There are a lot of newsworthy items left in the wake of the Lions’ 34-10 victory last night. The Lions’ starters playing extremely well, Matthew Stafford taking his first hit, the latest media driven smear of Ndamukong Suh and the search for a running game to name a few.
I’ll start with the Suh situation. Last night Logan Mankins grabbed Lawrence Jackson by the facemask and threw him to the ground after a play. Suh saw his teammate being mauled and went to his aid by pushing Mankins off of Jackson, although he got there too late to save Jackson from being thrown down. CBS color man Dan Dierdorf started this whole debacle by saying that Suh threw an open handed punch at Mankins and should have been flagged. At the time, I simply thought that Dierdorf didn’t get a good view of what happened and moved on. However, this morning on ESPN’s Highlight Express they are showing Suh’s “punch” in the highlights which will no doubt give this foolishness more legs. Glossing over the fact that Mankins threw another player to the ground by his facemask and Suh was pushing him away with one hand. Expect this stupidity to gain more legs for the “Suh is a dirty player campaign.”
Matthew Stafford was incredible, again. Stafford has a complete mastery of the offense as well as the physical tools and leadership to be a top 5 quarterback in the league. Stafford only threw two incompletions and both of the throws were dead on the money, one was dropped and one was swatted on a great play by the defensive back. Shaun Hill and Drew Stanton are probably the best 2nd and 3rd string quarterback combo in the league, but neither can come close to filling Stafford’s shoes in this offense. While on the subject of Stafford, he took a hard shot from Jerrod Mayo and landed on his throwing shoulder after he completed a 30 yard pass to Calvin Johnson. The good news is Stafford had no issue with the hit, the bad news is he still seems to land on his shoulder a lot when he goes to the ground.
The Lions defensive front seven were really playing as a unit last night, which didn’t show in the first two games. The defensive line was getting pressure, the linebackers were hitting their gaps and playing well in coverage and the tackling was pretty crisp all around. The only damage the Patriots did on the ground were draw plays in 3rd and long situations and the linebackers did a solid job containing a great pair of tight ends in Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski. One last note on the defensive front, they created havok in the Patriots’ backfield all night and this was without Vanden Bosch and Fairley.
One thing I really wish the announcers would have pointed out on the Patriots’ only touchdown was the fact that the Lions took their starters out on defense already. The second unit just came out on the field and they could smell th eblood in the water, the Patriots used their aggressiveness against them and beat them with the play action.
Could Dan Dierdorf been a bigger Patriots’ apologist last night? He kept saying the Lions were more revved up for the game and that the Patriots weren’t taking the game as seriously, he glossed over Mankins’ cheap shot to call attention to Suh’s “punch” and the listed all the injured Patriots starters that missed the game to explain why the Lions 2nd string offense was carving up the Pats’ 1st string defense. I’m a big Dierdorf fan, but it was a little ridiculous last night.
Lastly, how much do you want a bet that the yearbook picture of Jim Schwartz makes an appearance in the Lions’ locker room a few hundred times this season?
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