Detroit Lions Weblog

Lions Find Victory in Dramatically Bizarre Fourth Quarter Rally

As I sat in the upper deck of Ford Field on Sunday, surrounded by a large group of Chicago Bears supporters, I was anguished.   As the fourth quarter started, the Lions were behind 13-3, having left anywhere from 6-14 points on the field as a result of a Tatum Bell fumble in the red zone and a blocked Jason Hanson field goal attempt earlier in the game.

The Bears, whose offense struggled mightily with Brian Griese at the helm, also had left some points on the field with Griese having thrown two costly red zone interceptions.  The game had been just plain ugly up to that point.

As I ran through a million nightmare scenarios in my mind, and struggled with the impending re-emergence of the “Same Ol’ Lions”, a strange thing happened.   The Lions began to play opportunistically.   Their offense had also begun to come to life in spite of it’s early sputterings throughout the game.  

During recent seasons, Devin Hester’s kickoff return would have been the dagger necessary to finish off the Lions.   Hester, who totaled close to 300 yards in returns, was easily the most electrifying player on the field on Sunday.

Amazingly, the smallest player on the field, return specialist and the fifth receiver on the Lions depth chart, Troy Walters, may have made one of the bigger catches in Lions team history. His dramatic catch in the corner of the end zone, which eventually was reviewed, after originally being called an incompletion, proved to the Bears, and potentially the rest of the NFL, that this may just be a substantially different Lions team from seasons past.

Walters’ catch exhibited a stark contrast to the disappointing dropped pass in the end zone by Mike Williams in last year’s close loss to the Bears at Ford Field.    The Lions feature a group of unheralded players who have shown an essential quality that had not previously existed in the organization during recent seasons–a strong resolve.

No matter what adversity the Lions have faced this season, including their embarassing road blow-out to the Eagles last week, the Lions have appeared, at least on the surface, to be unaffected and committed to the program of Rod Marinelli and his coaching staff.

This resolve is reflected in the play of a player like Shaun McDonald, who even with his intimate knowledge of Mike Martz’s offensive playbook, was regarded as more of a fall-back option if the Lions were unsuccessful in their attempts to sign McDonald’s former Rams protege, Kevin Curtis.  Like Mike Furrey before him, McDonald has been among one of the more pleasant surprises in my time as Lions fan.  Roy Williams, and eventually Calvin Johnson, will flourish in large part due to the presence of hard-working, tough-minded players like McDonald, Furrey, and Walters.

Make no mistake, the Lions face a long, tough road ahead.  The Bears are not a playoff contender, unless a quarterback miraculously falls out of the sky to lead their team.   If anything can prove just how topsy-turvy the performance of a team can be from year-to-year, it’s the ‘07 Bears.  The Bears played in the Super Bowl last season, and give the appearance, or unpleasant odor, of a team who is unlikely to get even a whiff of the Super Bowl at anytime soon.

For one day at least, the Lions appear to be on the right track.   Next week’s performance, against a tough Redskins team, where the Lions haven’t won ever, will continue to enlighten us about the quality of the current Lions team.