Detroit Lions Rally To Beat Cleveland Browns, 30-28

bell did look like he was running better in the 2nd half, not being scared to run through the tackles

That’s what I’m wondering. Johnson began putting it together late in the game, but that wasn’t against Browns starters. Bell & Harrison both looked better, as expected. But I’m with you jay. Who do we pick up, and how?

 - Stafford looked good once again. Dealed with a bit more pressure this time, but showed the smarts in avoiding it. Had some very nice throws to Burleson and Grew. Stanton also impressed with great TDs to Stovall and Finley. Hill didn’t do quite as much, and Zac didn’t get much of a chance to throw.

 - The offensive line was pretty mediocre. Pass blocking was solid, there was some pressure, but it was a constant. Run blocking was very poor however, and this has me concerned.
 
 - The running backs didn’t get many holes to work with. Best had a fumble and he didn’t return, hope he is ok. Bell and Harrison had some decent runs but they didn’t look all that impressive. Johnson showed some get up and go, but against mediocre opposition.

 - Receivers did their job, mainly. Burleson was well connected with Staff while Stovall showed up as a great target with Drew. D Will dropped a TD, so he is struggling mightily.

 - Defensive line played decently. There was quite a bit of pressure on the Browns QBs throughout the game. Run stopping had its issues though.

 - LBs got involved a bit more this week. I saw both Tulloch and Durant make a play or two.

 - The secondary starters had some troubles, excepting Amari Spievey, who was once again all over the ball. There was some decent coverage at times, but at other times, things were a bit lackluster. Missed tackles also occured. The backup secondary appeared to do a better job against their lesser competition.

 - Special teams coverage was good and Hanson and Rayner both made good field goals.

On the whole, sorta surprised we won, considering how many penalties we gave away, not to mention the short fields. Luckily, they were just as ill-disciplined. Our depth is very good though and it showed.

WTF? Todd Haley and Thomas Jones got into a fight on the field?

Haley sounds like a real asshole.

Pretty much all we’ve heard of him is a single penalty. As far as I’m concerned, the less you hear about a 7th round Div-II pickup, the better. I decided to pay closer attention to him in the later portions of this game, and I gotta say, I’m willing to put an egg or two in his basket.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if he makes the 53.

who had the best performances in your eyes???

On O: Burleson! He really showed great play in all aspects of the game. I think Stovall did the most to step up and push for a spot on the 53.

On D: Willie Young! (tempted to say spievey!) but Willie has more to prove and he sure did. He was around the play A LOT! I hope he continues to sit in the front row of the University of Vanden Bosch!

passing rating of 145

The Best Fumble and the terrible punt sequence. Defense wasn’t letting the Browns move the ball when their backs weren’t against the endzone. The last first half TD drive was Cleveland 1s against Detroit 2s, so the really, the result wasn’t surprising. All in all, the most important Lions players looked good.

One observation bears mention, however. Burleson has the ability to step up and be a #1 when Calvin is out, but it seems to me that nobody (barring possibly Young, of course) has the ability to step up and be a #2 when Calvin is out. In other words, stay healthy, CJ.

Some of the players are saying.

It’s about to be half time with the Lions trailing…I was ready to go to bed and not give the second half a thought, until I read this. Why did I have to come on here?

   As weak as it looked to throw the ball out, that was the right thing to do by Staff. No need to risk a hit in preseason. Stafford looked decent. Those passes in the packet were dead on. Nate made some great catches. Heller and Pettigrew looked good. Run game was bad. Both blocking and the actual runs.
   Defensively it was a little sloppy. Penalties sucked. Corners were weak sauce. Safeties played well, especially Spievey. Ricardo may have locked up the 4th safety spot. Linebackers played ok- good and bad at times. Dline did a nice job getting pressure as expected but lining up offsides got a little old after a while. Run defense is still a concern.
   Coaching staff has their work cut out for them. Patriots will be a good test.

is Maurice Stovall. Really liked how he played today and he’s a good big-bodied receiver at 6’5 with nice hands too. Anyone think he could end up taking a job and have both Aaron Brown and D Will get cut like I do?

The Lions definitely came out both flat and out of focus. Very good for this to happen now, to learn from it here, so that hopefully it never happens in the regular season.

First team offense had some issues, mainly our the only guys getting open were Pettigrew and Burleson. Dwheelz was getting open, but he still cant catch. Much like Bryant Johnson last year, I feel we may as well keep Stovall, or Hughes over Williams, they cant possibly do any worse than he has. IMO we are on the verge of our first Mayhew draft bust.

So I am a bit concerned with our 3 and 4 receiver when Calvin, Nate, or Pettigrew is not in there. Here is to hoping that Titus Young can fill those shoes. The Lions will likely keep Derrick Williams one more year, he is showing improvement, but I also would not be surprised to see him cut if he continues to play so erratically.

Run Game: Our depth does good against other teams depth, well better anyways, if not totally good. But I can say from watching a lot of games, that the Lions definitely do NOT open up many holes and running lanes at all. I am starting to wonder if this is a scheme thing with Linehan or if our line just sucks that bad.

There was a marked improvement in the 2nd half though in the running game, and actually was some decent holes and lane, but only when Matt Clapp was lead blocking or the runner made something out of nothing. IMO our problem is not with the running backs. In fact every one of them seems to be all right to me, they just are not getting any help from the line / scheme.

I am starting to reconsider my stance on Hill vs Stanton. Of course in the coaches I will trust, it is not like I have any choice. I will begrudgingly admit that the offense does indeed seem to move better under Drew. Still playing wait and see with Zac Robinson, but if I was to bet on it, he would be the man to be traded at the last minute for a late round pick, or just cut.

Backers and secondary looked good, would like to see more pressure and more getting home from the front four though.

Is it just me or Delmas regressing? IMO he is not playing as good as his rookie year and I gave him a pass on injury last year. However if he stays flat or shows regression this year I am going to be a bit disappointed. If you ask me, Spievey has looked better for a while now, going about 6 games back into last season.

We are building some nice depth on the offensive line, but I feel like the Lions are a year or two out from having a decent run blocking line.

Had company over so I was pretty distracted during the game, will have to watch it again later today. I watched the last game 3 times ;)

I think Delmas looks like he’s floating right now due to the plain jane D their using at the moment.

DWill forgets to go out on a punt coverage team? I missed that earlier….S

Terry Bradshaw and crew are reping the Lions hard. Terry says detroits his team. Troy aikman agrees

This is the kind of game the Lions would normally lose. They tried to give it away in a couple different ways. The penalties were ridiculous, There was a stretch where the Lions and Browns seemed to get a flag on almost every play. Some of the penalties really hurt, especially in the first half.

Special teams did not looks so good. The punt unit looked horrible on the one put that ended up on the Lions 21. Marcus Harris had a couple bad plays on return teams as well. Once he let the ball hit him on a return which could have led to another turnover and great field position for the Browns. He had a penalty for blocking from behind on another return. Marcus Harris probably played himself right off the team since he was unlikely to make the roster anyway. I would not be surprised to see the Lions cut him and bring in another camp body just to make a point to the players.

The first team offensive line was not very good either. They allowed too many pressures on Stafford. They also could not open running lanes. I am still convinced that the Lions will have a hard time running the ball as long as Raiola is playing at center. He just cannot move anybody and that allows the center of the line of scrimmage to get piled up on every running play. On half the plays Raiola is moving backwards. Hopefully Backus and Fox returning will allow this unit to perform much better.

I really don’t put the performance of the running game on the running backs as much as the offensive line. There are very few running backs in the NFL that can make things happen without the blocking in front of them. We have been spoiled in Detroit by having Barry Sanders as our yardstick to measure by. It is unfair. Barry was a freak of nature in the way he could cut and accelerate. Since Barry retired how many running backs have you seen succeed in the NFL with the elusiveness to make their own room to run?

On the positive side:

Stafford played pretty well, as did Nate Burleson.
I also felt that Brandon MacDonald made some nice plays again.
Spievey had another good game.
The placekickers were very solid.
The Lions were able to come back and win (whoopee! it’s preseason)

This was not as good an overall effort as the Bengals game. I would give some of the credit fro that to Cleveland, but honestly, most of the Lions problems were self imposed by mistakes.

lol.

Haters!

Just looks like he wants to win out there. Not only did he makes those two great catches, I love that run he made. Put his head down and gained an extra five instead of running out of bounds. Really impressed by him. Staff too, they seem to have a nice connection.

Grew’s catch was nice too.

i really don’t blame him so much for a fumble, as much as i credit clev. with a good take-away, best had turned his back to the line and was trying to drive/push the pile with his legs, and a brown’s player reached in and ripped the ball out of his hands. i would look at that as more take-away, than i would fumble. imho, just a good play by cleveland.

It’s been almost a full 12 hours since the game was over. And not 1 Stanton for #2 post yet. . .Everyone must be still punch drunk from the comeback victory.

The most important thing is how the overall talent of this team has taken off. A scrub has no chance of making it now, talent is going to be cut, and were going to win games and make plays with our 2nd teamers now.

1st team D?——One general great big yawn except for Spievey who continues to impress. A play here and there to get excited over, other then that I seen Tulloch doing what he does best, pad tackling stats down field. I am so underwhelmed with all 3 of the LB’ers so far.

Their being held back IMO, and once some aggressiveness returns they’ll play better.

Brandon Macdonald is a keeper, he deserves a spot somewhere.

If Stovall doesn’t make this team I’d be shocked, he’s a ball magnet. Same for Rashied Davis, he just is able to do too much.

At least the 2nd and 3rd team D came to play. Willie Young was very active once again. SLH had a nice game doing what he does best, run stuff.

Stanton, I can’t say enough about him. I’m so happy for him after being shit on for the 1st 2 years. Martz and Marinelli-you suck! The game has slowed way down for him and it’s shows.

Aaron Brown, my pet project-eh, he has the speed, shows flashes, but he’s still on the bubble.

Ian Johnson-okay, you bought yourself more time. Good for you, hope you do something with it.

Now for my pet project #2—— DWILL

It was mentioned above that the ball thrown by Stafford to him in the end zone was tipped, sure it was, but not buy the defender in the end zone, but the one near Stafford, he had time to react. Eventually if you want to stick in the NFL you have to make a play once in a while, and make a catch that isn’t thrown perfect(though he drops those also) but as we seen some can fall back on the “it wasn’t right to him” excuse.

It was mentioned that no other balls were thrown to him-WRONG. He dropped another one on a sideline route.

“Oh, am I still on a punt coverage unit?”, he’s been taken off of everything else, so I guess it’s easy to forget. He’s played himself right off of the team thank goodness, so at least we’ll have a playmaker at the #5 receiver spot this season.

Mayhew blew this pick, but it happens, cut him and move on.

The LBs are so-so right now. Tulloch played most of the game in the middle. He did not seem to react in the running game much. Levy looks he is learning a new position, which he sorta is in a way. The duo of Carp and Pamler played pretty well when they were in.

The RBs. Outside of Best they isn’t much to get excited about. Brown has shown some flashes, but he is a major liability in pass blocking. Bell was running hard along with Harrison. I would like to see Ian Johnson get some time with the 2nd unit instead of the 3rd. If he can do what he did last night against some starters, than maybe we could have a viable backup.

My players who I think brought it last night. Spievey, McDonald, Sammie Lee, “Fast” Willie Young, and Gosder.

got twenty yards and then got pulled, never to return.

It was one of the 30 second spots. If I may paraphrase: “colt mccoy looked fantastic. Look at these two touchdown by Cleveland. The lions were there and won.” Not ONE clip of our scoring drives. Same old lions coverage.