By Matt Kearney / @mattkearney34
DETROIT, Mich. — It was a game that had as many twists and turns as your favorite roller coaster at Cedar Point. In the first half, the Lions (1-5) looked like a different team. The offense was hitting on all cylinders, and Teryl Austin’s defense bent, but didn’t break. The second half was a different story, and saw the Lions revert back to the team that started the season 0-5. Penalties, turnovers and unforced mistakes nearly allowed the Bears (2-4) to win the game in regulation. 60 minutes wasn’t enough however, and in OT it was a familiar Matthew Stafford to Calvin Johnson connection that set up a Matt Prater chip shot field goal to give Detroit the 37-34 victory.
Postgame comments from Lions receiver Calvin Johnson
Detroit raced out to a 21-13 lead in the first half thanks to a near flawless performance from Stafford. At the intermission he was 10-for-14 for 158 yards and three touchdowns. Those three scores also came from three different receivers. Lance Moore hauled in a 20-yard pass on the opening drive, backup tight end Tim Wright caught an 8 yarder, and then Golden Tate finished the half with a 2-yard TD grab. The Tate catch was initially ruled an interception after Tate lost possession of the ball and it fell into the hands of Chicago’s Jonathan Anderson. After a lengthy replay review, the officials changed the call citing that Tate had possession of the ball and broke the plane of the goal line before the ball came loose.
The two teams traded field goals in the third, with the Bears taking advantage of a TJ Jones muffed punt to cut the deficit to five points. The Lions then countered with a 59-yard drive of their own, and Matt Prater converted a 39-yard try to move the lead back to eight.
In the fourth, another special teams mistake gave the Bears life. Corey Fuller touched a rolling punt and the Bears alertly picked up the fumble at the Detroit 21. This time, Jay Cutler found Alshon Jeffery for an 11-yard TD. With the Bears trailing by two, John Fox elected to kick the PAT instead of going for the two-point conversion, so the Lions clung to a one-point advantage.
That decision was vindicated when Stafford tried to do too much on a 3rd-and-12 play on the next series as it was intercepted by Anderson. Stafford reflected on the play afterword, saying, “I’ve got to find a way to (either) get that ball down or just take a sack in that instance.”
Postgame comments from Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford
Again, the Bears turned the turnover into points with Matt Forte running it in from two yards out and hauling in the two-point conversion pass to put Chicago in the driver’s seat up 31-24. The Bears scored 18 points off of Lions miscues in the game. The Lions were forced to respond, and did on the next drive. Detroit got as far as the Bears’ 13 yard line, but after failing to convert on a 3rd-and-4, head coach Jim Caldwell elected to kick a field goal. Caldwell defended the decision, saying the Lions “had timeouts left, had a chance to get it back, and it played out exactly the way we thought it would play out.”
Postgame comments from Lions head coach Jim Caldwell
The decision looked much better when the Lions defense forced a three-and-out, and Detroit got the ball back with 2:23 left. The Lions marched 66 yards in five plays, and Stafford hit Johnson to make it 34-31. Thanks to two penalties in goal-to-go situations, the Lions left just 21 seconds on the clock after the go-ahead score. Caldwell’s plan was falling into place, but what followed in those final 21 ticks was certainly not part of that plan.
The Bears needed just two plays and a 20-yard pass interference play to move to the Lions 11 yard line with four seconds remaining. Kicker Robbie Gould was rock solid, as he nailed a 29-yarder as time expired for the tie. Gould has connected on 16 consecutive field goal attempts.
The overtime period was a back-and-forth struggle until the game’s final drive. That’s when Stafford rolled to his right and hit Johnson down the sideline for 57 yards, setting up Prater’s game-winner. The play will go down as the signature moment from the Lions first win of 2015.
Stafford said Johnson was one-on-one with a safety, a matchup he liked a lot. Johnson, he recorded his 45th 100-yard receiving game, said he got the “crow hop” from Stafford, and he “just had to keep the defender in a good place so I could make a play on (the ball).”
Up next, the Lions host a divisional opponent for the second consecutive week. The Vikings will travel to Ford Field for a 1 p.m. kick on Sunday.
