This had the making to be a pretty awful Sunday. I’m talking broken household objects, shattered glass, busted computers, and possibly serious criminal charges. Detroiters were set up for an utterly depressing Sunday night had the Lions lost and the Twins swept the Tigers. It could have been ugly, Carrot Top ugly.
Going into the day, I was obviously hoping for a couple of victories. I was flying low due to the Tigers losing the first two of the crucial Twins series and the Spartans losing to the Fighting Dames of Notre the day before. The only highlight of the weekend was Michigan running away with a game late against Eastern Michigan, but, yeah, it was against Eastern Michigan.
As far as cheering for the Lions is concerned, I have a major health problem. I tend to give my home teams, even the Lions, the benefit of the doubt. As far as I see it, each game is a clean slate and I go in to it fully expecting my team to win. Yeah, I’m realistic in that certain losses won’t surprise me (such as about the last 15 of the Lions), but I’m always disappointed still. Most Lions fans have the right idea in that they have become essentially numb or emotionless when they lose. I just can’t do that, and it’s a serious disease. I know.
The Lions looked eerily similar to an NFL football team for the first half on Sunday, but they must have looked at themselves in the mirror during halftime and saw the lowly Lions logo on their jerseys because they came out in the second half about as inspired as a midget in a slam dunk contest…on 13 foot rims. The Vikings scored 27 unanswered points (20 of them in the 2nd half) before the Lions tacked on a meaningless field goal near the end. Lions were losers again, 27-13, and dropped to 0-2 on the season and 0-19 dating back to 2007.
Matthew Stafford looked like a rookie, was 18-30 with 152 yards, a TD, and two bad INTs. Calvin Johnson caught 5 passes for 51 yards and a TD, but also had a huge reception called back.
Since the Lions are a mess, so are my thoughts and organizational skills, so here are some random thoughts about the game:
- Stafford was more effective in terms of completing passes, but honestly, he looked pretty much the same as last week to me. He had some crisp throws for completions, but also had some pretty awful throws to the opponent. I guess there were a few times when he threw the ball away as opposed to forcing the issue, but nothing really stuck out to me that made me think he actually looked improved. Also, he missed a wide open Bryant Johnson for an easy touchdown, too. I’m not writing him off, by any means (it’s Week 2 of his career!), but I’m just saying he’s got a lot of improvements to make and growing up to do. And I’m okay with that. Just saying.
- It was nice to see the Lions using their other 1st round pick, Brandon Pettigrew, in the offense today. He had 4 receptions for 40 yards.
- Although they allowed 27 points, the defense was pretty good. They were typically defending a short field due to Lions turnovers, so I wouldn’t put much stock in the points allowed. They held A-Pete to under 100 yards rushing and recovered a fumble. For the first time in a long time, they stomped around the field with swagger and made big stops.
- I hate Brett Favre more in purple.
So after the Lions lost it was up to the Tigers to save the day. And considering the significance of the Tigers game was far greater, it could have easily led me off the edge if they lost. Luckily, the Tigers took the lead right around the time the Lions went off the deep end themselves and made the Lions never ending futility easier for me to handle.
Nate Robertson, back in the rotation after missing a start due a groin injury, answered the calling and threw 5 strong innings (5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K). Miner, Seay, and Rodney combined to throw four shutout innings in relief to help the Tigers prevent the Twins from scoring more.
On the offensive side, the Tigers had 13 hits and not just of the single variety like last night. Cabrera doubled, Guillen had an RBI triple, and Ryan Raburn hit an Aflac solo-homer in the 8th inning off of Liriano before the Tigers went on to score one more, for good measure. Six total and that was enough.
With the win, Detroit pushed its Central Division lead back to three games and my sanity back to somewhat normal level.
An ice cream banana split Sunday for Detroit against Minnesota teams and we got the bigger win of the two — I’ll take it.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
