The Detroit Lions are now at 3-3 (.500) with 10 games remaining. All three wins have come via road games and they have won their last two games in a row (versus the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons). The Lions return home to Ford Field this Sunday to face off against the Indianapolis Colts, a must win game to prove the Lions stretch of wins is not a fluke. This will also give them a must needed “at-home” win. But, before we talk about this weekends game, lets take a look back and relive last Sunday’s win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. In the final seconds, the miracle squad attacked. We’ll go through some highlights as well as some standout players that made the victory possible.
The Game (which you just lost)
Sorry, I just had to.
Anyway, the Detroit Lions headed to Atlanta on Sunday, October 25th. They were coming off of a 34-16 victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Lions were 2-3 heading into the matchup, hoping to get to .500 and get back into the playoff picture. The Falcons, fresh off of firing their head coach just two weeks prior, were sitting at 1-5, hoping to beat the Lions and begin to turn their season around.
Make no mistake, Atlanta has a really good offense. Detroit also has a solid offense. However, both defenses this year weren’t playing so hot to start. In addition, both teams were notorious for blowing leads. The Lions have reworked their defensive strategy and have gotten a lot better against the run (which they used to be horrible against). However, they are still working on retooling their pass rush. The key to victory in Atlanta would be turnovers. Atlanta’s offense is very good at not turning the ball over, and Detroit had to make it happen. Atlanta went for it on 4th down later in the game, and Trey Flowers was able to knock the ball away. But the Lions couldn’t capatilize on that. We were, however, able to force a fumble from Atlanta Quarterback Matt Ryan on the next drive. This, however, only lead to a field goal (in which the Lions did take the lead). The real decisive plays came in the 4th quarter. The game had remained close, and the Lions came out of halftime with a field goal, pulling them within 1 point with a score of 13-14. By the time Romeo Okwara sacked Matt Ryan and forced him to fumble (5:29 left in the 4th) and Trey Flowers picked the ball up, the game was still 13-14. As stated previously, the Lions turned this into a field goal. Prater made the 49 yard kick, making the game 16-14.
By the time Atlanta got the ball back (3:05 left in the 4th), Detroit had to focus on one goal…keeping the Falcons out of field goal range. However, the Falcons, utilizing Todd Gurley and a plethora of receivers, were able to move the ball down the field. Detroit used all of their timeouts in this span and things were starting to look dire. All Atlanta needed to do was run the clock down and kick a field goal to win the game. ESPN even gave them a 95% chance at winning the game on their live probability tracker (they had started the game with a 59% chance at winning). The Lions appeared like they could catch a break when Da’Shawn Hand forced a fumble from Todd Gurley on 3rd & 1. However, Gurley recovered the fumble passed the first down marker, making it 1st & GOAL for Atlanta. That seemed to be the dagger in the game. The Lions just happened to be on the other side of their “Dagger Time” mantra. However, they had one more trick up their sleeve. The ball was on the 10 yard line, this would more than likely be a chip shot for ATL Kicker Younghoe Koo (though he did just miss an extra point last night). The Lions couldn’t risk him even having a chance at the field goal. So, they devised a plan to try to force Atlanta to score. With 1:12 left in the 4th, Matt Ryan snapped the ball and handed it off to Gurley. At first he had to sort of fight through the line before the Detroit line let up a bit. The plan for Gurley was to down the ball at the one yard line and let the clock almost run out before Koo kicked the game winning field goal. Except, Detroit Safety Will Harris had a different plan. Will fought and tried to make it appear that he was trying to tackle Gurley, but all that was really happening was that Gurley kept trying to run harder. Gurley did this to continue to run the clock down, but what happened was, he built up too much momentum. Harris finally let go (though I was yelling at the TV to just let him score anyway…in reality, a nice shove into the endzone would have been nice) and Gurley’s momentum forced the ball to cross the plane of the goal line. Touchdown Atlanta! He knew what he had done, and this ended up being the game losing touchdown. I had never been so excited to see an opposing team score a touchdown. Why? Because we were getting the ball back with 1:03 left in the game. As many of you know, this is when the Lions are most dangerous.
Atlanta went for the two point conversion and got it with a nice, short pass from Matt Ryan to Calvin Ridley. This made the score 22-16. The Lions needed to get a touchdown. After the kickoff, the Lions had 57 seconds left in the game to score a touchdown. They went to work from their own 25 and started off with an incomplete pass. On 2nd down, Stafford threw a 13-yard pass to Tight End T.J. Hockenson. Hockenson fought to get out of bounds, but ultimately forward progress was ruled to have stopped (though a fraction of a second after the whistle blew, Hockenson did move forward and eventually fall out of bounds). The clock continued to run due to the ruling being inbounds. The Lions spiked the ball to stop the clock and, on 2nd & 10, Stafford connected with Danny Amendola for 22 yards. This was in the middle and Amendola had no chance to get out of bounds. The Lions had to spike the ball again and the clock stopped with 19 seconds left. From here, Stafford connected with star receiver Kenny Golladay for 29 yards. The Lions had to run to spike the ball, but this is where things got interesting. First, the Lions were lined up and the Falcons were never in formation, as they were running to get back to their side of the ball, an Atlanta defender actually knocked Kerryon Johnson over, which should have resulted in a penalty. However, they decided to review Golladay’s catch. This gave Lions fans a flashback to 2017 (check out my blog post here). Thankfully, this wasn’t a scoring play and seeing as they confirmed it was a catch, there was no 10 second runoff. The clock, however, would start on the whistle. The Lions lined up and decided to spike the ball. They had 11 yards to the end zone and this would, without a doubt, be the final play of the game. They had to get it in. The Lions lined up and Stafford dodged one sack, pump faked, and moved out into the open on the left side of the pocket. Hockenson broke away from the defenders and was wide open in the endzone. On National Tight Ends Day, Hockenson reels in the touchdown pass to make the game 22-22. During the celebration, Danny Amendola takes his helmet off, forcing an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty. Matt Prater has to make an extra point from over 40 yards due to the penalty. Prater splits the uprights and the Lions win 23-22.
Should we have been so surprised by this close game though? Actually…no! Close games are just the nature of Atlanta versus Detroit for some reason. Check out my last blog post to see how the last two have unfolded.
Now, many players played a part in this amazing victory. So, here are the Lions MVP’s of the game.
Matthew Stafford
Matt Stafford came to play against Atlanta. While he only had one touchdown to his name, he connected on 25 of 36 passes for 340 yards. He remained calm, cool and collected as he lead his team in the final seconds of the game to victory.
Kenny Golladay
The Lion’s have been on a roll since Golladay returned from being injured. And he made several spectacular catches during the game as he fought for the ball (including that final one). While he didn’t score a touchdown during this game, he was vital to the Lions success. He had six receptions for 114 yards. Seriously Quinn, give Golladay what he deserves so he remains a Lion. If you want to make a run at the playoffs, pay the man and keep him!
Todd Gurley II
Ok, I feel kind of bad for putting Gurley here seeing as he is an Atlanta player. But, he might as well have been the MVP for the Lions during the game. That touchdown that he scored is what ultimately lead to the Lions victory. During the game, Gurley ran 63 yards on 23 carries. This resulted in two touchdowns….one of which he wanted back. Gurley is still a runningback that I admire and he more than made up for his mistake against the Lions during his performance last night against the Carolina Panthers.
T.J. Hockenson
Hockenson caught 5 passes for 59 yards including the game winning touchdown on National Tight Ends Day. Hockenson has proven to be a big threat in the red zone and the game winner pushed him onto this list.
D’Andre Swift
Swift has come a long way since Week 1 when he dropped what would have been the game winning touchdown against the Chicago Bears. All water under the bridge now as Swift as turned up and the Lions have returned to a decent record. Swift recorded 9 carries for 27 yards, including one touchdown during the Atlanta game. He also had 4 passing receptions for 21 yards. Swift remains to be a force that defenses have to watch for. Adrian Peterson would’ve made this list with his 11 carries for 29 yards. However, he was not able to score a touchdown this game (he had a chance but was ultimately blindsided before even crossing the line of scrimmage on a 4th down play). Had Peterson punched it in, this game wouldn’t have been this close.
Romeo Okwara
Romeo Okwara managed to record two sacks against Matt Ryan. He also brought in the pass rush numerous times, forcing Ryan to attempt to scramble. Okwara was also the one that forced Ryan to fumble the ball.
Trey Flowers
Trey Flowers had that big 4th Down play where he knocked the ball away. However, his fumble recovery was definitely a highlight that gave Detroit the go-ahead score.
Marvin Jones, Jr
MJJ hasn’t really been on the end of many receptions this year. But man did he come alive against Atlanta. While he also recorded no touchdowns, he was a big part of the Lions marching down field, especially early in the game. He recorded 5 receptions for 80 yards, averaging 16 yards a catch. He will remain a weapon to Stafford.
Matt Prater
Out of the 23 points scored in the game, 11 of them came from Matt Prater. He made 3 out of 4 field goals (the one missed would’ve made this game a easier to win and possibly won early) with his longest being 51 yards. He also made both extra points, including the game winning one which he includes on his career highlights now.
Will Harris
Will Harris, the 2019 3rd Round Pick out of Boston College for the Lions recording exactly zero tackles in this game. So, why does he make the list? Because he did his job against Gurley. He forced Gurley to pick up his momentum before finally letting go, causing Gurley to score the touchdown. Harris knew what he was doing and, because of what he did, the Lions were able to get the ball back and win! Harris is the true MVP here. Without him, Gurley would’ve down it short and Atlanta, more than likely, would’ve won the game!
Heading into Game Weekend
I expect many of the players above to put up good stats against the Colts this Sunday. As you can see, it certainly was a team effort against the Falcons and will need to be even more so against the Colts. Game Preview will be up tomorrow and we can discuss things more in depth.
For now, enjoy this highlight reel from the game against Atlanta last weekend. All the big plays discussed are on there.
Until then…it’s dagger time! Go Lions!
Adventure Brett
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