Oct 13, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Detroit Lions tight end Joseph Fauria (80) does a celebration dance after catching his third touchdown pass during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium. The Lions beat the Browns 31-17. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
I would sure like to to know what Stephen Tulloch said to the entire team during halftime (to wake them up and make them realize that they were in danger of losing to the Cleveland Browns), because they came out in the second half breathing fire. Matthew Stafford spiked the ball on the first drive and got the offense so pumped up that they scored 24 points while the defense didn’t allow another Cleveland point for the rest of the game. Let Cleveland be the same old Brownies, the Detroit Lions are slowly inching their way to the playoffs.
The Lions are sitting atop the division with a 4-2 record, tied with Da Bears, largely from the influx of the new guys that Martin Mayhew has brought in. Mayhew scored big in the free agent market when he brought in Reggie Bush and Glover Quin. They have made a huge difference and deserve all the headlines they’ve been getting. The fact that both are team leaders is just icing on the cake. Ziggy Ansah, Sam Martin and Larry Warford have already shown that the 2013 draft class has added starters where we needed them, and they’ve flourished. Two players have made a huge impact on the 2013 Detroit Lions, and they came from two very unlikely places. They were all over the headlines today for their part in yesterdays victory.
The first is Joseph “I’m having the time of my life” Fauria. 254 players were taken before he was in the draft. He is now the fourth most popular Lion, after Megatron, Stafford, and Ndumakong Suh, in just six games and has a national following. Talk about shooting stars; he’s an incredible red zone weapon who has the mind blowing stat of having five touchdowns in only seven catches. The Lions are starting to look like a basketball team in the red zone. Stafford looks like he’s a point guard who’s just dumping off to whoever is posting up, down low under the basket. The craziest thing about Fauria is despite the touchdowns he gets, it’s the dance moves that have him being buddies with the likes of Jimmy Fallon. His dances are now mentioned by big shots such as Peter King. With his huge frame, I’ll bet we’ll get to know more dance moves to go along with “The Gas Pedal”, “The Cabbage Patch” and whatever boy-band moves he had.
The other guy came from the unlikeliest place of all: their own roster. Who is this guy wearing number 54, and what did they do with DeAndre Levy? During the off season, one of the things on my wish list was an outside linebacker who could make plays. They didn’t draft or sign one at all. It took some wisdom on Mayhew’s part to re-sign Levy, because he saw something in Levy that I haven’t seen. A playmaking, where-is-he lining-up kind of linebacker the Lions have needed. He’s leading the NFL in interceptions after getting two more yesterday. Besides the interceptions, he seems to be in the middle of every play in the middle of the field. Can someone say Pro Bowl Linebacker? Haven’t heard those words in a long time.