Detroit Lions come out flat against Giants, lose 30-17

How bad did the Detroit Lions look against the New York Giants in their preseason home opener on Friday night? Read on to find out…

From the onset, the Detroit Lions didn’t give their home fans much to cheer for after they went three and out on their first possession. On that drive, Ameer Abdullah recovered his own fumble and after a ten-yard sack of Matthew Stafford, Detroit’s first-team offense needed a mulligan.

On their second possession, Stafford completed his first pass attempt to Marvin Jones for a nine-yard gain. Theo Riddick also took a mid-range catch and raced down the field for a nice 42-yard pickup to New York’s 28-yard line but the offense soon stalled and had to settle for a 44 yard Matt Prater field goal.

Those two completions were Stafford’s only ones for the game as he finished 2 for 5 with 51 yards passing, two sacks and no touchdowns. He was replaced by Jake Rudock soon thereafter.

Defensively, the Lions were lackluster overall yet again. Even without their star rookie Saquan Barkley, the Giants put together several long scoring drives all throughout the game.

Detroit ended the first half with Matt Prater missing a 49-yard field goal by clanking it off of the right upright and the Lions headed into intermission down 10-3.

The first Lions drive of the second half ended with a Matt Cassel interception. Their second got them to New York’s red zone but LeGarrette Blount was stuffed on 4th & 2 at the nine-yard line.

Mercifully, Jake Rudock came back into the game and engineered two long touchdown drives deep into the fourth quarter finishing with a 100.8 passer rating on 23 for 30 passing for 171 yards and one touchdown through the air and one on the ground.

Rudock’s late scores provided a silver lining for Lions fans in an ugly 30-17 loss.

The Detroit Lions will be back in action again next Friday, August 24th, as they again go on the road to face off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.