit tried hard and that's what matters. They definitely stepped their game up from two weeks ago when they played Chicago. This game, they came through with three interceptions against the Bucs and one forced-fumble. They also had three sacks (I think that's where they take out the quarterback before he throws the ball) during the game. Defensive end Kalimba Edwards (picture) had 2 of the sacks on Bucs quarterback Brian Griese. This was his fourth career performance with multiple sacks in one game. If they could get their offense this good, maybe they would win the games. Next week they are playing the Baltimore Ravens on their home field, so hopefully they do better.

You Win Some, You Lose One

2005-09-25T23:42:00.000-04:00

OK,
So the Lions didn't have a good game last week. They lost to Chicago, 38-6. I didn't get to watch the game, but apparently things weren't going their way.

The Bears came away with 5 interceptions (I know what an interception is! They caught a pass -or 5- that the Lions threw... I think) and flew ahead in the second half of the game. The Lions ended up throwing the ball more than running it because they were having a difficult time getting past Chicago's defense.

I was very confused earlier today when I was looking on the NFL website for the Detroit Score for today. I couldn't find their game anywhere, and I was about to track down a number to call to let someone know that they had forgotten to post a score, a very important one at that (for the purposes of my blog, anyway, which is obviously very important). No one ever told me about Bye Weeks...

Now this week the Lions have their Bye Week. I've recently learned that every football team has a Bye Week in the season when they don't have a game. This gives the Lions some time to work on their game and fix some of the problems they have before their match against Tampa Bay next week. Joey Harrington, the quarterback, said "You can look at it two ways. I'm sure for the first part of [the time off] I'm going to beat myself up thinking of the things we could have done better. At the same time, it's a chance to get your head away from it. Sometimes you just need to clear your head."

There also seems to have been quite a few injuries during the game. Steve Mariucci, Head Coach of the Lions, said, "Fernando Bryant's got a separated left shoulder. James Hall came out of the game with a groin injury. Of course Marcus came out with the hit. Shawn Bryson, when he ran a screen pass out of bounds on their sideline - got kicked in the heel and rolled up on his heel. Vernon Fox got injured - he hurt his elbow and came out of the game.” James Hall looks sad in his picture.

Hope next week's news is happier!!

Here's What I've Got So Far..

2005-09-14T23:01:00.000-04:00

After sorting through the Lions' history a little bit, I picked out some information to share:

They were originally called the Detroit Heralds and then the Detroit Panthers (I personally believe they should have stuck with this one, but I don't know what Carolina would be. Maybe that's why they have the same colors?) before they decided on the Lions in 1934.
John Millen of the Detroit Zoo gave them two lion cubs as their mascots. Their names were Grid and Iron. They traveled with the team to the games. I want a lion cub.
The Lions' first ever defeat was to Green Bay in November of 1934 after 10 consecutive wins, 7 of which were shutouts.
They played their first NFL game against the Giants and won 9-0.
In 1940, Bryan "Whizzer" White became the first Lion to claim the NFL rushing title.
August 23, 1975 - The Lions play their first game in their new home, the Pontiac Silverdome.
In 1992 they had their first appearance in an NFC Championship game, losing to the Redskins.

That concludes my brief history. I'll admit, it's not all that exciting. I left out a lot, of course, for the sake of staying awake. I never realized that NFL teams changed their head coaches so much.

I got to watch the game last Sunday. Since I don't have satellite TV, as I cannot afford it, I went over to the new sports bar on Elkton. They have 6 screens but for the first half of the games they had the Cowboys game on 3 screens. By some random chance during the Cowboys halftime the Detroit game popped onto one of the screens. They defeated the Green Bay Packers 17-3. For anyone who missed it, I apologize; BUT, I can tell you that it wasn't a very exciting game; I was just excited that they won. And that they're playing the Bears on Sunday.

Introduction

2005-09-08T14:46:00.000-04:00

Let me just start with the fact that I know very little about football. I couldn't tell you which team is good or bad, who won against who last year, or who I think is going to be in the Superbowl this year. I know this much: the Eagles did NOT win last year, as many readers may be still upset, and that the Patriots did win. I know that the Jets are better than the Giants, and that the Redskins lost to the Ravens during preseason this year (because I happened to watch that game). I've heard that Eagles' fans can be violent, and that Jets fans like to paint half of their faces green. I like the commercials at halftime during the Superbowl, and I saw what happened with Janet. I understand most of the rules, after many games of asking whoever I'm watching it with what each play meant and what the numbers were in the corner of the screen. And that's about the extent of my football knowledge.
You might be wondering why I'm writing about the Lions, or even about football at all. I'm not sure I have a good answer for that. I chose the Lions because they are not the Patriots or the Eagles. They don't get a lot of attention over on the east coast and I love watching football (even though I know so little about it) so it will be fun to follow a team for once (I usually just root for the underdog, and I usually have to ask someone who the underdog is).
And I'll admit, I like the colors. What can I say? I'm a girl.

Disclaimer

2005-09-06T20:14:00.000-04:00

Please keep in mind while reading this blog that Stacey knows very little about football, and therefore cannot be held accountable for any misguided or wrong information. This is not to be quoted as a valid football source.