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The annual preseason matchup between the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns is now referred to as the "Great Lakes Classic." Each year, the winner of the meeting between the two teams receives a trophy and bragging rights. Although it is only an exhibition game, it's a lot of fun to see the two teams play as the games are always exciting.
This year's was no different. The Lions had a rough start to the game defensively as they just couldn't stop the Cleveland offense. Even though Dre' Bly got an early interception, the offense faltered and Cleveland made sure to capitalize. Charlie Frye led the Browns down the field 67 yards and capped off the drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Dennis Northcutt.
Detroit got the ball back and once again couldn't do anything. Luckily, the defense forced another turnover. Charlie Frye dropped back to pass on the first play of the drive and was sacked by James Hall. Hall forced a fumble during the sack and the Lions recovered, giving the offense great field position. Jon Kitna wasted little time to get the ball into the endzone. Kitna tossed a short pass off to Kevin Jones for the 4-yard touchdown.
Matt Prater will not see the field during the regular season for the Lions since Jason Hanson will be the starter, but he was on a mission to showoff his leg to other teams that may be in need of a kicker sometime down the road this season. Prater kicked a 22, 44, and 48-yard field goal during the second and third quarters, which was very impressive. All of the kicks could've been good from longer than the attempt. Cleveland added one field goal during that span, so after three quarters, the Lions lead 16-10.
The final quarter of the game would once again show a team having to comeback late, just as Denver had done one week before. This time, however, it would be the Lions looking to score late for the win. Cleveland scored on a 31-yard touchdown pass to rookie Jerome Harrison, and also converted a 33-yard field goal. Detroit trailed 20-16, was 93 yards away from the endzone, and only had 4 minutes to score the winning touchdown.
Josh McCown could greatly impress the coaches as he's in a battle with Dan Orlovsky to be the backup QB to Jon Kitna. McCown did show great awareness as he scrambled a few times to get the first down and also got out of bounds, but there were a couple of costly mistakes that prevented the Lions from taking this one. The worst mistake of all came on the final play of the game. McCown threw a pass across the middle of the field inside the Cleveland 10 yard line with only 10 or so seconds to go, and had no timeouts remaining. The clock would run out and Cleveland would come out on top 20-16.
The preseason is halfway through already, and next week the Lions travel out to Oakland for a matchup with the Raiders. The game starts at 10:00 p.m. ET, so it'll be a late one for those of you in the Detroit region (myself included). See you back here at Pride of Detroit on Monday as I'll be gone for most of tomorrow at the Tigers game. Until then, thanks for reading and Go Lions!