Lions Red Zone Recap: Week 8

Lions - 5 scores on 5 chance (4 touchdowns, 1 field goal)

The Lions did an exceptional job of not only creating red zone opportunities against Washington, but converting them into touchdowns. All but one of the Lions' trips inside the red zone resulted in a touchdown, and the one time they had to settle for a field goal was when they were trying to run out the clock.

The interesting thing about the five opportunities is that four of them were in the second half. The Lions' lone first half red zone trip was after Stefan Logan returned a punt 71 yards, putting Detroit in the red zone to begin the drive. The Lions turned the great field position into a Calvin Johnson touchdown a few plays later.

In the second half, the Lions worked their way down the field and scored red zone touchdowns on a pass to Brandon Pettigrew and two passes to Calvin Johnson. As mentioned before, the lone red zone appearance where the Lions settled for a field goal was because they were just trying to run out the clock. When they were actually trying to score, Washington didn't have an answer to the Lions' red zone offense.

Redskins - 2 scores on 2 chances (2 touchdowns)

The Redskins' two red zone appearances both happened thanks to big plays to open drives. Starting at the Lions' 42, the Redskins' first red zone appearance came when Donovan McNabb scrambled for 36 yards. Two plays later, McNabb found Ryan Torain for a six-yard touchdown on a screen pass.

In the second half, the Redskins began a drive at the Detroit 46-yard line and got a 35-yard gain on a pass to Anthony Armstrong. C.C. Brown left the game on the drive before with an injury and Washington went right at rookie Amari Spievey, picking up a big gain on the play. Two plays later, Keiland Williams scored on a five-yard run.

Overall

The Lions were awesome on offense, creating five total red zone appearances and scoring four touchdowns on them. Defensively, the Lions gave up only two red zone appearances, and both were the result of just a couple bad plays. Washington did score touchdowns on both appearances, but the defense did a good job of keeping the Redskins out of the red zone for the most part.