Lions Defense stifles Palmer, Raiders. Leads to easy 31-10 victory. - Stafford2Johnson's Blog

Stafford2Johnson's Blog

Lions Defense stifles Palmer, Raiders. Leads to easy 31-10 victory.

Posted on April 24, 2013 at 10:37 PM.

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Both offenses came into Sunday's showdown with the same thought in mind: air it out. Only one team, however, would be successful in doing so.

The Detroit Lions would win the coin toss and choose to receive. Stafford and the offense came out passing: but as like most teams in Week 1, were a little bit rusty. The offense punted to Oakland after picking up one or two first downs. Oakland responded with quick, short passes to their speedy wide receivers. It was clear they were trying to get yards after the catch. After back to back third down conversions, Palmer completed a deep slant to Greg Jennings, who had beat rookie Rashawn Norwood in coverage for a 25 yard gain. Continuing to advance on Detroit's goaline, the Raiders nearly turned it over on a McFadden fumble.

Luckily, the play was challenged by Oakland head coach Dennis Allen and the play was overturned: McFadden had his knee down by the time Tulloch forced it loose. The next play resulted in a clutch Lawrence Jackson sack which forced Oakland to settle for three. Jackson played extremely well in Week 1, racking up 2 sacks and proving he deserves the starting position.

Detroit decided not to switch up the gameplan despite punting on the next drive as well. After hooking up with Burleson on a streak and then a curl, Detroit found themselves within field goal range. A couple quick passes put them inside the 10. Then from six yards out, Stafford found rookie 3rd overall selection Anthony Jackson in traffic for a TD. The Lions would rely heavily on the Jackson / Burleson duo as Calvin Johnson was shut down completely by Michael Huff: an extremely rare occurance.

Oakland's next position started like their first drive: a lot of quick passes to speedy receivers. McFadden, who had nearly cost them points already, made a second key mistake in the run game.

Detroit wasted no time capitalizing on this crucial error. In many eyes, this was the turning point of the ballgame. Following a completion to Calvin Johnson, Detroit surprised Oakland by running a counter out of the shotgun. The result was another 6 points for the Lions in rookie Kian Minor's first NFL touchdown.

Oakland now found themselves down by two possessions and with no momentum in their favor. McFadden was not to be trusted, for no at least. Palmer put the team on his back, firing back to back 20+ yard completions to Denarius Moore. As they neared scoring range, McFadden again became an option. He broke off a couple nice runs which were followed by another first down, this time a completion to rookie TE Jermarcus Turner. On 2nd and Goal from the 5, FB Marcel Reece caught the lines off guard with a FB Dive and scored Oakland's first touchdown. The extra point made it a 14-10 game, and that is how the half would end.

Coming out of halftime, Schwartz was confident his defense would hold Palmer and the rest of the Oakland attack. He was right. After a quick three-and-out by Oakland, WR Mike Thomas made an electrifying return to regain momentum for the Detroit Lions.

The punt return for a touchdown gave Detroit their two-possession lead back. It was all they needed. Palmer's next drive would result in an interception by CB Jacob Lacey, who jumped a slant route perfectly to get the interception. Once again, Detroit played the role of the extreme opportunists, capitalizing off of Oakland's errors. Anthony Jackson, a name you should get familiar with by the looks of this game, completely destroyed Tyvon Branch on a deep route for his second touchdown of the game.

The rest of the game would be Oakland's frantic attempt to get back into the game. However, time was now working against them. Sometime near the beginning of the fourth quarter, Oakland found themselves in a difficult situation. They were in FG range, but knew they needed touchdowns to make it close again. Allen gave the call to go for it on fourth down, and the Lions stopped them. Once more the exact scenario above happened, this time in the red zone. Once again, the Detroit defense prevailed to clinch the victory for the Lions. Norwood's interception came on the last play of the game as Oakland tossed a hail mary, in case anyone cared.

Although Detroit's offense put up 31 points, it was truly a team effort to get the W. "The thing that separates good teams from bad ones is that the good ones take advantage of what they have. We saw a classic case of a team beating themselves this week", were ESPN's football guru Chris Berman's words.

"Everyone executed. Obviously there were little mistakes here and there, but as a whole we went out and executed our game plan, and anytime you can successfully do that, your gonna win." -Schwartz at the press conference after the game.

When rookie Anthony Jackson was asked about his player-of-the-game performance, he said, "It felt good to go out and play and get the first game jitters out of my stomach. I know I have what it takes and I'm ready to put up even better numbers next week." Calvin Johnson, on the other hand, only caught two passes for under twenty yards. Although he downplayed it at the post-game press conference, saying it's "all about the team", you could see he was a little disappointed about his performance.

That caps off Week 1. A lot of YT videos were in this episode, mainly because it was Week 1 and there were a lot of highlights. Don't expect this many in future weeks. Week 2 midweek news will be out soon. -S2J

BOX SCORE

Detroit Lions at Oakland Raiders
Sep 18,	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Detroit Lions ()	0	14	17	0	31
Oakland Raiders ()	3	7	0	0	10

Team Stats Comparison
	DET	OAK
Total Offense	309	268
Rushing Yards	95	55
Passing Yards	214	213
First Downs	16	14
Punt Return Yards	71	19
Kick Return Yards	54	47
Total Yards	434	334
Turnovers	1	4
3rd Down Converstion	8	5
4th Down Conversion	0	0
2-Point Conversion	0	0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	2/1	1/1
Penalties	1	1
Posession Time	26:41	21:19

Detroit Lions
PASSING	C/A	YDS	TD	INT
M. Stafford	19/33	239	2	0
RUSHING	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD
K. Minor	15	72	4.8	1
M. Leshoure	5	20	4.0	0
J. Harrison	2	5	2.5	0
RECEIVING	REC	YDS	AVG	TD
A. Jackson	6	79	13.2	2
N. Burleson	5	81	16.2	0
T. Scheffler	2	30	15.0	0
C. Johnson	2	19	9.5	0
B. Pettigrew	2	12	6.0	0
K. Minor	2	18	9.0	0
BLOCKING	PANCAKE		SACK
G. Cherilus	1		1
S. Peterman	0		1
DEFENSE	TACK	SACK	INT	TD
S. Tulloch	8	0	0	0
N. Wakeel	6	0	0	0
L. Jackson	4	2	0	0
J. Lacey	3	0	1	0
R. Norwood	3	0	1	0

Oakland Raiders
PASSING	C/A	YDS	TD	INT
C. Palmer	17/32	241	0	2
RUSHING	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD
D. McFadden	20	47	2.3	0
M. Reece	1	5	5.0	1
RECEIVING	REC	YDS	AVG	TD
D. Moore	4	57	14.3	0
D. McFadden	3	25	8.3	0
D. Heyward-Bey	3	60	20.0	0
M. Goodson	3	22	7.3	0
J. Turner*	3	52	17.3	0
G. Jennings	1	25	25.0	0
BLOCKING	PANCAKE		SACK
R. Butler	0		2
M. Brisiel	0		1
DEFENSE	TACK	SACK	INT	TD
R. McClain	10	1	0	0
T. Branch	9	0	0	0
L. Houston	4	2	0	0