FOURTH QUARTER SAVES LIONS
Stafford overcomes slow start
DETROIT This was when things were supposed to get easier for the Detroit Lions.
After a tough first-half schedule, the Lions were looking at a second half of the season that featured just one of eight games against a team with a winning record and it kicked off with Sunday’s match against the winless Cleveland Browns.
But on what most would have figured to be guaranteed win day, the Lions had to shake of an early 10-point deficit and rally for the game’s final 21 points to keep the Browns, who have lost 10 straight games, winless by a 38-24 score before 64,646 at Ford Field.
“We need to try and play championship football no matter who we’re playing and that’s our only goal,” Lions receiver Golden Tate said. “We cannot get caught up in records because that’s when bad things happen.”
The Browns used a 38-yard pass play to set up a field goal and then picked off a pass from Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford that eventually led to a touchdown and a 10-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game.
“I’ve played a lot of football in my life,” Stafford said. “I’ve had a lot of bad situations. I knew there was a whole lot more time left. Lots of times I’m down 10 with a lot less time than that. Lots more football to play.”
Fortunately for the Lions, they were playing a Browns team that has too often found a way to be its own worst enemy.
After a field goal and an Ameer Abdullah eight-yard touchdown run had the Lions even at 10-10, Detroit got its first lead when cornerback Nevin Lawson missed his tackle, but reached back to poke the ball out of the hand of Browns tight end Seth DeValve. Lawson got up, recovered the ball and returned it 44 yards to put the Lions up 17-10.
“That’s not a typical play,” Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said. “You have to have savvy. Then to be able to take it and run, that was good for us.”
At the Detroit two-yard line in the dying seconds of the half and with no timeouts, the Browns attempted a quarterback sneak. The Lions stuffed it and then caused enough chaos in the pileup that Cleveland wasn’t able to get off another play before the clock expired.
“That’s on me,” Browns head coach Hue Jackson said. “We don’t need to go into it. I need to do a better job with the offensive unit. It’s that simple. I’m taking the fall on everything.”
But the Lions also got a break in the third quarter. Detroit’s defence was struggling to defend the run and scrambling rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer, whose oneyard run gave Cleveland its final lead at 24-17.
After Stafford hit Theo Riddick with an eight-yard scoring pass to tie the game, Kizer went back to work, but injured his ribs on a hit by Lions cornerback Quandre Diggs, who came on a blitz.
“I think anytime anybody’s starting quarterback comes out, the air comes out,” Jackson said.
Cody Kessler came in for the Browns and was immediately sacked. A short punt set Detroit up nicely and Stafford hit Eric Ebron with a 29-yard touchdown to put the Lions up 31-24.
Kessler, who was sacked three times, could generate nothing in relief with both series finishing with negative yardage.
By the time Kizer returned, it was too late as Stafford again used a short field to hit Tate to give Detroit a 14-point lead.
“It’s never about who we’re playing, it’s about our team,” Tate said. “My four years I’ve been here, we thrive on comebacks and making plays late in the game. We expected to get going at some point or anther. We just had to calm down and control what we can control.”
But there’s plenty to clean up for a Lions team (5-4) two games back of the division-leading Minnesota Vikings and the club can ill afford to let winnable games get away.
“We’ve got a great schedule coming up,” said Tate, whose team faces the Bears (3-6) Nov. 19 in Chicago. “Good teams string four, five, six games in a row and I think that’s what we need. Over the past few years, I feel like we’ve played our best football later in the season and that’s what we’re expecting.”