Review Round-Up: What They’re Saying About Lions Win at Denver
By Zac Snyder
Between the live blog and my reivew, I have pretty much said everything that was on my mind regarding the Lions preseason win against the Denver Broncos last Saturday night. Here is what other writers have to say:
The first team offense looked good, until they got into the red zone. The inability to score touchdowns was a glaring deficiency and can totally skew the perception of the first team’s performance, as mlive.com’s Tom Kowalski notes:
"Depending on how you want to look at it, the Detroit Lions’ offensive starters were either 100 percent successful, scoring on every drive in the first half, or they were a 100 percent failure, going 0-for-3 in the red zone when it came to scoring touchdowns."
On the plus side, the same article from Kowalski quotes Broncos coach Josh McDaniels as saying that they couldn’t handle the early speed of the Lions game. A good sign from a team noted for their slow starts, particularly on the road. A separate mlive article from Tom Kowalski presents his observations in a nice and neat bullet point format that includes the impressive nights of DeDe Dorsey, Tim Toone, and Willie Young.
Long-time Lions beat writer Mike O’Hara is writing for Fox Sports Detroit these days. He breaks down the phases of the game in his latest article and points out that a road win, even in the preseason, is a positive step for a team that has lost 20 straight during the regular season.
Chris McCoskey of the Detroit News lays out the highlights and lowlights. Interesting to note that McCoskey didn’t look as favorably on Tim Toone’s perfomance as Tom Kowalski:
"He got his chance to show the coaches something in the return game, but he didn’t do much with it. He returned three punts for an average of 8.3 yards and two kicks for a 21-yard average. It appeared he had some room on both kicks but couldn’t get into the crease quick enough. He seemed to have room on a reverse, too, but the defense was able to hold him to a 6-yard gain."
According to Detroit Free Press sports writer Dave Birkett, we learned five things on Saturday night.
The Denver Post bemoans the Broncos inability to run the ball in the preseason in an article by Anthony Cotton. The way the Lions first team defense contained the run has the Broncos worried, according to Cotton:
"At halftime of Saturday’s game, with the starting unit playing the entire time, the Broncos had but 20 yards on eight carries on the ground; and in some ways, it could be argued that quarterback Kyle Orton, who scrambled his way out of some potential trouble, was Denver’s best rusher. The fact that it was the second consecutive game the team struggled with the run — the Broncos’ average of 55.5 yards rushing in the two contests ranks 30th in the 32-team NFL — with less than three weeks remaining before the season opener at Jacksonville makes that argument somewhat troubling."
The Lions will next face live competition on Saturday, August 28 with a 5:00 PM kickoff against the Cleveland Browns. Until then, what are you saying about last Saturday’s game?
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