Lions vs. Colts: Who gets the game ball?

The Detroit Lions’ first preseason game is in the books, which means it’s time again to hand out game balls—even if it’s just for a preseason game.

During the season, we will be handing out game balls at the end of each game and will be keeping track of who leads the team in Game Balls throughout the year. Each week, we will put out a poll with the five best players of the game. The player who receives the most votes will get three Game Ball points, second place receives two points, and the third-most votes gets one point.

We’ll add up the results from each week and keep you updated with weekly standings. These preseason polls will not count towards that total.

Without further ado, here are this week’s Game Ball candidates.

Kenny Golladay

I get the feeling Golladay is going to run away with this one, and for good reason. In the first half Golladay picked up two quick touchdowns and looked dominant against second-string Colts defensive backs. He got a lot of national attention after his dominant first half. Some national publications even got his name right:

Golladay finished the day with three catches for 53 yards and two touchdowns.

Anthony Zettel

Zettel was mostly kept off the final stat sheet, managing just a single tackle on the day; however, his presence was very clearly felt out there. Zettel provided a lot of pressure from the edge, which was especially relieving to see after Kerry Hyder went down with a seriously-looking left leg injury.

A’Shawn Robinson

The Lions went into this game looking to find some reasons for optimism along the defensive line. They got it in A’Shawn Robinson. He was a force throughout the entire first quarter, getting pressure into the backfield and swatting down two passes.

Robinson led all NFL defensive tackles in passes batted down, and it looks like he’s picking up right where he left off.

Jake Rudock

Reports out of camp have been really, really down on the Lions’ backup quarterbacks so far. However, Rudock showed up on Sunday and managed a pretty solid game.

He wasn’t perfect by any means, but he showed good presence in the pocket, decent accuracy with his throws and smart reads. He finished the day 13-of-21, passing for 142 yards, two touchdowns and an additional 24 yards rushing. That has to be higher than most expectations from Rudock after a poor start to training camp.

Alex Barrett

Combined with Jeremiah Valoaga, the Lions have a pair of intriguing, undrafted rookie options at defensive end. Barrett and Valoaga combined for 2.0 sacks, 12 tackles and three quarterback hits. Barrett gets the small edge here because he finished with one more quarterback hit.