Detroit Lions vs. Dallas Cowboys: Who gets the game ball?

The Detroit Lions finished poorly after a hot start and fell to the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 42-21, but they’ll still have a chance to make the playoffs next week at home versus Green Bay.

There were still at least a few solid individual performances from Lions players, so let’s see which player gets awarded our game ball.

Here’s a look at the game ball standings after 15 weeks:

23 - Matthew Stafford
8 - Matt Prater
7 - Golden Tate
6 - Theo Riddick
6 - Darius Slay
5 - Sam Martin
5 - Marvin Jones
5 - Eric Ebron
4 - Rafael Bush
3 - Tahir Whitehead
3 - Andre Roberts
3 - Kerry Hyder
2 - Jeff Triplette
1 - Devin Taylor
1 - Ameer Abdullah
1 - Johnson Bademosi
1 - Miles Killebrew
1 - Anquan Boldin

This week’s candidates:

Zach Zenner

It took the Lions just two offensive drives to surpass their rushing total from last week, and you can thank Zach Zenner—along with the offensive line, of course—for that. After a rough go last week for Zenner, the second-year undrafted free agent had a career game with 92 total yards (67 rushing, 25 receiving) and two touchdowns.

Eric Ebron

After a bad drop on the Lions' first possession, Ebron bounced back nicely with eight catches for 93 yards. He would go on to lead the team in both catches and receiving yards, as Matthew Stafford would get almost no help from his receivers.

Sam Martin

He wasn’t perfect, but he had a solid day punting the ball with four punts, averaging 49.0 per punt with two inside the 20-yard line.

Tahir Whitehead

The defense as a whole was atrocious, but Whitehead had a sneaky good game, stopping Cowboys players short of the sticks on third down and leading the team with eight tackles.

Ezekiel Ansah

Ansah had arguably his best performance of the season with seven total tackles (two for a loss) and a sack.