Lions Piece Together First Win Streak Of Their 3-7 Season
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
Whether it was because of a bye week, front-office firings, a new offensive coordinator or simply figuring out their own mess, the Lions can suddenly talk about what it feels like to win multiple games in a row – a feat that looked near impossible when they were slogging through a 1-7 start.
"It was huge, start off the second half of the season right," Lions receiver Calvin Johnson said. "2-0 in the third quarter so far and we have a quick turnaround here in the next week or two, but I think we'll be able to handle it. Guys just have to take care of their body so we can stack up another one."
Detroit took down the Raiders 18-13 at Ford Field Sunday, and added the third W to a schedule littered with L's. And in doing so, the Lions looked like an actual competitive football team, not one that happened into a victory.
A run game existed, for one. Ameer Abdullah got the amount of carries fans have been screaming for (12 rushes for 44 yards), Theo Riddick was a constant threat (86 all-purpose yards) and Matthew Stafford even got in on the ground action (rushing six times for 31 yards and a touchdown).
The offensive game plan was varied: 31 rushes (for positive yardage, which has been a battle all season), plus 282 yards through the air spread amongst eight receivers. Stafford took a look at Oakland's defense hovering to the side of a Lions bunch formation, and employed a quarterback sneak for Detroit's first touchdown in the fourth quarter.
"We were able to move the ball," Lions receiver Calvin Johnson said. "We're being more and more consistent. When we need to, we can move that ball up and down the field."
And Teryl Austin's defense had its second straight lockdown performance. Oakland only put together 214 offensive yards, and Detroit had nearly 13 extra minutes of possession. None of the Raiders' weapons (quarterback Derek Carr, receivers Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper) could ever get much going.
Adding all of that together, there's a marked difference between the Lions team embarrassed in London and the one that flew back across the Atlantic afterwards.
"We told ourselves, 'We're just going to start over,'" cornerback Darius Slay said. "It was rough in the first eight weeks, now we're just turning the whole thing around. Playing more aggressive defense, just playing and trusting each other and having more fun."
Too many factors exist to pinpoint a reason behind the winning. Jim Bob Cooter took over play-calling the week of the Lions' embarrassing 45-10 loss to the Chiefs, but the offense has improved markedly since then. Michael Ola has taken on a much bigger role at right tackle, a spot that had struggled mightily all season.
And then, of course, there were the firings at the management level and the hiring of new team president Rod Wood. Those people have little to do with whether or not the Lions' defense can defend and their offense can score points. When such drastic shakeups happen, it can lead to a changed mindset in the team.
Regardless of how, Sunday's performance was a far cry from the Lions team that melted down against Kansas City and Arizona earlier this season. With all the news breaking behind the scenes, players still insist that none of it has to do with the team's sudden competency.
"We just band together," Stafford said of the last month's drama. "We put our heads down and we go. There's nothing else you can do. Like I've said for the last however many weeks now, if I start thinking about that stuff, I'm doing a disservice to everybody else that's preparing to win. That's my job. My job is to help prepare our offense and our team to win football games and no matter what's going on around me, that's what I'm going to do."
