What a nice sunday. The Fall air was crisp, the sun was shining. Most of the Lion faithful got to enjoy one of Fall’s last great days, thanks to a 4 p.m. start time. Then the Lions promptly went out and demolished that college team dressed in Denver Bronco uniforms for Halloween.
This was billed as a must-win game for the Detroit Lions, and rightfully so. They had lost some of the swag that they are rapidly becoming known for. The Lions not only HAD to win, according to Lions GM Martin Mayhew, they had to win big. Mission accomplished. The Lions HAD to show the NFL that they are a legitimate playoff team. It starts with pounding teams like the Denver Ponies into submission.
I can see the NFL working here when they labeled this match-up “Good vs.Evil”. They know that Tim Tebow isn’t going to last long as a starter, and when he was matched up against the nastiest player since Mean Joe Greene–well, the marketing boys just couldn’t stop themselves. Tim Tebow might be the worst starting quarterback in the history of the NFL. No wonder the coach and GM who picked him in the first round were already run out of town.
The Lions players were amused by the title of being labeled EVIL and had fun with it. After the game Ndamukong Suh declared “Evil prevails”. The Detroit Lions are getting the same reputation that the Pistons had back in the late 80s; it served the Pistons well. They are STILL known as the “Bad Boys”, one of the best teams the NBA ever had. After being the league’s automatic win on every one else’s schedlule for what seems like forever, I love the fact that the opposing teams feel a need to hide the women and children before the Detroit Lions come to town.
It’s hard to judge the Lions on what they did yesterday. After Denver’s first drive, the Bronco’s offense was darn right offensive. They only scored a touchdown late in the game because the Lions forgot they were still on the field. The Lions offense looked good and it was nice to see Titus Young get involved right away. He was so open on that play in the first quarter, I thought he was going to call for a fair catch. He had time to order and eat a hot dog before the Bronco’s realized where he was. The offense was more balanced and Calvin Johnson still had a 100-yard game. That’s four games in a row that Megatron has gained more than 100 yards. We might be looking at another NFL record; Michael Irvin had seven-consecutive 100-yard receiving days in 1995 to tie the mark set by the AFL’s Charley Hennigan in 1961.
It was nice to have a game that was so out of hand (in a good way) that it actually got boring. The game wasn’t as close as the 45-10 score indicates. Much has been said about the Lions beating the Broncos in 2007 in the 8th game of the season for a 6-2 record. It was after that game that the Lions embarked on that historic 5-46 run that ended last year. As their now 6 game road winning streak indicates, These cats are different and could be making an historic run the other way RIGHT NOW!
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