• As usual with Lions blackouts, check out Pride of Detroit on gameday for live updates and for links to online streams of the game.  There is usually at least one good stream out there; it's just a matter of tracking it down.  With that being said, if you happen to find an online stream of the Lions' game on Sunday, please post a link to it in the comments section of the game thread.
• Sports Illustrated's Don Banks believes the Lions should try to hire Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli.  I doubt he would want to leave New England, especially for the Lions, but it's definitely worth a try.  He has a great track record and would be someone that could turn things around.
  
• Dwight Smith practiced for the first time in a long time earlier this week and should be back for Sunday's game.
• The Lions signed safety Stuart Schweigert, who is from Saginaw and played for Purdue in college.
• Rod Marinelli thinks the Lions should have signed Daunte Culpepper sooner than they did.
• Pacman Jones was reinstated by the NFL earlier this week.

Buccaneers running back Earnest Graham was placed on the injured reserve earlier this week after spraining his right ankle against the Vikings last Sunday.  Graham lit up the Lions' defense last year and combined for almost 200 rushing and receiving yards.  Not having to face Graham will make things a bit easier for the Lions, but it's not like the Buccaneers have no one to fill in for him.

With leading rusher Earnest Graham out for the season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will lean more on Warrick Dunn.

"I expect to play a lot more. But at the same time, we have other guys who can come in and make plays," Dunn said. "I'm just going to do my part to help us move the chains, score touchdowns and win games."

Graham's injury also could mean more playing time for (Cadillac) Williams, who hasn't played in a game since September 2007 because of a serious knee injury.

Tampa Bay will likely use a stable of running backs against the Lions, and I really don't expect them to have a whole lot of trouble on the ground.  The Lions' defense has struggled against the run all season long, and it doesn't exactly seem like it matters who the running back is. 

Just look at Carolina last week.  Both DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart lit up the Lions thanks mainly to poor tackling.  If the Lions can tackle the RB on first contact more times than not, than they hopefully will be able to contain the run game.  Based on what I have seen earlier this season, though, I would be surprised if that was the case.

• Safety LaMarcus Hicks, who was released from the active roster, was signed to the practice squad yet again.  The Lions also signed wide receiver Joel Filani, who played for Seattle earlier this season, to the practice squad.  Former Grand Valley State receiver Eric Fowler, tight end Jake Nordin, and cornerback Antonio Smith were released from the practice squad.
• I expect to find out how many tickets are left for Sunday's game sometime today.  My estimate is somewhere around nine or ten thousand.  The last home game had around seven thousand tickets left on the Thursday before the game, so chances are there will be even more available since the Lions have lost twice since then.
• MLive's Philip Zaroo rounded up some different reactions to the Lions' 2-point conversion attempt against Carolina that resulted in no penalties even though Daunte Culpepper got his face mask pulled.  I personally like the headline of the post, as it shows how the referees must have been thinking during the play: "Lions QB Culpepper's facemask attacks hand of Panthers LB Beason." 
• Peter King suggests that a team like the Lions or 49ers take a look at hiring Scott Pioli, the Patriots' VP of Player Personnel.  My belief is that if the Lions can't hire a proven general manager, then they should go after someone that works for a proven winner.  The Falcons hired Thomas Dimitroff from the Patriots earlier this year, and that move looks like it was a pretty good one already.
  

• Calvin Johnson hurt his thigh against Carolina and "will be limited in practice this week."
  
• Buccaneers running back Earnest Graham may be out for the season and will likely miss this coming Sunday's game against the Lions.  Graham rushed for 92 yards and caught 13 passes for 99 yards in last year's game between the Lions and Buccaneers.  Detroit won 23-16 to improve to 4-2.
• All of the charges filed against Kalvin Pearson as a result of an incident in April have been dropped.
• This is probably the only time I will agree with Rob Parker, but yes, Jason Hanson deserves better.  His 56-yard field goal in the Panthers game was awesome.
• Drew Sharp is completely wrong in saying that going 0-16 is impossible.  Although there is always the chance that the Lions could pull off an upset and finally get a win, there is no guarantee that they will.  They are that bad, and going 0-16 is definitely possible.  The fact that Sharp thinks it isn't make me think the Lions will for sure go winless.
• Dwight Smith is going to run at full speed today.  He has missed the last four games with a midfoot sprain.
• Daunte Culpepper was scheduled to be a captain for this past Sunday's game.
• Tom Kowalski doesn't think there is any credence behind the talk of Brian Billick coming to Detroit to coach the Lions.  That makes sense since no credible rumors will come about until it is determined who the general manager is going into 2009.
• When Drew Stanton threw a touchdown pass to John Owens against the Jaguars two weeks ago, it was the first time either of the players had scored.  Both obviously want the football they scored their first TD with, but right now it doesn't appear that it has been determined who will get it.
• Speaking of Stanton, Jim Colletto said he "did good" against Jacksonville.
• The Eagles and Bengals played to a tie on Sunday, and Donovan McNabb didn't even know that was possible.  Wow.

It is never good to lose a divisional game, especially late in the season, but that is exactly what I did in Week 11.  Underdogs beat me to move into a tie for second-place in our division.  Just go away Favre is now 8-3 and appears to be running away with the Charlie Sanders Division, so now the teams behind him (myself, Underdogs, and Maize 'n' Blue Jays) are battling it out for a wild card spot. 

Maize 'n' Blue Jays is 5-6 after a loss to the division leader, and Underdogs' victory over me made us both 6-5.  Detroit's Few Good Men is also 6-5, and since the tiebreaker for the wild card is points scored, I believe he and I would make the playoffs if the season ended today.

One of the biggest stories from Week 11 was the controversial finish to the Steelers-Chargers game.  The Chargers were trailing 11-10 with only a few seconds left, and they tried to lateral the ball around in hopes a miracle would happen.  Troy Polamalu broke up one of the laterals and returned the fumble for a touchdown.  Not only did Pittsburgh suddenly cover the spread, but fantasy football players with the Steelers D/ST got somewhere around 8 points (2 for a fumble recovery and 6 for a TD).

The referees took some time to talk about the last play and eventually determined that an illegal forward pass had occurred.  Therefore, no fumble happened and no touchdown happened.  The call turned out to be completely wrong, and the impact the miscue had was huge on both the gambling and fantasy football worlds.  It is estimated that a $64 million swing happened in the gambling world due to the incorrect call, and for fantasy football the call lost or won games in many cases.

In the official POD league, Calvin and the Chipmunks lost by just over 6 points.  He had the Steelers D/ST in his starting lineup, and a correct call would have meant that he had beat Detroit's Few Good Men, which would have changed the entire playoff picture. 

In the Pride of Detroit overflow league, I played somebody that had the Steelers D/ST, and I only won by a score of 76.24-74.32.  When the Steelers scored that touchdown at the end, I was beyond pissed off as I thought I had lost.  Then, as the call was changed, I was ecstatic since I won thanks to the referee's mistake.  I shouldn't have let it be that close in the first place, as I had a terrible coach rating of 66%.  I made the mistake of benching Leon Washington, Jerricho Cotchery, and the Packers D/ST.  Had I started even one of them, the Steelers-Chargers finish wouldn't have made a difference.

There was no controversy in the SBN/AOL league since the owner of the Steelers D/ST had them on the bench in favor of the Panthers.  If the Steelers D/ST had been in the starting lineup, another fantasy football player would have been screwed over since the margin he lost by was around 4 points.  The controversy was moot, though, since the Steelers didn't start.  Thankfully I wasn't involved in that game anyways, as I won 101.85-63.05 and had a perfect coach rating to improve to 9-2 on the season.

A full look at all of the results from the official POD league can be found after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Bears - 3 :: Packers - 37

There's not really much to say about this game.  The Packers destroyed the Bears in all areas of this game and were dominant for all four quarters.  Although Kyle Orton did start for the Bears, he was not very effective, passing for only 133 yards and no touchdowns.  On a positive note, he didn't throw any interceptions, but he did fumble the ball without even being hit, and it was returned for a touchdown.  The defensive TD for Green Bay really just added insult to injury, as it happened when the score was 27-3.

Acme Packing Company was surprised about the big win:

Where did this Packer team come from? This was not the same team that was outplayed last week in Minnesota. Unfortunately this game looks like a fluke. The Packers are better then their record would indicate, but they don't stomp their opponent 37-3 every week (obviously). The real shock is that this is a complete turn around from last week's loss at Minnesota.

Windy City Gridiron had this to say after the loss:

Maybe it is just me, but doesn't it seem that every game in which it is power against power, we lose the battle?  Everytime a team comes not being able to stop the pass rush, they stuff us.  Everytime a team comes in and can't stop the run, they stop us.  Everytime a team comes in not able to run the ball, they run up and down us?  And that isn't just this year, this is like a reoccurring trend for us.

Vikings - 13 :: Buccaneers - 19

Minnesota actually led 13-6 after one half of this game.  The second half wasn't quite as nice to the Vikings, though, as they were shutout.  Tampa Bay scored a touchdown thanks to a 1-yard run by former Michigan Wolverine B.J. Askew, and Matt Bryant kicked two more field goals to give the Bucs the lead and the eventual win.

The Daily Norseman wasn't happy with Brad Childress after the game, as you can imagine:

Really, there's not a whole lot else that needs to be said about today's game.  It was pretty much the same as most of the games we've seen in the Brad Childress era.  It was the 8th of Minnesota's 10 games this year that was decided by 7 points or less.  In addition, the Vikings entered the fourth quarter still very much in the football game.  As Pacifist Viking pointed out, these are the Brad Childress era Vikings.  Be conservative, play it close to the vest, get down to the end of the game, and hope that either a) your team makes a big play or b) the other team screws up.  Neither of those things happened today, and as a result the Vikings are part of a three-way tie atop the NFC North instead of sitting in sole possession of first place.

As the quote above states, there is now a three-way tie for first-place in the NFC North.  The Bears, Packers, and Vikings will look to break that tie in Week 12.  Chicago heads to St. Louis to play the Rams, Green Bay goes on the road to play the Saints, and Minnesota will go to Jacksonville to battle the Jaguars.

Normally I would come up with a clever way to introduce my recap of how the Lions lost their latest game, but there really is just not much to say at this point.  Sunday's matchup between the Lions and Panthers was just like many other games this season.  Detroit gets ahead early, collapses and falls behind, and ultimately loses after a failed comeback attempt.  That is exactly what happened today, and the Lions dropped to 0-10 with the 31-22 loss.

1st Quarter

• Believe it or not, but for the first time this season the Lions scored on their opening drive.  Kevin Smith and Daunte Culpepper were mainly responsible for moving the Lions down the field, and Calvin Johnson was the one partially responsible for scoring. 
  
  Culpepper avoided pressure and found an open Johnson in the end zone from 29 yards out.  Calvin fell to the ground to make the catch and did a good job of keeping it off the ground.  The throw definitely could have been better, but it didn't really matter since the Lions scored a touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.  The Panthers did challenge the TD, but the call was upheld.
• Carolina went three and out, which is what they did quite a bit early on in this game.
• On the first and only play of the Lions' next drive Culpepper was intercepted.  The interception was all on Culpepper, who shouldn't have made the throw.
• Thankfully the Lions defense shockingly stepped it up and forced Carolina to go three and out again.
• The Lions faced 3rd and 19 on their own 45-yard line and Kevin Smith ran for 18 yards on a draw.  The big run got the Lions within a yard of a first down, and they would go for it to start the second quarter.

2nd Quarter

• Kevin Smith got the ball again and ran for 20 yards to move the chains.  He only needed 1 yard, so 20 was more than enough.  Rudi Johnson came into the game to replace Smith on the next two plays and lost a total of 5 yards.  An incomplete pass on 3rd down would officially stall the drive, but Jason Hanson did kick a field goal from 40 yards out to give the Lions a 10-0 lead.
• The Lions' defense suddenly forgot how to stop Carolina starting with this drive.  After a 7-yard pass on 3rd and short moved the chains for the first time of the game for Carolina, the Panthers started to pound the ball down Detroit's throat.  Jonathan Stewart ran for 21, Steve Smith went for 16 on a reverse type of play, and DeAngelo Williams picked up 8.  The Panthers then went back to the air, and Jake Delhomme found Jeff King for a 15-yard touchdown to make it a 3-point game.
• The Lions nearly had disaster happen on the ensuing kickoff, as Aveion Cason muffed it.  The Panthers nearly recovered, but Ikaika Alama-Francis thankfully fell on it.  It's a good thing he did recover the fumble, as the Lions were moving the ball effectively before the drive stalled at Carolina's 38-yard line.  With it being 4th down, I expected a punt, but Jason Hanson came in to attempt a 56-yard field goal.  It probably shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Hanson nailed the kick.  After all, he is Mr. Reliable.  The long field goal gave Detroit a 13-7 lead.
• Carolina continued to run the ball on its next drive and continued to have little trouble doing so.  Stewart ran for gains of 7 and 13 yards and even caught a pass for 4 yards.  Then, on the fourth play of the drive, DeAngelo Williams ran by every Lions defender and went 56 yards for a touchdown.  Just like that, the Panthers led 14-13.
• Just like once before, the Lions turned the ball over one play into their next drive.  Michael Gaines caught a pass for a gain of 9 yards, and the ball came out as he hit the ground, at least that is what the call was initially.  Carolina challenged, though, and the call was reversed.  The ruling was that the ball came out before Gaines hit the ground, even though it didn't look like there was indisputable evidence.  Either way, it was Carolina ball at the Lions' 38-yard line.
• Five plays into the drive, Jonathan Stewart ran to the left side and sprinted by everybody for a 22-yard TD.  The Panthers now led 21-13.
• A kickoff return to the Lions 46 with just under a minute left in the half gave Detroit a chance to put some more points on the board before the second quarter came to an end.  That's exactly what they did, as Jason Hanson kicked a 27-yard field goal to bring the Lions within 5 after the first half.

3rd Quarter

• The Panthers took over six and a half minutes off the clock to open the second half but only got a field goal out of the 10-play drive.  John Kasay hit the field goal from 29 yards out to give Carolina a 24-16 lead.
• After a Lions three and out, Carolina made a crucial mistake.  Steve Smith made a catch on a quick pass and had the ball knocked out of his hands by Leigh Bodden.  Paris Lenon fell on the ball, giving the Lions possession at Carolina's 49.
• Unfortunately, the Lions were unable to capitalize on the turnover and went three and out.  However, Carolina gave the Lions another chance after they roughed Nick Harris on the punt.  It was a pretty weak call in my opinion and probably shouldn't have been a personal foul.  Regardless, it was and the Lions suddenly had the ball at Carolina's 42.  Just as before, though, they failed to pick up a first down and had to punt the ball away again.  This time there were no penalties.
• The Panthers moved the ball but didn't get past midfield and had to punt.

4th Quarter

• Still trailing by 8, the Lions needed to find the end zone again.  It took them 15 plays and more than eight minutes, but the Lions did score another touchdown.  A combination of Daunte Culpepper passes and Kevin Smith rushes moved the Lions down the field and kept the drive alive multiple times.  The Lions were faced with 4th and 2 at the Carolina 41, and Culpepper found John Standeford for a gain of 16.  Later on the drive, it was 3rd and 4 for the Lions, and Smith ran for 5 yards to get the ball down to the 2.
  
  After Smith ran for a yard on the next play, Culpepper kept it on 2nd and goal and scored on a QB sneak.  The Lions decided to go for the 2-point conversion since a successful attempt would tie the game.  Culpepper took the snap in the shotgun, faked a handoff, and ran a draw.  He was tackled inches short of the goal line thanks in part to his face mask being grabbed.  Even though it was pretty obvious that there should have been a penalty, no flag was thrown, meaning the Lions trailed 24-22.
• Following a Panthers three and out, this entire game unraveled for the Lions.  For the third time of the game, the Lions turned the ball over on the first play of a drive.  Daunte Culpepper threw a terrible pass into coverage that was easily picked off and returned down to the Lions' 4-yard line.
• It took only one play for DeAngelo Williams to score a touchdown that put this game out of reach for the Lions.
• Detroit did get the ball back with 2:41 left in the game, but Culpepper was hit by Julius Peppers on 4th and 9 and there was a fumble.  The Panthers recovered, not that it mattered anyways.
• Jake Delhomme kneeled down two times to end the game.  The Lions lost 31-22, meaning they are now 0-10.

Although the offense played well at times and Kevin Smith looked good, the three turnovers kept the Lions from winning this game.  The defense also played well at times.  However, the Lions' run defense was absolutely pathetic.  The Panthers rushed for a team-record 264 yards in this game thanks mainly to poor tackling.  There were a few plays where DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart ran for big gains without having to avoid any defenders, but most of the time they broke tackles to rack up the yardage.

The Lions' next chance to get their first win of the season comes next Sunday against the Buccaneers.  The game will undoubtedly be blacked out, meaning that local fans will have to resort to online streams, game trackers, the radio, and as usual, live updates here on Pride of Detroit.  Kickoff is set for 1 p.m., and if you are lucky enough to live outside of the blackout zone, it will be broadcast on FOX.